Monday, February 4, 2013

Tablets are here, but are they usable?

The sales of tablets reached an all time high in the last fiscal quarter of 2012, with the market growing by a whopping 75% in one year alone, while the sales of PCs have gone down. While there are few if any apps that will let the tech services work directly with library databases, there are several things you can do with a tablet that will let it work in concert with the technology already in place.

1. Remote desktop applications -- These applications let you log in directly into your office or home PC on your tablet. The user wouldn't have to install an ILS client onto their tablet, but rather uses the client already installed on their PC.

2. Cloud storage and Office emulators -- By using Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Evernote and other cloud storage apps with apps that can handle Office files such as GoDocs and CloudOn, it is possible to work on files outside of the office and save them without fear of losing data.

3. Photography and Scanning -  As mentioned in a previous post, tablets allow you to use the cameras built into most tablets for both photos and scanning.

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