Thanks to The Shifted Librarian for posting a link to Innovative's June 2005 newsletter.

There are quite a few new features profiled in the newsletter, but I am just going to touch on a things that could be interesting for the medical libraries who have III.

Program Registration Module- This is profiled from the public library side of things. But it looks like it could possibly work for a medical or academic library that conducts classes or events. It might be particularly helpful for consumer health center library that host a lot of consumer health seminars and events.

Paying Fines with Ecommerce- There are just as many medical libraries that do charge fines as do not. For those libraries that do charge fines, this feature might help make the task of collecting fines a little quicker and more productive.

Online Digital Repository (Symposia) - Consumer health libraries or medical libraries that hold a lot of original "in house" documents, pamphlets, newsletters, etc. could benefit from Symposia. It is a web based system for collecting, distributing, managing, and preserving digital (electronic) information created by your institution.

Courseware Integration - III is developing product integration between Millennium and Blackboard Inc. courseware. The first aspect of the integration will be to provide links between Blackboard and the library's online catalog, course reserves, and library searching. It is currently in development and is scheduled for general release in late 2005. Many libraries associated with colleges and universities currently using Blackboard should be interested. It is not just medical school libraries, don't forget about nursing school libraries, and other libraries whose colleges offer degrees in health science fields.

AirPAC - A very brief paragraph in this newsletter references a two page article, Taking the OPAC Beyond the Desktop Browser. It details a product (AirPAC) that bring the library's OPAC to mobile phones and PDAs. Helloooo PDAs people! Any hospital library where physicians are using the electronic medical record and using their PDAs should be interested. At the very least this should be on the radar screen for any medical library who has III, because we all know the big EMR push and it will only be a matter of time before healthcare professionals are all toting their handhelds. Get the library into their products!

Innovative's RSS Development - This allows libraries to feed news data directly into news readers or webpages for users to read. The XML feed can them be converted to HTML which can be put into a library customizable page in the Web OPAC. III's 2006LE release will allow customers to convert the feeds to HTML without using third parties and it will allow libraries to generate their own feeds. Patrons will also be able to get RSS messages as part of their My Millennium suite of personalization features. Timely messages such as ‘Materials due tomorrow’ or ‘New item on hold shelf for you’ will let patrons know about their interactions with the library more quickly than ever before.”

So there you have it. I am still working on converting my card catalog to an online catalog so I am very envious off all you librarians who have these new toys available to you. For libraries who do not have III, this is still an interesting read. You can see what the competition is doing and possibly petition your vendor to work on something similar. Obviously there is a demand for it or else Innovative wouldn't be selling it or incorporating it into their product.