Week 12: Media Sharing

Media Sharing and the Promotion of Web 2.0 Interactivity

This week's content, I think, brings us to the very heart of the matter for web 2.0 technologies: sharing.  Everything we have learned about so far in this class has shown that 2.0 technologies are all about heightened interactive online experiences and being able to not just access online content, but to become part of a dialogue or community of thought.  Media sharing technologies definitely provide a solid support mechanism for this kind of interaction as they not only provide a way for people to upload/download/view material, but they also facilitate this interaction: the 2.0 experience embodied as sharing news, thoughts, opinions, entertainment in all manner of formats and media.  Two of the most popular media sharing apps on the web, YouTube and Flickr, both include features that allow people to post and view materials and also give the option for both uploaders and viewers to post comments, subscribe to feeds, become part of a network of users of similar ideas, tastes...whatever you could imagine. 

By extension, web 2.0 is really all about sharing at its core, as the web is increasingly built using XML allowing web content to be shared across many different sites (e.g. posting a YouTube video within a Myspace page or blog). Suffice it to say that the web is definitely growing into a more interactive experience every day and media sharing is an important part of this evolution.  So, having noted the importance and prominence of media sharing (and the likelihood that it's going to be a permanent feature of the web), we as librarians must ask the question: Are these technologies useful in the library and, if so, how can we and our patrons benefit from them?

Flickr and the Library

My group's project - on gaming and virtual worlds - used Flickr as the way to post and share photos of our library scavenger hunt.  This is just one of many ways libraries could use the ability to share photos on their site.  A great thing about Flickr, partially because of its popularity and partially because it is one of the most functionally equipped photo-sharing apps on the web, is that there are many other applications that can be used to implement an embedded slide show into the library's site so users don't have to venture away from the library website to view photos.  We discussed such a tool in class recently - Feed2js - and for our group project we used Pictobrowser (made for Blogger sites).  As far as what uses can be imagined for Flickr and the library, I say the limit is just the library's imagination. In 16 Ways to Use Flickr @ Your Library by Michael Stephens, we see that the possibilities range from virtual tours, to advertising upcoming events with photos of similar past events, to photos of book covers to accompany reader's advisory services.  All of the ideas are great and would definitely add value to the library's website and - with the tendency for people to be more visual these days - such features would no doubt be well-used on a library site.  Stephens does bring up a good point at the end of this short article - that it will be very important for users of Flickr to educate themselves about issues that could be associated with the usage of Flickr at the Library - among them: screening content that could be harmful to children under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), and the issue of copyright.  Luckily, with regard to this last issue, if a library is posting their own photos, copyright will not apply.  But, it would be a good idea for the librarians to educate themselves about the variety of creative commons licenses and permissions currently being used in lieu of strict copyright.

YouTube and the Library

The article YouTube & Libraries: It Could Be a Beautiful Relationship by Paula L. Webb brought up some great points about not only how YouTube could be a very useful tool in library instruction and training, but by extension is a tool that presents great possibilities for distance learning in general.  Aside from the fact that users are able to post and view videos online, and then comment on them, tag them, become part of the YouTube community, etc., is the fact that it presents such a valuable functionality at no cost. This can be very useful to schools and especially libraries - who often have tight budgets - in their teaching efforts.  In a setting such as this class, YouTube could be a very useful way to present a group project (as the group from this week so aptly demonstrated) and in a setting such as the library, YouTube could host (at no cost to the library or to the library's server) videos on any number of topics - for instance information literacy, instructions on how to use the website, etc. Similar to Flickr, Youtube can also be embedded in an external website, allowing libraries to use the feature without having to direct users away from the library's site. 

Case Studies

While all great in theory, how are libraries actually putting these media sharing tools to use? This week's case studies showed that the uses of both Flickr and YouTube in the library environment are many and varied.  One of my favorites this week was the U of Michigan's digitization project on Flickr, as it not only presented digitized versions of some of their holdings, but it was also telling the story of the digitization project through the photos.   It was also great to see that libraries were utilizing the YouTube capabilities to host video promotions of their libraries - namely the Orange County Library and the many events they have posted.  The one thing I was unable to find out was how these libraries were implementing their YouTube channels on their library sites - is it just a link to YouTube or have they built in an embedded video viewer? If anyone found this out, let me know :)  

Also, for anyone who has't discovered this amazing photo gallery by the Library of Congress, I suggest you check it out! (for further reading, info about LoC's Flickr project is here).

Thanks for reading, until next week....