In my experience, so many apps I’ve tried are so close to what I want, but not quite useful enough. For example, I was thrilled to discover that EasyBib had a citation app. It was disappointing, however, to discover that it will only cite books and frustrating that I have yet to get the barcode recognition feature to work. Moreover, certain websites I use frequently have some slight variations that have prevented me from using my iPad with a class. For example, the citation tools in our Gale databases do not work the same on the iPad version of Safari as the MacBook version of Safari.
On the bright side, I think I might be able to make library circulation even faster simply buying a USB extension that I can plug my scanner into. One of my favorite things to do is check books out to students from within the stacks by simply typing in the book’s barcode. Checking in is far more cumbersome this way, so I always do that on our old desktop PC with the scanner attached. Any excuse to not use that PC seems worthwhile to me. It would also be interesting to do inventory with my iPad at the end of the year. My laptop isn’t heavy, but the iPad is much easier to carry in one hand while scanning books with the other. I think its time to go shopping.