by Diane Colletti, MLS

On March 23, 2009, The Children’s Librarians Association of the South Suburbs (C.L.A.S.S.) and Metropolitan Library System hosted technology guru Linda Braun (http://leonline.com). In her program she presented ways to connect web 2.0 technology and children in the library. She discussed the tools that are becoming more inexpensive and the online services that are available to “turn your library into a media creation center.” To get involved in the process of working with teens and technology, she recommended that librarians “give up some of our seriousness.” Other suggestions were that “short is good” and that information and messages should be presented in “mind sized bites.”

The tools that Linda suggested were inexpensive or free and require little time to learn. Linda’s current favorite tool was the flip video camera (http://www.theflip.com).  It is easy to use, can take video or still digital photography and has a built in USB port, ending the time spent searching for the right cable. The digital images go directly from the camera to the computer, and can be edited at either location. These inexpensive cameras are being improved all the time and are a necessary tool to use to get teens into creating content to put on the library website or to connect to the community.

Hulu (http://www.hulu.com) was the first online service that Linda shared with the group. It is a way to watch TV and movies on your computer screen. This is sponsored by NBC, and teens are watching content at this site. Linda recommended it for the vast amount of programs available and that content from here can be embedded into websites.

Ustream (http://www.ustream.tv) was an online tool to produce live broadcasts. The equipment needed to create video is a only a webcam and a microphone. Once registered for an account, the site saves broadcasts and creates an archive for future viewing. Linda provided step by step instructions on how to use Hulu and Ustream, as well as for Blip.TV (http://www.blip.tv) and Animoto (http://www.animoto.com) which is a site where still photographs are put to music selected from the Animoto music library.

Linda also discussed online audio. The service she promoted was Voice Thread (http://www.voicethread.com), which is an online site for making interactive slide presentations. Viewers of the presentation can make comments, ask questions and hear questions others have added.

Linda went further into audio by talking about podcasts and offered types of library podcasts that can be done with teens. For creating podcasts, she uses Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) which is free software for recording and editing. Audacity is easy to edit, add content and remove mistakes. Finding music that is licensed through Creative Commons licensing for podcasting can be accessed at IODA Promonet (http://promonet.iodalliance.com) and at Podsafe Music Network (http://music.podshow.com).  Her recommendation for recording was that if there is a built in microphone in the computer, get an external mike to improve the sound quality or use a digital voice recorder which can be uploaded to the computer for inclusion or editing.

Once the podcast is created it needs to be uploaded to a server and distributed to subscribers. Two free web sites for hosting that she recommended were PodServe (http://www.pod-serve.com) and PodOmatic (http://www.podomatic.com).

Linda Braun’s presentation gave the Youth Services librarians useful and inexpensive ways to draw in and engage their teen and tween patrons.

For more information, contact Diane Colletti at collettid@mls.lib.il.us.

Published May 6, 2009 in vol. 3, iss. 9 [View]