YouTube- Soapbox for Everyman

By the title of my post you can probably guess that I like You Tube as a tool for every day people to be heard. There are some in the library community that believe that this is a bad thing. They think that the lack of control will lead to a dumbing down of society and that uncontrolled sites such as blogs, wikis and I would include YouTube can’t be trusted because there is no peer review process.

To me this smacks of elitism. From a librarian’s point of view, does it make the job harder? Yeah it does. But hey that is why librarians are paid the big bucks (our friends in Marathon County excluded. Seriously though just because something makes life more difficult does not mean it is bad. Living outside of your parent’s home can be difficult but that does not make it a bad thing – it is what it is.

In exchange for this horrible torrent of uncontrolled text and video we points of view from people, some even in our own community, that we would not have heard before. Let’s face it, I would not be typing this unless I had this format opened to me on which to air my opinion. The nice thing for you is that you do not have to buy any of what I am selling. The bonus for both of us is that we get to avoid that awkward moment when I realize that not only are you not buying what I am selling but that you are praying to a higher power that my little shop of opinions goes out of business, soon, before I can type another line.

Oh yeah, this blog is free so I don’t have to worry about going out of business.

Okay, I guess I am supposed to talk about YouTube here. I did watch the videos. I liked Harper College Library one a lot. I always like to see libraries trying to break down the shusher image. I also like the Conan the Librarian video, there are some days with some patrons I could really use the sword of his.

In regard to videos I have seen on YouTube I would recommend three of them to anyone with a sense of humor (special note: if you don’t find these as amusing as I did it does not necessarily mean you lack aforementioned sense of humor). The first one is a great, and funny example of social commentary that we would never have seen before the digital age. The second is for people that have ever spent too much time in playing video games. And the third is for the Harry Potter fans out there (hopefully JK Rolling will not send Google the cease and desist order on this one).

Enjoy.

Screencasting

In my past life I spent almost ten years as a technical trainer. When I was not teaching people how to do phlebotomy I would have to teach them to use the various computer programs and systems needed to complete our tasks. To do this I relied on many screen shots and as the technology became available on screencasts.

There are two big benefits that screencasting offers. The first is that it is asynchronous. As I trainer I do not have to be there to deliver the training at that moment because I have created a recording that can be used at any time. The second benefit is that, done correctly, it appeals to various types of learners. You have the visual aspect. You can have text and audio. And though I am reaching a bit on this one I think that body kinesthetic learners can even imagine themselves moving through the process with their mouse or keyboard as they watch.

I have actually had an opportunity to use screencasting in my current job. Though it is rough and needs more work before it will be ready for prime time, I created a screen cast of the process for creating accounts using Millennium. This can be found on the training section (also a work on progress) of the circ portion of the APL intranet site.

Obviously for me training stands out as the best way to use screen casting within a library. It can be used to show patrons how to renew online, search the catalog or place holds. Within the library there are endless tasks that it could be used for.

In addition to the aforementioned items I think there is one other benefit that screencasting has to offer. I think that if done with the right tone it can also help remove some of the trepidation that comes along with learning. If I were focusing on patrons I would keep the mood light. I would also make every effort to tie what they are trying to learn now with things that I would expect them to have done in the best, including real world equivalents (drawing programs come to mind here). The nice thing is that people can watch the videos repeatedly until they understand what they are seeing and hearing.

Podcasting

I agree with Beth, when she says that podcasting is a more personal, yet high tech way to reach an audience. I like hearing a voice it makes the person on the other end seem much more human and anyone who has listened to a lot of podcasts knows they can be all to human. Along with great content you get the added benefit of slips of the tongue, congested casters and even the occasional sneeze into the mic. You would think that with all these faux pas it would detract from content put it usually doesn't. If the person doing the podcast knows what it is they are talking about they can be a great way to broaden your knowledge base on a topic with minimal investment of time.

For years I have subscribed to This Week in Tech, a tremendously geeky podcast about the latest in the world of computers and technology in general. The guys know there stuff, even if they did at one point say that there was no way on God's green Earth that Google would buy YouTube. Even experts can't be right all the time.

The other podcast I subscribed to was Uncontrolled Vocabulary which comes highly recommended. As many of you know I am still new to library land and the more perspective in the library world I can get the better. I will also being checking out other library podcasts but I have not committed to any others at the moment.

