For the first time in its extensive history of publishing, The World Almanac has published much of its 1,000-page reference source for viewing on handhelds. Town Compass, LLC has created the 2002 World Almanac databases for Palm OS handhelds to help keep mobile information consumers informed about important facts and data.

“We’ve accomplished what nobody else can do, what everyone in the industry thought was impossible,” said Eric Makus, President and co-founder of Town Compass. “Our DataViewer technology electronically delivers the most popular reference book in the world to a 3″ by 3″ screen. We’ve compressed most of The World Almanac and Book of Facts into this tiny electronic device and still offer an extremely positive user experience. We’ve provided full text and color graphics – long lists, charts, graphs, pictures, footnotes-complex reference content that you can quickly navigate and access in 3 taps.”

The World Almanac is a perennial bestseller on every national list and is found in homes, libraries, schools, businesses, and media outlets throughout the world. In print since 1868, The World Almanac is completely updated with more information than ever before and remains one of the most-popular sources for people to turn to when they need comprehensive and reliable information on just about any subject imaginable.

The 2002 World Almanac databases for Palm OS reference directories include World Data (The Year in Review; World Geography & Exploration; World History; and Nations of the World); US Data (Consumer Info – Health & Travel; US Cities & States; US History; and US Government & Defense); and Noted Personalities. The databases are currently available for download in bundles or individually and Town Compass plans on making the directories available on SD Cards in the fourth quarter.

Insight

Handheld devices occupying the palm form-factor make particularly good e-book viewers for reference materials. The World Almanac is just one of literally tens of thousands of reference works which are now available for viewing on palm devices. Some publishers opt for a proprietary format, in effect creating a custom application containing the reference content, while others support several popular standards, such as Doc, Palm Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Reader or TomeRaider.