For the record, I didn't officially go to the PLA conference in Phoenix, but I did walk the exhibit floor. Boy, did I walk the exhibit floor. Four hours out of my vacation, but it was worth it. It took so long because I saw some very interesting products and spent time talking to the vendors. As if to confirm Murphy's Law (hey, Dave!), the internet connection to the entire building went down during this time, so I didn't get to see all of the demos that I had wanted to test. And by the end, I was running out of time and didn't make my annual trek over to the Innovative booth to ask about the Palm module. Unfortunately, I also didn't have time to check out the online reference service vendors.

However, here is a sampling of the more interesting products that I saw.

Matt was there from Audible, and they looked to be doing bang-up business. Hooray! I was with the president of my home library's board of trustees, and he just happens to be blind. We have very interesting discussions about technology, accessibility, and the intersection between the two. More on that later but he, too, had another good discussion with Matt. Audible is back to pushing their Otis player (I'm having trouble linking directly to it, but just click on the "Buy a player" option in the left-hand navigation of the site), which seems very promising for both libraries and disabled customers because of its simplicity. Audible is also actively working on providing home access for library-owned Audible titles. Three cheers for them - they "get" it!

Next up were some wireless handheld scanners from ADC that interact with your circulation system. This is the first time I had seen such a beast that did this in real-time. The rep also claims the devices function as PDAs (for mobile reference services), but they'd need bigger screens to be of any real use. Still, the ability to check in, check out, or weed an item from anywhere in the building is a big step forward, especially as libraries move further down the wireless path. I'd love to beta test these things, and supposedly one of ADC's partner companies is working on embedding speech-synthesizing technology into these puppies.

In a previous post, I mentioned making wireless scanners available to patrons for various reasons, and this blend of technology would finally allow actual browsing of the shelves by blind patrons for the first time. Wow! I'll definitely be following this one, although I have a funny feeling Teri is way ahead of me on this one.

I almost passed up the booth for Learn A Test, but I'm very glad I didn't. This company provides online access to 150 civil service, real estate, military, professional licensing, and academic practice tests. That means you can take the practice tests for the GED, ASVAB, postal service, firefighter, law enforcement, ACT, SAT, EMS, and more online at your own pace. The service provides instant scoring, explanations for both right and wrong answers, individual analysis, and more. The best part is that these folks want to work with libraries so they provide a site license for unlimited simultaneous use by patrons! Say it with me folks - wow!

My home library signed up on the spot (as did several others), so I'll let you know more about it after they get their access up and running. For a community of approximately 30,000 residents, this service costs just under $1000. Plus, it's all web-based so there's no special software to download. The Library's board president is going to test it for accessibility, too, although the LAT rep is supposed to get back to us with details about how they meet the WAI Guidelines.

I saw some other neat stuff, but these were the highlights. The Matthews bookmobile had a working web tablet that could go wireless, along with some Pocket PCs for the same purpose, but the internet connection was down so I couldn't test them. Bookmobile technology sure has come a long way!

Another golden nugget from Cam:

"Justin Hall, who was first known to the world for his groundbreaking Web site Justin's Links From the Underground (circa 1995-1996) has posted a great slideshow he presented last week at SXSW about Japanese mobile phone culture." [March 18, 2002]