YouTube Nation

I have used YouTube before (in fact, I embedded a video in my blog a couple of weeks ago), so I was familiar with the site. I looked up library related videos and found a video of Tim Noah performing at the Lynnwood Library (!), as well as some comedy videos (a library workout video circa 1987, "The Adventures of Super Librarian," "Ninja Librarian," etc.).

On Hulu and Fancast, I found many videos that I would watch, both clips and full episodes. It would be nice to watch something I missed (e.g. a clip from the Saturday Night Live episode Christopher Walken hosted a few weeks ago -- love him but fell asleep halfway through the show) or an older show that I loved and haven't seen available on DVD (Remington Steele, St. Elsewhere). My problem is that while I do have high speed at home, it is satellite high speed. My satellite high speed puts a limit on how much you can download and upload every month. If you reach the limit (which we often do, with two teens in the house!), your connection is slowed WAAAYY down until you are back to 70% of your limit. Extremely annoying, especially since it isn't a cheap service to begin with, but since it is the only high speed available where I live, I have to deal with it. So I wouldn't be watching entire episodes or movies online.

Libraries could use these sites to help patrons find video content they can't find anywhere else. In addition to popular shows, it would be a good place to find videos of news events you may have missed. For example, you could watch a political speech or debate that you missed, or some news coverage of a topic that interests you. They could also be used to advertise library services or programs, if you sent a YouTube link to a mailing list of interested patrons.

(I am not going to embed a video in this post, since I already embedded one as a feature on my blog. I called it "Art Class.")