Departmental iPad

Departmental Acquisition iPad

As mentioned before, one of the changes we’ve had for the department is the presence of a new iPad. The first question we keep being asked is “Well, why?” The second is “Well, why the iPad, as opposed to say an Android or something?” Both are reasonable questions. For the first, the idea is to make it easier to do work in the stacks, and to track the students’ schedules, keep track of the departmental calendar and contacts list, and those sorts of things. All of these of course can be done with a laptop, but the tablet is easier to carry and use in the stacks or on a trip. As for the second, the iPad is just the first step towards the tablet field that the library has taken. Some of the staff already have them and are enjoying them. There are certainly different options, but the larger screen was a major plus for some of the staff.

So, what apps have we placed on it so far?

  • The uTulsa app, although technically an iPhone app, has a directory, campus map, some news, some events and other things.
  • The Mail, Contacts, Photos, Notes, Calendar, Settings, App Store, Safari apps come with it (as do the game center, iPod, YouTube, Videos, iTunes, and Maps apps).
  • iBooks – which has a really good ePub and PDF reader.
  • Numbers – a spreadsheet.
  • Pages – a simple, but fairly durable word processing system.
  • RDP – for remote desktop access.
  • Scan to PDF – this will turn photographs, such as iPhone images, into a PDF.
  • iAnnotate PDF – This is another PDF reader, but will allow notes and comments to be imbedded.
  • Sign-N-Send – a PDF reader that will allow you to physically sign the document or write on it, as you are reading it.
  • Dropbox – a cloud based file storage and transfer location.
  • System Info – this handy app is designed to let you know how much memory space you have taken up on the iPad, as well as a more detailed analysis of what programs are running, and the energy status.
  • WordPress – to allow access to this Blog from the iPad.
  • Flickrstackr – to upload and manage images on our Flickr account.
  • TWC Max+ – a fun reference app for the weather.
  • YellowPages – a telephone directory
  • Dictionary – everyone needs a basic dictionary

As you can see, we use a lot of PDFs, and more so as we gradually convert our old collections and acquisitions files to digital and link them to the records in Archivist’s Toolkit.

We will share how this experiment is working.

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4 Responses to Departmental iPad

  1. Much appreciated for the information and share!
    Nancy

  2. iPad says:

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    Your article I found it a useful extreme and I shared with my contacts in my social profiles.
    I added your blog to my rss reader
    keep in touch

    a hug

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