Today I am going jump into the Academic Library pool an swim around with PDAs in college and university libraries.

It seems if medical college libraries are waaaaay ahead of the general college and university libraries in the PDA market. For this blog entry I have chosen to separate medical schools and colleges from the general academic world. Medical colleges and PDAs will get lumped in with medical libraries.

That being said. There are quite a few PDA initiatives and programs just getting afoot in the academic world. One such example is the University of South Dakota. They require all incoming freshman to purchase Palm PDAs. Professors at the University of South Dakota have incorporated class schedules, syllabuses, practice quizzes, and various other educational degree unique programs. (Examples: pitch training for music students, water acidity measurements science students, and storing news clips for media studies students)

Syllabus.com has a nice article on a professor of the University of South Dakota and his perspective on implementing the PDA project. One crucial point he makes is the adoption of technology must be a "use-centered design." Too often people are required to use technology for the sake of using it, despite it not being well suited for the task. When that occurs the technology will fail. By using a "use-centered design" you focus less on the technology but the tasks associated with the use of the technology. It is a very interesting read.

Also check out The Chronicle of Higher Education "Are Personal Digital Assistants the Next Must-Have Tool?"
for another article on colleges experimenting with use of PDAs on campus. The article profiles the University of South Dakota from the student and professor perspective. It also mentions various other colleges that have started to incorporate PDAs in their programs.
These programs are:
Drexel University which installed a wireless web allowing students to use their PDAs more easily.
Stanford University law students and putting legal study materials on PDAs.
Bentley College use PDA's as clipboards during market-research assignments.
Dartmouth College, the University of Iowa's business college, and Duke and Brigham Young Universities all require students to have hand-held devices for some classes.

Ok so where are the academic libraries and their involvement? Academic library PDA involvement varies widely.
Some libraries have made their pages PDA friendly:
The University of Missouri-Kansas City Leon E Bloch Law Library
Western Kentucky Library PDA Library Portal

Some Libraries have made their resources available and searchable to PDA users.
Cunningham Library, Indiana State University
University of Alberta Libraries The PDA Zone
Other libraries are lending out hardware and peripherals for PDAs. One special academic library has six PDAs (Handspring Visors) for checkout, each are loaded with core programs that are needed in the college. Another library will lend out keyboards, digital camera, and voice recorders to use with PDAs.
Then there are libraries who provide syncing and printing spots within the library.

Ok so lets say your library would like to dive into more traditional library products that are now available to PDA users.
Some of the products are Ovid@Hand, Westlaw Wireless, and JournalToGo.

Ok there you have it. Quite a few things going on from the academic side of things. Again, I am sure that there are libraries that are using PDAs behind the scenes or in other ways that didn't mention. I would love to get feedback to hear what you are doing.