My "thing" for today is YouTube.
www.youtube.com
I am a big fan of YouTube. I chose to research YouTube as a "thing" because I'm such an avid user of the site myself. Marketed as a way for users to "broadcast yourself" it is a video sharing website that has been on the scene since 2005.
The site is a subsidiary of Google and allows users to upload, view and share videos.
In addition to being able to upload and share videos users of the site can also create and subscribe to channels. Each channel might be dedicated to a theme or set of themes. Two channels I follow personally are Pittsburgh Dad and Vlogbrothers.
Pittsburgh Dad is a series of short "sitcom" caricatures about growing up in the city. Here is an example of Pittsburgh Dad reading a bedtime story:
Vlogbrothers is a video blog kept by brothers John and Hank Green as a way to keep in touch with each other and to reach out to their fans. (They have fans in part because of the vlog itself and because John makes his living as a popular YA author. He has most recently written The Fault In Our Stars.) The brothers are committed to promoting the goods of reading to young people and so use their vlog as a means of conducting their own youth reading program. Check it out:
I chose to share these two videos with you because I believe they showcase how YouTube can be used to promote literature and reading. A library could start its own channel and use it in part to promote or conduct its own reading programs.
In fact, many university libraries use YouTube for many purposes. Two university libraries that make use of YouTube are Emory University and Duke University.
Emory uses a YouTube channel to showcase visiting authors reading their own work and to promote current exhibits displayed at the library. Here is one of their videos:
Duke University Libraries offers a video on their YouTube channel showing users how to use "book futons" to read rare books or manuscripts without damaging them.
I found it very informative--I didn't even know book futons existed before watching!
I am excited that a number of university libraries are using YouTube. I think it is an excellent way of promoting collections, exhibits, and events to users of the university library.
~J
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