Quick update on comments received and our next steps.
Suggested /
considered devices:
1) iPod Touch - would be fun, but not a great choice for us
right now
http://www.apple.com/
ipodtouch/
2) HP iPAQ units - a number of managers have newer wireless
enabled
units, the small screen size is a major challenge for
catalogue and web
site searching
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/prodserv/handheld.
html
2) ASUS eeePC - we have actually ordered a couple of these
units to try
them out. $400, light, already has linux, firefox,
openoffice,
durable flash based hard disk, 7" screen. Quite
excited to see how
this works for our staff. Seems to hit a good balance of
weight,
screen size, cost and relative ease of use. http://eeepc.asus.com
3) SIRSI PocketCirc - at first glance this would seem to be
a good
choice as it is PDA based and has full circulation
functionality. There
are several big negatives with this one. (Prices are VERY
approximate)
- small screen size on a PDA can be a real challenge
- licensing is more than $1,000 per user (we would need
about 20) -
with $200 per year per license ongoing support
- the flash connected bar code reader is being sold by
SIRSI for more
than $1,000
- it cannot do circulation in our setting because we use
RFID and it
cannot turn off the security bit
- we would still need to buy the HP iPAQ unit.
http://www.sirsi.com/Solutions/Prodserv/Products
/pocketcirc.html
Bottom-line: costs close to $3,000 per complete unit and
it couldn't do RFID circulation and not ideal for catalogue
or web site
searching.
Peter
__________________________________________________
Peter Schoenberg (780) 496 1855
Director - eServices - Edmonton Public Library
www.epl.ca
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