Week 7 assignment: Podcasting & Online Hosted Video

Write a blog entry discussing how you felt about the experience of using YouTube and what you think about this service. Do you see any potential uses for Podcasting in the library? If so what and why?

YouTube has long been the I have a commercial/some Muppets show/random bit of pop culture stuck in my brain and I must see it NOW if it's ever going to leave resource, although it's heartening to see some more serious fare on it over the last few years. I certainly don't have official stats but usage counts I'm seeing still seem to support the casual surfing use with some questionable copyrighted material issues along the way.

I still believe that most medical libraries will choose to publish any audio/video content they create with Camtasia or other screen-capture recordings on internal servers to publish on their own websites. This clearly indicates a "for educational use only" context that (usually with permission) avoids possible copyright ruckus with vendors regarding screenshots of their products. I see the same situation for podcasts for cataloging/class webpage-linking purposes and control in case of revisions or corrections.

For my video post, I want to bring to your recollection Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor with pancreatic cancer who gave an amazing last lecture in September 2007 when he was told he had a maximum of 6 months of good health left.

He's passed that mark and still alive and testifying before Congress. He also filmed a public service announcement (PSA) for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. He closed with The human spirit is much more powerful than any biological disease. Indeed.