The Pocket PC as an Information Management Tool for Academics in Australia: An Exploratory Study

The increasing use of portable computers and mobile computing and telecommunication devices means a re-think of how we access and retrieve information. Like many workers in knowledge-rich professions, university academics in Australia are increasingly overloaded with information in the form of messages, notes, papers, publications, books and so on. They have to handle, process, store, and make decisions on the information received on a daily basis. Conversely, university academics are also expected, at times under pressure, to produce more of this type of information, which in turn, increases the pressure on their peers in academic circles to handle an increasing amount of information. The technological development that fosters the information explosion also produces new means of coping with it. This research investigated the potential of the Pocket PC to assist academics in meeting the increasing informational demands placed upon them. (Contains 6 charts and 10 tables.)