YouTube

Despite personally not liking the title of YouTube I find the variety of video content available fascinating! I remember hearing about YouTube some years ago and wondering why people would want to spend time watching videos online. Now after some exposure to the site I understand! My brother has shared many clips of bands performing and we have watched comedian Michael Richards' blunder when he was blatantly racist during one of his stand up comedy routines.

I'm still operating in the land of dial up Internet so this makes downloading YouTube painful. There's lots of buffering the media and waiting. Little video segments appear and then there's more buffering and more waiting. Plenty of time to make a Chai tea and return. I don't tend to visit YouTube at all. Being a huge Seinfeld fan today I conducted a YouTube search. I like the searching features that appear along the top of the page providing avenues for more time wasting! I chose to watch a short video titled "Elaine's dance" from Season 8. It's fun reading the comments as well. Here's the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5xi4O1yi6b0

Libraries can utilise YouTube by providing links to relevant videos on their web pages. For example, staff can access videos explaining web 2.0 tools. With regards to the public, what about the posting of a brief virtual library tour? Events can also be recorded and made available through YouTube. People watching these videos may then be drawn to visit the library in the future. YouTube provides an exciting avenue of exposure for the public library.