Ahh! The iPad just turned 10 this week!
When the iPad was first unveiled on January 27, 2010, some people weren’t sure if it was needed. In fact, some people joked about it being a large iPod Touch.
But it has quickly inserted itself into our mobile-first world as a very useful tool. Today, over 350 million iPads have been sold, and the iPad is the most popular tablet (in sales, anyway).
The iPad has definitely replaced carrying a laptop or a notebook computer around. You see a lot of iPads (and other tablets) at conferences these days.
My library has been using iPads for a number of different things. Here’s a short list:
- Study room signup – we call our study rooms Team Rooms. We have iPads mounted on the wall – that show if the room is available or not. You can also check out a room from the iPad (or from the website).
- Digital signage – getting ready to install iPads at all meeting rooms in the library (we have about 10 of them). They will show all meetings in the room for that day.
- Staff uses – some staff have iPads. Great for taking notes, quick emails, etc.
- Photo booths – once in awhile, we put out an iPad for fun photo booth things. And post the photos online.
- Musical instruments – at a summer art gallery exhibit, we used 3 iPads as musical instruments that people could play.
- Catalog access – one iPad in the Kids Library is used for a library catalog station. Works great for that.
- Board members – the library board was recently issued iPads. They want to go digital and all be on the same platform, so we moved them to iPads. They can get library emails, access board reports, take notes, etc.
- Program signup – We are participating in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, and we use iPads to sign people up for this when we’re out at events.
- Book Bike – We just purchased a book bike … and purchased an iPad for it, too.
- Short surveys – We’ve been testing using an iPad on a stand to ask short customer surveys.
So … ten years out, and my library is finding the iPad pretty useful! How does your library use iPads and/or tablets? I’d love to hear some success stories with iPads!