Mobile Access to Digital Library Resource Topics

Resources in your digital library are readily available to handheld devices, such as PalmPilot and the iPAQ Pocket PC. There are two basic access methods: realtime wireless access or batch download from desktop personal computer to your device.

1. Realtime Mobile Access

If you are part of a wireless network, then accessing your digital library is a straightforward process. Simply bookmark your digital library homepage and access resources as you would normally do with your desktop personal computer.

We have evaluated the following web browser for the Palm OS: 

• EudoraWeb Browser

2. Batch Download from Desktop Personal Computer

This approach will allow you to take important web pages with you to use during the day, such as Journal TOCs and specific digital library content. 

There are two main ways of saving the pages depending on the amount of content you need

• Downloading a specific web page. (This allows you to do save a specific resource page to which your Digital Library topic page has linked.)

• Downloading a specific web page PLUS all content that is linked to that page. (This allows you to download a topic page AND all of the pages that are linked from this page.) 

As you will see the main difference in the two processes is the amount of space you want the new channel to take up.  Experimenting with maximum channel size and link depth will allow you to tailor the content to fit your needs.

We have evaluated the following download options: 

• AvantGo

We welcome any and all feedback, including your success and problems in accessing your digital library with these approaches.