PLA & Denver Public Library

I attended a PLA session today entitled, "Take Your Online Services to the Next Level: Audio, Video, and More!" which was presented by Michelle Jeske of the Denver Public Library. She did a great job sharing examples of what her library and other public libraries have done with media on the web. (I'll link to her presentation once it's posted on the PLA conference web site.)

Anyway, one of the things she mentioned really stuck in my mind. She was talking about the different kinds of videos they had created, some instructional related to their online resources, and others simply fun and kooky promoting summer library programs or other things going on at the library. She said that the instructional ones aren't viewed very often, but the fun ones have been viewed tons.

I think this goes to what I heard in another session this morning - that we need to tell our users about what they want to hear rather than what we want them to hear. There is a place for fun in what we do, and online audio and video offers a new way to play with the information we share with patrons.

Imagine this: Someone in your community is online poking around in YouTube and stumbles across a video your library posted that is promoting an upcoming program in a clever, fun way. The person thinks, "Hey! That's cool. I didn't know the library was a hip and fun place with loads of fascinating programs going on!" Okay, that's a bit thick, but you get my point. Putting our stuff out there in a fun way where new people can find us is a great way to change the stereotypes of libraries and encourage them to come in and give us a try.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit, but it's been a long day. Just wanted to get down a few thoughts before I forgot these points. I think Project Play has done a pretty good job exposing some new ideas and technologies to those playing along, and I'm proud to have been a part of it!

National Library Week

National Library Week (April 13-19) is coming soon! Take a look at this video (Found on The Shifted Librarian) which pays homage to reference librarians everywhere:



What a fun way to celebrate libraries!

Mashups

I had a lot of fun writing up this week's Project Play post on mashups. I'd like to play some more with some of the tools I discovered, but have too much on my to do list at the moment. Nice to have something to look forward to down the road when I have a quiet moment (if that day ever comes!).

Maps were the easiest to start playing with, so I used a wonderful site called mapbuilder.net to build a couple of pages for OWLS stuff. Take a look at: Map of OWLS Member Library Locations and InfoSoup Libraries Map. Pretty basic, but potentially very helpful.

Fun with YouTube

This week's Project Play topic is YouTube, and I think Joy did a great job of collecting some great examples of what's out there, especially what libraries have been doing. My favorite examples include Tour the Harper College Library and Calgary Public Library Story Time. I was incredibly impressed with Allen County Public Library's YouTube channel and plan to go back there again sometime to view more of what they post!

For now, here's my contribution to YouTube week:

Screencasts vs. vodcasts

There was a great question on the Project Play blog this week:

Would you YouTube videos be considered screencasts?

This is the answer I came up with, and I thought I'd post it here, too, in case some of you are reading this blog and are missing the comments on the PP site.

Screencasts simply record actions taking place on your screen. Some screencasts might be made available on YouTube, but not all videos available on YouTube should be considered screencasts.

What?! I consider most of what is available on YouTube to be “vodcasts.” (We’ll take more about that next week here on the PP blog.) They go beyond recording screen actions and include video of people, places, things, activities, etc.

I hope that explanation helps!

I created a screencast for Week 10 of Project Play, which will be about mashups. I thought Screencast-o-Matic was easy to use and pretty fun. I'll be playing with Camtasia Studio 5 while I prep the 'casting kit for the LSTA grant we were awarded. It'll be fun to compare the two products and see which one I like the best. If you're curious about the 'casting grant, visit 'Casting @ OWLS for more information!