Thursday, January 3, 2008

YouTube

I like YouTube because there is SO much there. If I start searching through clips I end up getting sucked into more and more and the next thing I know it has been an hour. It is also nice because you can really find anything. For example there are educational type videos such as the ones we have been watching for Learning 2.0 and there are also comedy clips to make anyone laugh. That leads me to what I don’t like. As with any public site, as Cindy noted, there are things you will find that you don’t want to see. Usually you can tell if what you are going to watch is smutty or not but I am always scared when I watch a new YouTube video that it is a trick to make me accidentally click on something gross. This didn’t happen at all while I was exploring though, which is good.

I think YouTube can be used in the library setting in a variety of ways. First, we could use it to post videos that could be of interest to our patrons and link these to our website. These would be educational or informational type videos. We could make our own or direct others to ones we know are strong. Second, we can use YouTube as a way to grab attention and market the library to a variety of patron groups. The uses for YouTube are endless especially when it comes to its use with our teen population.

One clip that grabbed my attention was a series entitled Brotherhood 2.0. The 2.0 theme attracted me and the comedy kept my attention. This was a series of postings between two brothers who live in different parts of the country. They decided to communicate without using text for one full year. They took turns sending one video blog a day and I think they are HYSTERICAL. You might hate them…and that’s the fun of YouTube…there is something for everyone. I noticed the clip when I was searching around because the goodbye ending one was posted just before the New Year. Now you can watch all 365 posts in order like a TV show.

I have posted the last video below so that you can get a feel for this video blog.

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