LIS 9763

Media sharing as a topic reminds me of being 15 and using Kazaa, and then thinking I was going to get arrested for using it and subsequently deleting it.  More recently, I've discovered things like YouTube, where you can get pretty much any music or video and watch it for free.  In a few of my classes last semester we had the Western Libraries staff group that attempted to use YouTube in their process of promoting the library.  They made some really awesome videos in an attempt to promote their new slogan "Library as place, place as Library" and prove that you could make use of the library from anywhere.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdIk9A4s_Zg  Pretty awesome.

I think the idea of media sharing makes perfect sense for a library, since their main role is taking content and finding ways to share it.  I suppose the main issue with sharing content is always going to be copyright, and that is especially true for entirely digital, free use libraries (like the universal library, which we had to review for cataloguing last semester).  In those cases, you can only get content that is out of copyright.

As a constant YouTube user, I will never underestimate its power. Something can turn viral pretty quickly and unexpectedly. The idea of advertising aspects of the library using YouTube makes sense.  Flickr makes sense as well, people love Flickr and it's really widely used. (though I hate flickr and I'm not even sure why anymore)  As with digital libraries, again copyright and fair use are issues. However, if you have the rights to something (or its out of copyright) then it shouldn't be a huge concern. Actually as I'm writing this I'm looking at the Flickr pages and I'm not hating Flickr as much because the Flickr pages are really neat. Imagine an archive being able to show off parts of its collection without requiring users to come to the archive itself. 

For regular library stuff, I love the idea of having digitized content and letting people make use of it that way.  It will bring in library users who otherwise wouldn't make use of the library content.  As I've harped on before, libraries need to find ways to stay relevant and I guess in our faces.  YouTube, Flickr and digital collections are ways to do this.  That way we get different library content, with incredible access. Also, I love pictures so I guess Flickr is acceptable for this.  Stupid Flickr.
Media sharing allows a library to not only advertise itself, but advertise its content and gain users that may otherwise get away from us.  I love it! (but hate Flickr for no good reason, I'll get over it)