The one thing that I have found with podcasting is that if you have a bunch of feeds coming in (I had ten coming into ITunes at one point), the less likely you were to keep up with any of them. Unlike blogs the podcast files can add up to substantial amounts of used space on your computer. At one point I had several Gigs of podcasts that I had no hope of catching up with. This is even worse for Vodcasting (video podcasting).

"Jott" yourself a note to "Remember the Milk"

On the whole it is interesting to see what the small applications designers and open source community can come up with. It seems like if the is a niche to fill out there than someone will develop you an app to fill it. Soon we will have site where you can submit requests for custom apps that can be developed for you on demand, of course there are ways to do this now but I am talking about doing it for a reasonable price.

On to the topic though. Remember the Milk is a handy tool to the freeware folks out there that do not want to plop down the cash to get an integrated tool like Outlook or Lotus Notes. It does have some benefits over these programs in that it is much more portable. You can access it from any computer (or phone) if internet access. It also has some features that make it handy for group use. Of course there is the most important part it’s free. That is important in a world where we really in public funding to purchase our materials.

Jott I had less use for. Its neat, and my hats off to anyone that can get a voice recognition app to work at all – and this one is free. Would it work for dictation, I have not tried but I am guessing no. Would I use it to send myself messages and notes – I doubt it, even though I certainly could use the reminders some times. For those that see it as the niche tool they need, great more power to you, but it is not for everyone.

MySpace - Do it or Don't

As someone who dabbles in web design I will say right off the bat that I am probably biased in my opinions regarding social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Facebook has by far the better presentation though it seems to lack any great tools for individualizing your presence.

MySpace has been considered web design on training wheels since its inception and they have done little to change that. The templates are garish. The layout though somewhat customizable is not very user friendly. Frankly most Myspace pages look amateur at best and probably send a negative impression of your institution at worst.

That said there are some that are not horrible. The Denver Public Library (which is nationally renowned for their embrace of all things techy) does a decent job with their MySpace page. While I do not want to go picking at other libraries there are a couple in the list that are awful.

The Facebook and MySpace pages do create another platform to get the library “out there,” wherever that is. Some of the pages linked to their catalogs which is good. Some had links to online reference systems – great. Others focused on news and events.

I think one of the most important things here is that you look before you leap. If you like the technology and think that it can be good for your library that is great. But you have to stick with it or get rid of it. I think the worst thing you can do is let the site get out of date so that your current events covers last years Summer Reading program. This can be said for all Web 2.0 initiatives. Decide if you need it. A lot appropriate resource to doing it, even when it is free it still needs dedicated resources. Finally stick with it and evaluate its usefulness.

IM and you

I have been using IM for many years now. Though to be honest most this has been for fun. It seems only recently that people have been seeing IMing as a way to communicate for business needs. In fact my old workplace did not even allow IM clients on its machines until about two years ago. Overnight it went from never - ever use this at work to being expected to utilize it as a why to communicate with geographically dispersed coworkers without tearing them away from what they were doing.

The nice thing about IM is that it is a little more immediate than email. But not as intrusive as a phone call. The recipient can choose whether to acknowledge the message or not - and do so at there own pace.

In the library it is nice because you can answer questions semi-asynchronously. In addition you can send links and even files back through the IM client.

Final post for the semester

Well I am only about two weeks late in wrapping up but I would like to thank all of you have have both brought us Project Play and participated. When I started the semester I had two main goals in mind. First I thought it would be nice to put the technologies I already knew about into I library context. Second I thought it would be a good way to get to know some of my new coworkers. While there weren't any sudden moments of clarity I think that I did learn a lot about some of the technologies out there and how we can use them. Me chief problem is that whenever I see something new and shiny I want to use it immediately and worry about how and why later.

I think there are a lot of things that we can use in the library setting to maintain the relevance that many people think we are losing. I think libraries are very relevant and are not in danger any time soon. That said, I don't think those that believe we can function as a brick and mortar entity only are correct. There is give and take and we need to take the resources we have and figure out the best ways to utilize them in the near future. We also cannot be afraid to try something new, even if it fails. Sometimes you need to go back to the well a couple of times before it starts to produce water.

I really enjoyed hearing peoples thoughts on various sections and I think that this will create a great jump off point for libraries and the consortium to develop new features for their libraries. I look foreword to working with everyone that is continuing on next semester.

As far as the section that I found the most fascinating that would have to be tagging. I still worry that tagging can lead to a herd mentality but the reality is that the benefits seem to outweigh the risks. I think it would be a great way for patrons to share their interests without exposing their privacy.

Well that is it for now. I hope to "see" you all next semester.