Thing # 20 --YouTube

Hi all,

YouTube is another useful Internet based application that libraries can make use of. The premise is simple. It is one of several hosting site where anyone with a camera can upload content. These sites enable the ultimate in audiovisual self-expression done just for the sake of opening up to the world and saying "here I am" and "look what I can create." This has some interesting potential for libraries, because it is a great way to promote events. Broward County Main Library has a few YouTube videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVKd_36cFrg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9zMBTbSKvk&feature=related, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1yILzzE56U&feature=related, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3XkmzrIPX8.

This is a great way to advertise for several reasons. Traditional advertising generally has an element of luck based on the fact that people are not setting out to seek the ads for their own sake. With TV or radio advertising, people may see the ad if they like to watch a particular show, provided they do not hit the mute button during the ads or go to the kitchen to get a snack. People are not seeking out these ads, but rather encounter them if they are on when they seek out a particular show. Therefore, putting it in very basic terms, the likelyhood that people will see the adds depends on the viewership of a show. The higher the viewership of a show, the likelier that ads shown during that show will be seen by a higher proportion of the audience. One might call this passive advertising in the sense that the audience's primary intention is to watch the program, not the ads, and the ads are just "hitching a ride" so to speak.

With the video hosting sites, your audience comes to you without the need for something else (such as a program) to attract their attention and bring them in. One can call this active advertising rather than passive advertising since the person goes to the website to seek out the various videos. There's still an element of luck in that if people don't know you have a video there they may miss it, but then one can find ways to locally advertise that the videos are there. Also, because this, like many other Web 2.0 tools, has a social component, people will often find a video when looking at videos others like. So, if one gets really good at producing short and highly attractive and creative videos, their videos may get a reputation in the online community as a "good view," which is a paraphrase of the typical library phrase a "good read," and build up a following of people looking forward to see "what will they come up with next." With that kind of popularity, the chances of people joining in the popularity bandwagon is high, and then they will also be looking forward to the library ad and will seek it out. They may even link to it or embed it in their own website or blog, thereby disseminating it even further. It is a great way for libraries to get the word out. In a sense, these videos are a natural extension of the whole reality show phenomenon. It is a grass-roots series of short reality shows which has found in the Internet and the video hosting sites an effective user-based medium for dissemination which offers something for everyone.

Following is a YouTube video on the Moon Rock event at the Broward County Main Library on October 23, 2007.