Friday 5 August 2011

Things 19-20

Watching the YouTube videos suggested, and also some I found myself, allowed me to develop an idea of what I think works and doesn't work in this medium. I thought they were all entertaining but for me turning some of the points into a video seemed a bit over the top, I don't think it aided remembering the subject matter at all. I also found some seemed rather patronising. However, I thought the use of cards in the University of Sydney video to show both the need for, and the use of a search strategy, was inspired and made the concept very clear. I think my favourite of the ones suggested was the video from La Trobe University, as it was very professional but also avoided being too dry or boring.

Here are a couple of others I found:

This Wizard of Oz - a Tale of Library Circulation by Salt Lake County Library Services has surprisingly good special effects.



I am obviously drawn to this kind of video, as the other one I looked at was CLC Library Trek by clclibrary.



I think this one impressed me the most, it was clever, fun and their mnemonic ABC would help you to remember authority, bias and currency. It also seems part of a series and I think that would encourage students to watch others and learn more.

I think the main thing I learnt is not to just jump on the video bandwagon for the sake of it or to seem cool. However, some things like searching the catalogue are much easier to follow with the visual and if such videos are available through something like YouTube then people can access them easily for reference. They also help brighten up a blog too!

I decided to subscribe to the 'Best of Chris Moyles' podcast, as I have heard his team mention it on the radio for ages and never quite got round to it. It therefore seemed a good way to complete Thing 20 and also I miss most of the show these days so it allows me to catch up. The fact that I've heard about it for such a long time, makes me wary of its use because it does seem a bit outdated these days. Also, I understand that people learn in different ways but I think that the kind of topics that we would be talking about (for example, literature searching) would work much better being accompanied by visuals, or they could be very dry!

I set up a Grooveshark account and would like to share my playlist 'Sounds of the library' inspired by 23 Things:

1 comment:

  1. You're right in that videos can be very variable. Some of the slideshows I've seen on YouTube are a bit dull (with terrible background music!) and their authority needs checking quite carefully. However it's a great way to reach people, and material will get more hits than it would just hosted on your institutions website
    I enjoyed the Star Trek one, but feel there must be issues of copyright involved with this!

    Rowena 23 Things Team

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