Apps-olutely none

Posted March 22, 2013 by Maggie Davidov

I know. It’s a terrible pun, but here’s my question: where are the amazing apps for librarians? Where are the “must-haves”? Where is the list that circulates around blogs by amazingly talented librarians, who stay informed on this topic? So far, I have found nothing.

I was given an ipad this week at work to integrate into the information literacy course I teach. All hate/jealousy mail may be forwarded to [email protected].  So, I’m playing around on the ipad this morning and I’m surfing the magazines offered on the app store and American Libraries, the official magazine of the ALA, doesn’t show up! I also searched YALSA, and found nothing. NOTHING! What gives, people? I know we all love the incessant naggings of the list-serv emails that crowd our inboxes everyday, but frankly, I’d rather access all the latest library buzz and book trends from an app. Isn’t it about time a fantastic app was released by the ALA? I’m going to write them a letter, or an email, whatever form of communication from the past they prefer.

The only app I found that seemed remotely cool was the WorldCat app. If you ever desperately need a hard copy of a book, WorldCat will find it for you, tell you where the closest library that owns it is, and how to get there with GPS. Pretty nifty.

So, if anyone out there, besides my mom, is reading and knows of an excellent app useful to the library community please share your knowledge. I’m only beginning to scratch the surface of this topic. Perhaps this post is way off base. I’d so much rather be wrong on this one than right.