For those of you who are curious and want to more information, I've linked a 6 minute and 29 second video of me giving additional insight into my random things. Enjoy!
a few bonus things to share:
I collect teabag tags for a friend who gives them to an organization that uses them as a fund raiser to donate wheelchairs for people in need.
Full Disclosure: I prefer audiobooks over print. I find it hard to sit still long enough to read a book so audiobooks provide me with great flexibility.
I'm surprised at how long the Overdrive video takes to download. It took longer to download than to watch the information. So I opted not to watch the help video and see how intuitive the process is for the end-user. People don't often read instructions, do they?
I'm glad to see there is now a Macintosh option for Overdrive. I don't see the option to search for materials that will play on a Mac. Not convenient. Not at all. I was able to explore a few authors and wasn't really impressed with the available items.
The idea of making digital media available for people to check out and use on their personal devices is a good one. MOLDI/Overdrive provides a "training wheels" service that just isn't up to the speed of many of our users, I think. And for users trying to use it for the first time, it takes a lot of time to download the software, find available titles, blah, blah, blah and it might just turn them off.
Question for the three people following my blog: Is there a service provider for digital media that does it well?
I came to know about podcasts through the knitting world. I'm not certain how it happened but suddenly I was searching for knitting podcasts.
The first knitting podcast was KnitCast and Marie talked about all things knitting for a short time. it was great to have it on my iPod and listen at my convenience.
My preferred reader for the podcasts is iTunes. I have almost 20 'casts that I listen to regularly. Many of those have come via promos on the 'casts that I have heard. I rather enjoy driving, walking, or riding on a play while catching up on my podcasts. iTunes makes it so easy because it automatically updates when there are new podcasts.
A podcast would be another great way to read to children, share Ready to Read information with parents and promote upcoming library events. Posting the podcast on iTunes or one of the other podcasts directories would be simple. Embedding the podcasts on the website would also allow customers to select the experience THEY want with the library. Customized experiences available by reading the information, watching via youtube or listening via a podcast would reach more people. And with some established "guidelines," we could have some freedom in presentation.
I like YouTube. It's easy to upload, fun to explore videos and useful in finding "how to" information. I do have to be careful because YouTube can take up a lot of my time. Type in a topic and sure enough, there is a video about it!
I've set up a YouTube account for the Learn & Play videos. It was so easy to use! Uploading and embedding videos took no time at all. I also like that I can subscribe to specific people's videos, highlight some videos as favorite and send videos to my subscribers. It's very easy to do.
I think video hosting is a great opportunities for libraries. I think that "just-in-time" training could be created and made available for staff and customers. Imagine taking the great resource of a staff member talking about some of our premium resources, putting it on film and adding the link right to the page to answer some FAQs that would enhance the user experience. Customers are accessing the website 24/7 and some people just like to find their own information. I think making a simple video that is less than 2 minutes long would really easy and reach more people. Not everyone wants to read long instructions. Some are audio learners.
I think having video storytime could be another way to reach more children and parents. I imagine a site that parents can go to and click on some videos to entertain and educate their children. We have amazing library staff would would do a great video storytime.
I've embedded videos before and find it rather easy. I'll embed a video that is one of my favorite flashback videos. Remember when MTV actually played videos? This video was one of my favorites.
