Week 9: YouTube Premieres Debrief

(Note: this week’s post is  a retrospective on my experimenting with a new function on YouTube called YouTube Premieres. The aim is to give other librarians an idea of how they can use it for their institutions and what goes into it.)

Since October 22-29 was Open Access Week,  UBC Library decided it might be cool to screen Paywall: The Business of Scholarship. (okay so it’s because I casually tweeted to them when it came out). Copyright librarian Stephanie Savage reached out to me to coordinate it, and on Monday the documentary was screened in IKB, with ~15 folks–a mix of librarians and profs–in attendance.

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Week 4: How have libraries used YouTube, or why not?

Alright, we’ve talked a little bit about what shows up on YouTube and the evolution of sundry genres on the platform, but by and large we’ve only talked about how individuals use the platform, not so much institutions. So, let’s look at the question: how are libraries using YouTube?

Note that anything that comes off as criticism in this week’s post definitely is not criticism of a given institution; we all know that libraries have some issues at the moment when it comes to funding, and making videos for the internet is not free.  So, let’s get into it.

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Week 1: Libraries and the Internet

Many believe that the world wide web now provides access to all of the world’s accumulated knowledge. A simple Google search will provide all the relevant information a person may desire about a topic. They do not know that valuable information will never become available in machine‐readable form and that much digitized information is only available for a price. Spalding & Wang. (2006). The challenges and opportunities of marketing academic libraries in the USA: Experiences of US academic libraries with global application.   Library Management, 27(6/7), 494-504. doi:10.1108/01435120610702477
This quote may be a little dated in internet-years, but by and large it’s still true, and still relevant: libraries have had trouble when it comes to marketing themselves against (and on) the Internet. This broad point has been tackled by tons of people before me and is an important topic on its own, but it’s as good a place as any to start a discussion on libraries and online video. Continue reading “Week 1: Libraries and the Internet”