You Tube

You Tube is an interesting site, I mostly use it for entertainment purposes. I also use it for a link to the past. It is really great to be able to see old commercials, shows and movies. This Christmas I was looking for an old cartoon I used to watch when I was little and it was only available on You Tube. I never thought to look up how to do things. i think taht is really cool. I am such a visual learner but knitting and crocheting books always confused me. Now I can finally figure it out.

The only thing that I do not like about the site is that anyone can post. Also I feel that it has become a universe for hams. Everyone wants to be a star and now they have the means to do so.

I think that libraries can use you tube as a way to connect to patrons while they are home. We can show things that happen here like large events. We could also put up a sample storytime or program so that new patrons that are unsure about coming could see that it is not intimidating. I think taht one feature that we libraries could use is the box that says related videos. We already have that now in our catalog but it makes finding similiar items much easier. It also links you to other items that you may never have been able to link to through just subject headings or author searches. It could also be cool for us to be able to search most searched books or items or most checked out.

I linked to a cool video of a magic trick (don't have any idea who put it up ;). I just think this video is great because it makes smart people feel so dumb. The smarter you are the more difficult it is to figure out and the more crazy it makes you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkfdN3QfQIY

Library Thing

I have had a Library Thing account for a while now. I love it (when I remember to use it). I typically use it to remember all of the books that I use for read-alouds. I also love that you can use it to tag books with subjects that you would not find in the catalog, for example books that use metaphors. This is helpful for when teachers come in looking for these items and you just can't think of any off the top of your head.

Tag clouds I have known a little about. I did not know however that the reason some words are bigger than others is because they are searched more. That makes so much sense. I think that tag clouds are great because sometimes you just can't find the right search terms to find similar books and this will help.

Here is a link to my Library Thing catalog: http://www.librarything.com/home/sseminera