Monday, May 9, 2011

# 10: Videos - YouTube

YouTube is a popular video hosting & sharing service founded in 2005, and bought by Google in 2006. There are other places to find videos on the internet, but YouTube has become the most popular. Without installing software or even setting up an account, you can view videos and embed them on your blog or website (they don’t have to be yours – you can embed any video you find on YouTube). You have to create a (free) account to upload videos.

A social site like YouTube democratizes film making, the way that blogs democratize publishing. You might find, amateur TV shows, people’s weddings, cute pets, and other personal videos that people upload to share with friends and family. You can also find scenes from movies, music, comedy bits, and videos of great moments in history. There is something for everyone, and you can search it just like Google to find something specific. You can also find useful stuff like tutorials and instruction videos. Libraries can make their own YouTube channels.

Here are some examples of creative ways libraries are using YouTube:

How about library building projects, staff orientations, guides to using library services, book reviews or exhibitions? There are many opportunities to use video in the library.

You can find other popular video hosting sites in Wikipedia’s list of video sharing websites.

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Watch a few (or all) of the clips on this page. Now that you know how to comment, if you like, you can comment on the YouTube-clips.

  2. Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer.

  3. Search and see if you can find a PubMed Tutorial.

  4. Find videos tagged “libraries” og "book"

  5. Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog. You can do this by clicking “share” under the video window.

Optional assignment:

  1. Sign up for your own YouTube account at http://www.youtube.com/signup. Create some playlists, “favorite” some videos, subscribe to some tags, explore & have fun!

  2. Watch this 3 minute video to learn how to make your own video and put it on YouTube.

Use for or by Medical Libraries (examples):

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