Part of our goal in 23 Things-n'at is not only to create time for fun and exploration, but to encourage library staff to see some of these web 2.0 tools through the lens of the library. These tools have great power (and are mostly free!) to expand the services we offer to patrons; YouTube and Flickr are no exceptions.
Many of you have heard of YouTube, maybe even recently you've seen this video of a very touching episode of Britain's Got Talent with Susan Boyle (who-- after the episode and its subsequent viral sharing-- appeared on all kinds of major network shows.) Many of us have also heard of Flickr, a photo sharing website that's quickly replacing those old sticky photo albums. But do you know these tools can work wonders in your library?
Online-video-hosting sites allow users to easily upload and share videos on the web. Among the players YouTube is currently top dog serving up over 1 million views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily.
Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and classic 80s music videos to library dominos and this, The Engineers' Guide to Cats:
Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer. :)
Not only does YouTube have a lot to offer, but photo sharing websites like Flickr have catapulted the idea of “sharing” into full blown online communities. Flickr has become the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword tags to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.
For this week's tasks:
- Take the Flickr tour and browse the site for a picture that might interest you (Thing # 14). You may want to look at Flickr's Popular Tags for inspiration.
- Check out ACLA's Flickr sets for a picture of a local library (maybe yours is there!) Upload an image (from anywhere on Flickr) to your blog post for this week (Things # 15). If you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post or you can use Blogger's photo upload tool.
- Now try embedding a YouTube video in that same blog post (Thing # 16). When you find a video you like, follow the instructions below. If that's a little too techie for you, skip the instructions and watch the videos we link to at the bottom of the post.
- In your post this week, also consider these questions: what did you like or dislike about the sites and why did you choose the picture and/or video that you did? Can you see any features or components of these sites that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?
- Copy the html code from your video's YouTube page on the far right (like below) by right clicking on that code and choosing copy.
- Paste that code into your blog post.
- Click on 'preview' (found in the upper right corner of your blog posting window) if you'd like to see your video as it will appear to readers.
- Publish your post!
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