For those of you that read through yesterday's post of Ryan Greene's thoughts about roll-up displays and how they will affect the way we access information, Ryan gave us some pushback on how libraries can help someone like him in that type of environment. We need to hear from more people like Ryan in order to help us figure out how best to serve them in this brave new world. It makes me realize how interesting it would be to have ALA convene a panel of folks like Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Howard Rheingold, Ed Felten, Larry Lessig, etc. to discuss the topic.  Thanks, Ryan!

There's an interesting article in this month's issue (October/November) of Handheld Computing. It expands upon a story I tell in my presentations about the kids and my PDA. A couple of years ago, Brent fell down the stairs and sprained his ankle on a Sunday night. We took him to a local clinic, knowing we'd have to wait to get in to see a doctor. Naturally we took some toys and coloring books to keep the kids occupied during the wait. I pulled out my own toy, my PDA (which at the time was a Palm IIIx).

I started to read some articles in AvantGo when Brent popped up next me and asked what I was doing. He wanted to play with my PDA, too. We ended up using Diddlebug to do flash cards, and he and Kailee later drew pictures and played Solitaire. They took to it right away, and now they ask to play with my newer Clie when they're bored in places like the supermarket. Imagine the look on their faces if I pulled out the GC10 Game Controller for the Clie!

Anyway, back to the article in HHC, which is titled "PDA: Parental Diversion Assistant" and includes a section of "Book Smarts" software you can download for Palms and Pocket PCs.

"We found a smattering of e-books designed specifically for kids. For Palm Powered handhelds, Childrens Illustrated eTales is a collection of four illustrated, toddler-oriented stories priced at $9.99. Pocket PC users can visit the Childrens section at PDA Bookstore, home to three illustrated books - one each for different age groups (3-6, 7-10, and 8-12). Priced at $4.10 each, the stories are also available for Palm OS - but they're not illustrated. There's a much larger selection of Pocket PC-formatted kids' books at Barnes & Noble including Elmo's New Puppy ($2.99), Shrek: Tell Your Own Tale ($6.99), and My Teacher Is an Alien ($2.95)." (Jenny: I would also add a couple of Berenstain Bears books and Elmo's Tricky Tongue Twisters.)

B&N has some interesting children's books in Acrobat format (Caveat Lector), including The Adventures of Spider-Man, Shrek eStorybook, and Harriest Spies Again. Why someone hasn't started porting the Choose Your Own Adventure books to PDAs is beyond me. I would easily buy a couple to have on hand whenever we're at the doctor's office, airport, or even on long car rides. What I'd really like to see, though, are my favorite Dr. Seuss titles as animated ebooks. This could become a reality if publisher's could figure out how to create them in Flash, make them accessible, and make them legible on smaller screens. Of course, it's also true that Flash is only available for Pocket PCs at the moment, but it makes you wonder if libraries will need to circulate Flash files someday.

On the other hand, the genre of children's literature for PDAs has definitely expanded since the last time I looked at it, so I'll have to survey it again soon. Does anyone know if there are any libraries circulating these types of titles? I doubt there's even a way to do it at this point, with the possible exception of using the Acrobat Content Server just for Acrobat files. (Side note: I just noticed that Adobe provides a PDF report about eLib, "Sweden's largest eBook distributor [using] Adobe Content Server and Adobe PDF to help public libraries across Sweden lower costs and extend access for patrons.")

The more I think about this, the more we need our ILS vendors to figure out how to circulate digital content period, regardless of file type, rather than relying on an Adobe server for Acrobat content, a Macromedia server for Flash content, an Audible server for Audible content, etc. We really need to initiate this conversation with them now to begin preparing for the future.

Back again to the HHC article for some further suggestions for PDA diversionary tactics:

• Check out the children's music section at MP3.com, especially the songs of Graham Clarke.
• ABC Kiddie Cards ($5) and Learn ABC (free) are two flashcard-type programs for learning the alphabet on a Palm, while Count ($5) teaches (duh) counting.
• I'm already planning to download Amusement Park Kids (ten games good for building recognition, concentration, pattern matching, and reflex skills) and Kidz Pak (word search, connect the dots, etc.).
• Pocket PC users can also play Lemonade Inc., among other interesting-looking games from Hexacto (they have some other Palm games, too).

There are a few other suggestions in the article, so it's worth a look if you're considering letting your kids use your PDA. Next time we're stuck somewhere, I'm going to be prepared with more than just Tetris and Solitaire. :-)

"BBC: A government is saying to Google: 'we don't like that website -- so drop it from your database' and the company is acquiescing." [Scripting News]

"The London [Ontario] Public Library received the Best Practices award for its work with CHUM Television in establishing North America's first library-based Media Literacy Centre in the new Central Library. The Centre provides access to print, electronic and audiovisual materials aimed at helping users to develop an informed and critical understanding of the media's role in society.

'This fantastic project demonstrates how public libraries are becoming key partners in achieving the Government of Canada's Innovation Strategy,' said Mr. Fontana. 'By building partnerships with other community innovators such as CHUM Television, the London Public Library has been able to apply its information and communication technology capacities in an innovative way to create a valuable resource for the people of London.' " [Industry Canada, via LIS News]

I forgot to mention the Media Awareness program in Canada in my previous post about Canadians. Apparently the Canadian government wants its citizens to be information and media literate, so MNet was created back in 1996.

"MNet aims to encourage critical thinking about media information, media entertainment and new communications technologies, and to stimulate public debate about the power of the media in the lives of children and young people. Our work is based on the premise that to be functionally literate in the world today, young people need critical thinking skills to 'read' all the messages that are informing, entertaining and selling to them every day."

And check out the London Public Library web site. How cool is it that they've specifically added a sub-domain so that their URL is http://discover.lpl.london.on.ca/?! And if you search their online catalog, you'll notice it's an Innovative Interface system and they've added to the search results page a button for searching Google (oh, SWAN folks...). You can also have your kids take their Internet Safety Quiz (I know I plan to).

Now I wish we'd had time to stop by the London Library when we drove to the London Airport to fly to Calgary.  :-