Week 3: Exercise #1

It was interesting and frustrating to examine the multimedia content.

It was interesting to think about the ways I could encourage the use of Flickr in our youth services work in Santa Cruz. I liked Hennepin County's use of an image set for their recent art contest--we have similar events here and this would be a perfect way to provide access. We also have an annual Festival of the Book and this would make another interesting set of images. I also thought Hennepin was on to something with the Teen Online Trading Cards if they had called more attention to them.

I had fun with the Librarian Trading Card program---as you can see on this blog.

The challenge with using Flickr is uploading interesting images. Many of the images may document the event but might not be eye-catching to anyone who doesn't know the people in the photos or is not familiar with the library or the area. And--less is definitely more.

Santa Cruz Youth Services has a program called We Have Stories to Tell in which children, parents, and seniors make their own books. We found a free software program to display 5 books at a time--they can actually be read online. To see it in action go to our website: http://www.santacruzpl.org/ and scroll down to Young People's Services. Click on We Have Stories to Tell.
(try not to mind our clunky website--we are in the middle of a complete redesign)

I really like the idea of using audio and podcasting--a natural for youth services. It would work best downloaded to an IPOD or an MP3 because staring at a blank screen is boring. I liked Sunnyvale's podcast page the best---clean and easy to use.

It was frustrating to look at the websites with video because I was never able to see any of them--regardless of the site. I liked Orange County's presentation the best because it was easy to understand and provided lots of help. The content choices on all the suggested pages looked sensible and appropriate but I never got to see them. I wonder if it isn't easier just to load them onto YouTube.

That's all for now. I'm going to play with my new Flickr account.