Week 9, #20

While I've looked at YouTube occasionally for a particular video, I've never spent time searching the site for videos by specific subject. I viewed the videos listed in the lesson, some of which I've seen before. I was really happy to see that the library cheer is posted, since I've been at library conferences and events where Margaret led the group in the cheer. In fact, I found out that my school district, which blocks both YouTube and Google video, won't unblock a specific site in YouTube when I asked to show students several library-related videos, including the cheer, the book cart drill team competition at ALA, the March of the Librarians and the Mercedes Benz commercial with the blonde wanting to order food at the library counter. I wanted my students to see some library/librarian-related humor, since I tell them what fun library folks have when we go to conferences. I did enjoy following the links to related videos from some of the library videos listed.
I also searched for "school library" and "high school library," found a grand assortment of videos posted and looked at some of them. However, I can see how easy it is to start by looking for one subject, follow the links of related videos, and spend a huge amount of time watching videos. On the positive side, I like the ability to post ideas and viewpoints in videos like the Library 2.0 Manifesto, since reading text posted on a screen interspersed with photos from Burning Man, the annual gathering in the Nevada desert, makes much more of an impact than printing the same words in a professional journal.
In my search for high school library videos, again the results were an eclectic mix, including videos from school libraries around the world. The entries from the "I love my library" contest were the most interesting to me, and my favorites were from Niles North, which used a stop motion technique, and South Carroll High School in Sykesville, MD, which used animation. Here is the link to the South Carroll video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HyrTDryzEzE
I would appreciate the ability to post videos to our library website, detailing hours, services, etc. However, until our school district works out the technical details, I would not be able to do this using YouTube. An alternative might be to use TeacherTube, which is accessible.