Several Interior Department agencies are buying small quantities of Apple iPads to evaluate whether the tablet computers boost efficiency, in a move that resembles the private sector's experimentation with corporate-issued iPads. The U.S. Geological Survey, an Interior agency that monitors the health of U.S. ecosystems, began trying out the devices last summer and now has about 1,000 on hand. On Saturday, the Bureau of Land Management issued a solicitation for iPads and other Apple information technology equipment, stating the tablet is "used in personal productivity and visual media." Jackson said the bureau plans to test its mapping capabilities. Meanwhile, the secretary's office, which distributed a few government-issued iPads around Labor Day 2010, is still debating whether making the machines more widely available would be cost-effective.http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110201_9950.php