Rethinking Reference and Instruction with Tablets

Tablet computer ownership on university campuses has tripled in the past year, according to a Pearson Foundation survey in March 2012. At the threshold of the Post-PC era, as students’ expectations change, reference and instruction librarians are responding with new services. In this issue of Library Technology ReportsVirginia Tech librarians Miller, Meir, and Moorfield-Lang offer a collection of first-hand accounts of academic library projects using tablets. Among the projects detailed: 

• Subject matter librarians roving campus to increase access and usage of online resources
• Librarians partnering with faculty of eight academic departments to use tablets in instruction
• Industrial design students using library tablets in competitions and design lab work
• Workshops that put mobile learning into information literacy instruction
• Tablets as a curriculum component in a first-year undergraduate learning community 
• Cross-departmental library collaboration in planning new services