"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.

So slide over here, and give me a moment....

In principle Slideshare is a good thing, allowing people to share their powerpoint presentations, and especially brilliant for those who hate powerpoint and don't want to create their own.  However this is where I feel the first downfall of Slideshare comes. For example, if  you want to re-use a presenation that you've found, (obviously referencing the creator, as the work isn't yours), yes ok you have the slides, but this is only good if you know the subject matter of the presentation. Slideshare in my view just gives an overview of the presentation but doesn't enable you to see the content, if your unfamiliar with the topic, ie. no lecture notes.

The ones I found most useful are those which have an audio track with the presentation, aka screencasts, although these were few and far between in my extensive searching.  Screencasts are good as they allow you to see both the presentation and hear the commentary that went with it.

I actually found it difficult to find presentations that could be recycled, as a presentation does tend to be unique to a particular person.  I have however included a couple that I like.  The second one also contains a link to a you-tube video in German with English subtitles!:

Information Literacy and the future of learning

View more presentations from SLA.

Time For A Library Shift

View more presentations from Tony Hirst.

Where I think Slideshare can be useful, is enabling people to view presentations that they missed, say at a training event, or a conference, especially if you have the handouts and lecture notes to hand.

In a library context, it could be useful to store presentations, that we are all expected to give, for example, inductions.  The students will be able to have a consistent approach, with all Cambridge librarians saying the same thing, however don't we already have Camtools for this.


As for using Slideshare for uploading your own presentations for other to use or view. The main problem to my mind is, whether sharing presentations that you created whilst working at a particular organisation is against the copyright of the organisation.  This is becuase most things you create at work are not owned by you but the organisation.

In conclusion, unlike the INXS lyrics, I'm not convinced I need you tonight!

You can't judge a blog by its title

Having just read the news that Cam23 now has 100 bloggers, now is perhaps not the best time to get to Thing 4 where perusing other people's blogs is the order of the day! Oh well as Shakespeare wrote "Once more unto the breach, dear friends".

I'm particularly drawn to read the blogs of those with unusal names which pull me in to see what they've got to say, for example Girl in the Moon, Whispers in the wilderness, or On silent white wings.

 

Similiarly the posts with interesting titles in Google Reader also do the same thing, for example How I learned to stop worrying and embrace Gaga, Batgirl and me or the disorder of multiple personalities and How google calendar is just a little bit like a trip to Lakeland

I think commenting on people's blog posts gives us an oportunity to discuss ideas, be reflective and think about how someone's else opinion affects your own, even if it can be a bit scary sending your views out into the wilderness of cyberspace.  One of the main advantages of having an anonymous blog, is it gives you a voice without exposing your identity in public.

Trying to make my own blog more exciting has been proving difficult. I couldn't seem to manipulate blogger into allowing more individuality in its layout, for example moving my picture next to the header. It could just be of course that my html skills need refreshing! Maybe Wordpress users are finding that easier to use.  Images that only seemed to want to appear "Centre Stage" as it were, with no variation after being uploaded. Having just said that and been playing around in Dashboard I've just found an updated editor which does exactly what I want!  Shame I didn't know about this before, its a steep uphill curve, this learning web 2.0 lark.

 

As for capturing screenshots, I must admit I always use Irfan View, (affectionately called "splat" by computer colleagues in another job, due to its squashed against a window look! ). Its excellent at capturing screen images and cropping them down to a specific area. Although I notice its not in the top 10 list of free software.

To conclude the more I blog, the more I enjoy it.  I am now thinking that as well as having a library Facebook page, a blog could be a fun thing to do as a method of interacting with students, and advertising library services.  Who knows "Librarians do Gaga" on You tube could be the makings of a blog post to advertise training sessions.