Week 12: Media Sharing

What I really love about media sharing is the fact that so many people are actively participating in it. Over 6.1 million videos have been uploaded to YouTube, according to Robin Good.

Like so many other Web 2.0 technologies, it is the ease and convenience of the actual technology that has made media sharing so viable and popular. Who needs to be a movie producer? Now almost anyone can make and upload their own mini movie. The possibilities are endless.

I believe that libraries will take advantage of this technology more and more. Duke University is able to attract alumni with its yearbook pictures, while Library of Congress and U Michigan are able to showcase parts of their digital collection through Flickr.

What libraries really need to think about are the possibilities that are out there with information literacy, as Amanda pointed out in our chat. Think about the number of useful online tutorials that could be presented on YouTube: how to use PubMed, how to search for a journal article, how to critically evaluate a web site, how to use RACER or RefWorks – the list could go on and on.

I think the libraries – such as McCracken Public Library and Orange County Library – that showcased YouTube videos are demonstrating a useful way of attracting users. At the very least, they are showing people that libraries are so much more than just a place for books.

Libraries can easily promote their services through YouTube and Flickr, as both Webb and Mercado point out in their articles. The media sharing group this week has demonstrated how effectively this can be done on YouTube. Mercado also introduced another idea that has real potential. Librarians could take on the role of teaching people how to tag their photos in Flickr. As she says, “If you can’t beat ’em, guide ’em.” Whenever I see examples of tagging, I am reminded of the difficulty of appropriately labelling anything. It is not intuitive for most people.