Podcasting, YouTube and Ninja Librarians

I read somewhere recently that someone suggested if Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were to merge, they might call it "YouTwitFace". Silly names aside, I'm familiar with YouTube, if only for ninja kitties, amusing pianists, Maru, Star Wars kid, Simon's Cat, the sneezing panda...is it any surprise it's blocked at work?



Which is a shame, because I think if you can get over the whole being-seen-on-camera thing, you could do an awful lot with it. So many people, particularly younger students, don't learn best through reading and writing, and are more likely to respond to and engage with visual stimuli. Things like crafts - knitting, to take a particularly librarianish (sorry!) example: I could try to describe how to cast on, and even static pictures might be sufficient for some people, but really the best way to learn is to see a demonstration.

You could use videos to demonstrate searching the mystifying Newton catalogue, upload them to YouTube, embed them on your website, then when students look on there for opening hours, they'll see it - and some might watch it. And once they've watched it, they might even try and look for a book themselves instead of coming to you in the first place...perhaps.

As for podcasting - I'll confess this is something I heard about a long time ago and never really understood. Now I think I'm beginning to understand it, but haven't been able to explore it fully yet because - quelle surprise! - all those podcasts suggested by Cam23 are blocked at work. Are the sysadmins trying to tell me something? Coupled with the fact that I currently have no sound on my computer at home, it's been singularly frustrating trying to learn more.