Media Sharing and Libraries

It seems to me that the unerlying theme in this week's media sharing readings, as well as in most of the readings so far, is the emerging role of librarians as educators. Take the case studies as an example. Georgia Tech has incorporated the use of a YouTube Channel to display instructional videos, and the same goes for Orange County Public Library who has also jumped on the YouTube bandwagon by displaying promotional videos that teach the public about current issues, such as using eco-friendly bags. In the case of Flickr, institutions such as Duke and the Library of Congress use Flickr to display and preserve historical photos, while educating the public of their local history. I guess the traditional role of a librairan is to be an instructor of information seeking behaviours; however, with the influx of web 2.0 and social software tools, this role is transforming. I believe Andrea Meracdo says it best in her "Get Flickr-Tastic!" that library users are developing self-serving information seeking habits, thus it is our job as librarians to adapt to this new form of information seeking and offer guidance and instruction in new and intuitive ways. Therefore, librarians' role as educator has transformed with the emergence of social software tools, such as YouTube and Flickr, and we should emerse ourselves in these tools to be able to understand them and teach others how to properly use them.

I enjoyed reading Michael Stephens discussion about the Deleting Online Predator's Act (DOPA) that we discussed a couple of weeks ago in our blogs. Stephens identifies the real issue with DOPA is the lack of education about safely using the internet and its resources, as well as awareness of potential online predators. Stephens identifies librarians as the gatekeepers of this vital information, and states that it is our responsibility to educate library users about social networking sites and how to properly use them, so we can benefit from their use, instead of being restricted from freely accessing the internet. As you can see, education has made its appearance again in the readings. Librarians need to be familiar with social software tools to be able to educate others about their benefits and their proper use.

One way to promote libraries through media sharing, is to provide instructional videos on YouTube about the library. This will promote the library and entice people to come in and check it out for themselves. Also, a direct link to the library should be made available on the YouTube site for easy access. This same idea works for Flickr as well. Photos of library events, book covers, and the library itself should be posted on Flickr to attract potential and existing library users. It is important to engage in current technologies, such as social software, to reach as many people as possible. Once people are attracted to the library, we can then begin teaching library users how to benefit from using social software tools and the internet in general.