[This is a post from my personal blog but thought it would fit here as well]:
Speaking of having online tools and services (thanks, Barbara!) that make your research life easier, Lifehacker has an awesome post titled “Top Ten Underhyped Webapps” that includes a service called Qipit–yes, Lifehacker pointed to another 9 that are quite great, but in a library setting Qipit comes in double handy.
Picture yourself in a library and you want to have a digital copy of a microfilm/fiche page(s), print article, or similar item when none are possible. But you have your digital camera or camera phone with you so all you have to do is take a picture of the page in question and text/e-mail it to Qipit.
According Qipit all you have to do is “Send the picture from your phone or via email to copy@qipit.com. You’ll receive a link to the online digital copy of your document. Free!”
I’m thinking primarily of some of our microfilm/fiche readers that don’t have printers or any kind of digital output (GIF or JPEG), but I can see other instances where this type of online tool can certainly be helpful.