Hello, one and all! Can you believe that Halloween has come and passed? Craziness! I rocked the steam-punk look with my boyfriend on the 31st. It took a lot of convincing on my part for him to dress up and attend a Halloween party, but we ended up having a boo-tiful time. Of course, I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Halloween too.
Anyways, as you may recall from my last post, I had mentioned Pinterest was a effective website for promoting library activities. However, it definitely isn't the only photo sharing site that libraries are using.
Flickr, Photobucket, and even 500PX have sprung up like gladiolas in the library world, with usage rates growing alongside Pinterest. Video sharing sites like Youtube and Vine are also being used more frequently by libraries to promote activities and libraries themselves.
For the sake of length, I will be mainly focusing on how some libraries are using Youtube and other video-sharing sites to promote themselves and their services.
Just the other day, I browsed Youtube to see if I could find videos about libraries that didn't involve Harlem Shake dances. Sure, those videos are entertaining, and I still kick myself for not mentioning the idea to my former boss (it would've been nice to dance around like crazy instead of polishing book shelves for the billionth time). However, I wanted to find out how libraries promoted themselves in other creative ways.
As it turns out, the library in The University of Winnipeg (U of W) have created a Youtube account for its students and staff. In their account, they have many useful playlists to choose from.
A playlist I found especially interesting was one dedicated to Classics students: not only did the library suggest ways to avoid plagiarism, but they also recommended journal articles, library books, and reference materials for essays and other academic assignments. They also have tutorials on how to use their online cataloging system effectively to search for books and other materials.
Personally, I thought these videos would be really helpful in getting me started on finding the materials quickly and effectively in the future.
By doing videos like this, academic libraries (and other types of libraries for that matter) can cut back on the amount of time answering questions students may have about how certain databases and other resources work.
While researching other Youtube library accounts, I began to notice patterns that didn't sit right with me. A couple things that personally irritated me was the fact that some videos didn't have great editing, or had poor audio quality.
I don't expect libraries to have the time and money to put together a 15 minute spectacle, but they should research ways on how to properly attract Youtube subscribers before putting videos up for the whole world to see.
For instance, I think libraries should make sure that they upload videos on a regular basis in order to gain more subscribers. They should also do the best they can to edit thumbnail pictures to make the video more inviting. Unfortunately, content will be most likely ignored on Youtube if one has a blurry thumbnail on their video.
With all that said, I still think that libraries should use Youtube and its ilk, as they have great potential to promote services to a large amount of people. It's just that some libraries should research ways on how to advertise themselves better on it. Even if the sound quality isn't always clean, libraries are putting out videos that have fantastic and informative content.
Here's a link if you want to browse through the Youtube channel made by the library at the University of Winnipeg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWEekojDfkW8OM3uk_UhnA
Have a good day, folks!
For the sake of length, I will be mainly focusing on how some libraries are using Youtube and other video-sharing sites to promote themselves and their services.
Just the other day, I browsed Youtube to see if I could find videos about libraries that didn't involve Harlem Shake dances. Sure, those videos are entertaining, and I still kick myself for not mentioning the idea to my former boss (it would've been nice to dance around like crazy instead of polishing book shelves for the billionth time). However, I wanted to find out how libraries promoted themselves in other creative ways.
As it turns out, the library in The University of Winnipeg (U of W) have created a Youtube account for its students and staff. In their account, they have many useful playlists to choose from.
A playlist I found especially interesting was one dedicated to Classics students: not only did the library suggest ways to avoid plagiarism, but they also recommended journal articles, library books, and reference materials for essays and other academic assignments. They also have tutorials on how to use their online cataloging system effectively to search for books and other materials.
Personally, I thought these videos would be really helpful in getting me started on finding the materials quickly and effectively in the future.
By doing videos like this, academic libraries (and other types of libraries for that matter) can cut back on the amount of time answering questions students may have about how certain databases and other resources work.
While researching other Youtube library accounts, I began to notice patterns that didn't sit right with me. A couple things that personally irritated me was the fact that some videos didn't have great editing, or had poor audio quality.
I don't expect libraries to have the time and money to put together a 15 minute spectacle, but they should research ways on how to properly attract Youtube subscribers before putting videos up for the whole world to see.
For instance, I think libraries should make sure that they upload videos on a regular basis in order to gain more subscribers. They should also do the best they can to edit thumbnail pictures to make the video more inviting. Unfortunately, content will be most likely ignored on Youtube if one has a blurry thumbnail on their video.
With all that said, I still think that libraries should use Youtube and its ilk, as they have great potential to promote services to a large amount of people. It's just that some libraries should research ways on how to advertise themselves better on it. Even if the sound quality isn't always clean, libraries are putting out videos that have fantastic and informative content.
Here's a link if you want to browse through the Youtube channel made by the library at the University of Winnipeg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWEekojDfkW8OM3uk_UhnA
Have a good day, folks!
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