How do you maintain your public computers?
Librarians want to know.
Librarians want to know.
I just attended David Lee King's SirsiDynix Institute webinar, "Video on the Web: A Primer." Like most librarians, I'm a word lover. Reading them. Writing them. Being surrounded by them. For this reason, blogging has been a natural fit for me and I've been doing it for years. As a reader of blogs and websites, however, I have become more and more aware of the story-telling power of the visual. Websites with photos and graphics are so much more interesting and engaging then sites that are text heavy. In the last year or so, I've been pushing myself to explore the use of visuals to tell a story. I purchased a digital camera and have been trying to improve my photographic skills. When I joined the staff here at MaintainIT, Sarah sent me a hot pink Flipcam and I've been having fun with capturing videos, too.
In his webinar, David talked about various video formats, video cameras, software for editing videos, and more. My favorite part of the presentation was all about brainstorming the question: How could libraries use video? Some of the ideas discussed include: exhibits, interviews, and tutorials. I know that the use of video in libraries is not new. I was in library school in 1994-1995 and one of the classes I took was "Video Editing for Library Professionals." The technology has changed though... it's easier, it's more prevalent, and it seems full of potential.
Since we're always thinking about public access computing here at MaintainIT, I'm also intrigued by the potential, not just for library videos, but for libraries helping community members create videos, too. I recently wrote about the Dragonfly Project on my personal blog. With a grant from the Alaska State Library, the project provided young people in the community an opportunity to learn to make videos. They developed their skills by creating movies about the community. I think there is amazing potential for developing these types of programs. Are there other projects out there like the Dragonfly Project? Has anyone done video production in conjunction with summer reading programming, for example? I'd love to hear about your experiences!
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