Baby, you can be a star with YouTube & Flickr!!!

Who knew how much fun and easy it could be to use sites such as YouTube and Flickr, 'cuz I sure didn't?!?!

I thought that I was a rather worldly and savvy online user, but how wrong I was. For instance, my whole YouTube experience involved me just checking out the odd sports highlight video and thinking, "This is cool, I wonder what else is on here." I would then proceed to look through hours of old wrestling clips from the 1980's (yes, I was looking at old wrestling clips from the 80's, trying to re-live my youth and watch interviews with Rowdy Roddy Piper again - how mature). I did not know that YouTube gave its users the ability to create their own channels (how public access of them), and I guess that it totally escaped my mind that this is yet another online tool that can be used by libraries to reach out to users in a modern and social setting. Without even trying, a number of ideas popped into my head for how these tools could be utilized in a library setting:

• having a Book Club blog is good, but how about a VIDEO Book Club? Then, those who were unable to attend a Book Club meeting could just sit at home and watch a video of the meeting on YouTube and not feel like they missed anything (or for someone who wants to observe a book club meeting before joining one to see if it is something that they might be interested in, this is also useful).
• here's a novel idea to get teens involved at their library - offer a program on filmmaking techniques, have the teens make short films about the library, and then post the films on YouTube. This gives your library some exposure, reaches out to teens and gives them an outlet to display their filmmaking results, and helps to develope your library's social software cache.
• many childrens libraries host several art programs throughout the year. Why not encourage the kids by having a day-long open art program, with the finished pieces being photographed and posted on Flickr for the world to see. In the public library setting, there are going to be large numbers of users who do not have access to hi-speed internet at home (and maybe no internet at all) , so a program like this allows the kids to experience another shared experience in the online world without having to have the internet at home to do it.

So many possibilities, but logistically, this could be a nightmare. However, most libraries have at least one person on staff with a vast knowledge of how sites like these work (especially larger libraries with a Technology, or Systems, Department), so surely there will be someone on hand who can make sites like YouTube and Flickr work wonders in helping to promote your library. Maybe it will take lots of staff time to make it look good, but, as we saw with the case studies this week, when done well, these can be great marketing tools for the library that will pay off in the long run. For instance, the Orange County YouTube channel shows how you can make a seemingly hi-tech library advertisement that looks professional and can be done by just about anyone (the ad really caught my attention - only $1.41 for an orange library bag, what a deal). Also, putting archival materials on Flickr for the world to see, like the Duke case study, allows former students to still feel a connection with their alma mater, and that is what libraries are all about, connecting people with materials that enhance and enrich their lives. For a public library, putting items in their archives on display on Flickr can also be a great way to connect people worldwide with items from the past that may have meaning to them, even if they are unable to get to the library in person to see them (for instance, in Guelph, our library houses much of the city's archives, so we have access to thousands of old photos that tell the history of the city in photos; displaying these photos on Flickr can connect Guelphites past and present to their shared history).

Now that I know a bit more about these sites, I may even start using them more often, especially Flickr because e-mailing baby pictures to a bunch of people takes forever, whereas putting the snaps in one place for all to see is much more convenient and less time consuming.