Week Twelve : Sharing is Good for You

I liked the readings this week, because they reminded me that YouTube IS a social networking site.  I admit that I have used it in a mostly web 1.0 way - as a consumer - so far, anyway. 

But because of the way I use it, I hadn't considered the potential possible uses for it in a library.  I liked looking at what other libraries have been doing, and especially enjoyed the Orange County Public Library's videos - they were well produced, short, to the point, and fun!  My two favourites were "Go Green with Orange" and "Wii Safety 101 (As Illustrated by G.I. Joes)".

 I've been thinking a bit about Flickr since we discussed using it as a possible complement to our project on online social networks a few weeks ago, and thinking about ways that libraries can use it.  I really like Andrea Mercado's idea of not only setting up a Flickr account for the library, but also setting up a badge for the home page, so the pics from your photostream display on the homepage.  I am also keen on the idea of gearing an instruction session towards using Flickr or another online service.  What better way to assuage the doubts of people who don't use these kinds of services than to demonstrate how easy they are to use?  I think similar sessions could be offered on other online tools - even Facebook or YouTube - and it might help people quell any doubts they have about the services.  Also, sessions like these might provide peace of mind for those parents who are concerned about teen internet use - the teens could learn more ins and outs of the tools, and parent could feel better about the level of internet use associated with these tools.

Andrea also made a good point about policy, and the use of these online tools: "Libraries should carefully examine any new service, technology, or process for usefulness, develop goals for use, and implement subsequent policies to make sure that everyone is on the same page using the service (before, or even while, using the service)."

My one concern with these services (and one of the reasons I haven't joined Flickr or uploaded any content to YouTube) is the implications that could arise from having personal or private information stored on American servers.  I know that there is already a wealth of my information available online, but I also know that it's a concern with many libraries where their information is being stored.  I'm not sure if this is a major concern for a library, but I would think it would come up when using any hosted web service, whether it is a blog, wiki, or uploaded content to a media sharing site.  I also wonder if there will be any implications stemming from Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube, and the subsequent handing over of records of all videos watched by users of the site.  Even with the masking of individual users' identities, I'll be watching the news carefully for any fallout from this.

The Flickr case studies were a lot of fun to look at - the historian in me was positively giddy at the opportunity to look at archival photos so readily.  I really liked the Duke Yearbook photostream, and the way that the Library of Congress is using tags.  For example, with World War Two, LC has tagged all photos (or at least the ones I looked at) with four tags: worldwar2, worldwarii, ww2, wwii.  My guess is that they're trying to avoid one of the problems we identified with folksonomies in the past - collocation of like topics.  This way, regardless of which of the four tags someone searched, they'd find the same photos.  Pretty smart, in my mind.