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 Reports Virginia 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