"Librarians do Gaga" or the delights of podcasting and YouTube!

Podcasting is great idea, enabling people to watch or listen to video casts or audio casts whilst on the move.  This is increasingly more common as people have ipods, phones and mp3 players, not to mention laptops and home computers.

Libraries have already tapped into this world, in order to get information and training on available resources, out to remote users.  The Cheshire Public Library podcasts are aimed at teenage users, and include their writings and music.  This is very good method of libraries marketing themselves and appealing to their users.

At a previous job we decided to make podcasts via Camtasia for our overseas students, as they don't receive the same face to face inductions about library resources.  The main ones we made were accessing journals online due to the problems faced by some journal providers not recognising our students Athens accounts off site and using databases (unfortunately I do not have access to show them here). As a remote student, this can be very frustrating and its not always possible to speak to a library staff member if your working after 9pm.  The first tip we learned about podcasting is making sure you have a script to work from.  Most of the libraries shown in thing 21 examples, have also included the scripts on their pages which is very useful if students wish to have a handout as well.

YouTube is another good way of making video's to advertise library services.  I like the plagiarism one, even though it had English subtitles, as it was different, fresh and enjoyable to watch.  Another favourite as the title of this post suggest is "Librarians do Gaga", Miss Crail and I have previous wondered how much this could be used as a fun introduction to databases, although apparently gin may be needed to do something similar ourselves!

Other you tube library related video's I like is the Cookie monster in the library and Library card.

Ghostbusters, The L team and The University of Liverpool's 1920's silent film on using databases and electronic resources (is very slick and well done).  The trick of using well known songs, TV shows and genre is an excellent way of making sure people view and keep watching your video or podcast.

In some ways one of the main disadvantages I find, is making a podcast interesting and funny, which will keep the student interest and make them remember the content.

Librarian's blog, star date July 2010, subject - reflection

(Cue Music) Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to boldly go where no librarian has been before................

Back in May, a new force was gathering on the horizon - Cam23things, whose remit was to guide librarians through the Web 2.0 world and allow us to explore new technologies that may have an impact on our library world. 

by Tiger Lilly

I for one had heard of Web 2.0, and was aware of lots of librarians engaging in certain web based activities, trying to see what all the hype was about.  After starting on the course, it soon became clear that it wasn't just about adding a shiny button to the library page!

Half way through, look how far we've come. We've looked at RSS feeds, various Google applications, tagging, bookmarking, slideshare, Doodle, Calendars, using images and Twitter.  Some of which I found better than others.  I can definitely see a value for libraries in Google reader, RSS feeds and Twitter, for keeping up to date with current awareness and bookmarking for remote access to websites you've found and want to subsequently use in an assignment.  I can also see that tagging has a role to play for our users, as they may want to organise the information we provide in a different way that's more accessible for them.  However I'm still finding it hard to see a use for Doodle, calendaring, Flickr and slideshare.  I'm still of the belief that, if your not a fan of a technology, don't use it, as it won't come across well with your users.

I think the most scary thing for me about this program was The Blog. Worrying about what to write, putting all these new technologies into perspective and evaluating their possible use in libraries.  Never mind the design and look of creating your blogging space.  Today's Twitter comments regarding some of our merry little band's, "Library Thing" blogs, have actually made me think more about the blog and whether I still want to participate in blogging about our further things.  To me the idea of blogging about these technologies as part of Cam23, should be as reflective practice, this is a learning environment after all.  We all have our own ideas, opinions and that's how we learn by discussing ideas and seeing how we can improve our services, based on best practice and other people's experience.  I'm not sure that I really want to cause controversy and be reprimanded by the originator of a Web 2.0 technology by publicly saying "I don't like it" or I'm not sure how to use it in a library context which is what this is about.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, to the next things....on the Web 2.0 journey.  I found this cartoon which I think sums up, my stance so far.

Its life Jim but not as we know it!

Delicious

I was extremely sceptical about Delicious, when I started exploring it.  How different was it to bookmarks and links that you put on your library page?  Initially I thought it wasn't that user friendly in its searching ability and wasn't keen on the layout.  However I did like being able to access websites easily.

After viewing the Green Library Delicious page at Stanford University, I also had different views to LibrarianGoddess and couldn't understand her excitement about it; this was initially due to the security warning message, because clicking on yes brought up the page to the right. Here you were unable to click on the tags or search bookmarks, so I was completely confused....

....that is until manic clicking produced a tag cloud (pictured left), which I couldn't return to, after choosing one of the options! From then on my views changed.  The Green Library Delicious tag cloud, is user friendly, if a little overwhelming, with all the words.  I liked the visual searching aspect, which allowed for easy access to information.

As LibrarianGoddess says, the main advantage of Delicious, is being able to access bookmarks anywhere, which is especially useful if you need to login to the library or university website first to see the library links and have forgotten your password or the web site is down! So I love this remote access aspect of retrieving useful websites, which a lot of students may struggle with, for many reasons.

In conclusion, I liked being able to search for bookmarks via keywords, sorry tags! and thought that once you had got used to how it worked, it was definitely better than searching google, as you could add new tags into your search to narrow down results.  If used through the library, it does allow you to have a certain control aspect over choosing suitable sites to bookmark, as well as providing a tag list to bundle similar sites together.