YouTube

YouTube is fun. It is entertaining. I especially liked the YouTube video "Tour the Harper College Library" listed on Project Play and in my own search, the video "The L-Team" which is a take on the A-Team. Of course, who can forget the "Conan the Librarian" clip from UHF?

Videos on YouTube are either very good or very very bad... but they are homemade videos made by regular people and not necessarily professional actors. My spouse recently got an account for YouTube. I will keep to my current 5 email addresses, so if I want to use the account, I will use his. I think that for fun, librarians can have fun watching librarian related clips on YouTube, and it can be used for all ages by libraries for promoting services or teaching, or even giving a tour of the library.

I do like the idea of having contests for library patrons and using YouTube as the format. All ages are using it. YouTube is a fun way to teach something simple, if you want something a little more fun to watch than a screencast, if you already have a way to record the picture and sound, such as with a camera, phone, or camcorder.

screencasts

Screencasts, video and audio recordings of what is on the computer screen that are shot in real-time, could be helpful in demonstrating new databases available to the public on the library's website, wiki, or blog. Audio is optional, depending on what content is being shown.

The reference or circulation department could do a screencast of how to use LinkCat or any database for patrons to use. A different database could be screencast each month. Other options for the SCLS users could be how to place holds, check the availability of a book at the library, reserve a computer online, and more. Also, how to set up a free email account could be shown too. The Children's department could demo Ebscohost, Searchasaurus, and ERIC databases too.

If permission was given by the instructor, the library could even record a class on how to use excel or word or other computer classes, a powerpoint presentation or other class and keep it online or on the blog or wiki, though these might be really long screencasts.

I thought about suggesting book talks on screencasts, but that is more like a video option, not a screencast.