YouTube

I've been viewing videos on YouTube for what seems like a long time. While a lot of YouTube's content is entertainment, there are quite a few educational offerings. Search for 'berkman center' and you'll get about 20 hits, referencing Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. They have a presence in Second Life, and one of the videos is about a trial that took place in there.







Another category of YouTube videos that I like are the ones related to Web 2.0, like The Machine is Us/ing Us. Creator Michael Wesch, an anthropologist at Kansas State University, uses images to explain how the Web has changed the way we communicate. If you like this one, check out the author's video summary of Everything is Miscellaneous, Information R/evolution.




Libraries can, and do, use YouTube to reach their target audience (chiefly students). The Mabie Law Library at UC Davis created A Monograph's Journey for National Library Week 2007. It offers a humorous explanation of how books get onto the library's shelves. Sadly, the video has only had 255 views in the 6 months it's been on YouTube, and I'll bet most of the viewers were librarians! I still think that YouTube can be a useful part of the librarian's 2.0 toolkit. We just need practice!