Videos and QR Codes in the Library

Since technology is rapidly expanding, so must the library media center.  Many libraries are now using YouTube to give out information and to entertain its patrons.  This past week I have been exploring four different library YouTube channels.  For each channel, I came up with a video I feel is the most helpful for students and a video that the students would most like the best. 

Let us start with The NHS Library.  The NHS Library - Ms. Gilstrap


  This is a really thorough video that describes the library's webpage.  Students need to learn how to navigate this page to be successful at using their library.


Ms. Gilstrap does not just put informative videos on YouTube.  The following video was put together by students and staff for a closing assembling.  They incorporated a popular song with many very recognizable props and scenes from the Harry Potter series.








Another YouTube channel to keep an eye on is The Unquiet Library .   This channel has a LARGE number of videos that cover a very broad range of subjects. The first video on the page was the video that I chose as most helpful to the students using it.  Often times, students can look up information (with help from the media specialist of course), but they struggle to correctly cite it.  This short video shows students how to export bibliographic data from the literary reference center to EasyBib.




When I began to watch other videos to discover the student favorite, I notice one particular video with 53,600+ views.  It has the large number of views of any of the videos by far.  I feel that it is popular, because it is from a student's perspective instead of the media specialist or a professor.







Next on the list of library YouTube videos is Pikesville High School.
Most videos I have seen on these sites are relatively short.  However, Pikesville High School had the foresight to record a student/parent meeting on financial aid.  They posted it to YouTube for people who missed the meeting or who needed to hear the information again.




AVID video are all over YouTube.  This page does many informative and entertaining AVID videos.  The student created a video on keeping a binder organized by making a parody of a popular show
called "Pimp My Ride."  Take a look at what these students did...






My favorite library video channel by far was done by BBMS Media. I love showing parodies to my students.  Videos always liven up a lesson.  There are so many good videos on this it was hard to chose the two best in each category.  For the most useful, I chose a video about strong female leading characters.  Book recommendations are a great way to boost reading.




For the student favorite, I went with the most views (and it's a parody). However, this song has quickly become over played and many students may not like it as much any more.


These four different libraries have utilized the student love of technology to get different messages out.  I currently record morning announcements using a green screen with our 5th grade student.  Eventually, I would like to make how to videos for students and parents for our eBooks and Follett systems.  Students have seen other schools' videos and have asked if we will every record a video.  I hope next year to do a video to promote our AR program and our Battle of the Books (Bluebonnet) program.

I also use videos to watch book trailers on up coming books for the book fair or for our Battle of the Bluebonnet books.  It would be wonderful to have QR codes in a binder or on books that students could scan to see what the book was about. To test this idea out, I created a book trailer on Freak the Mighty  by Rodman Philbrick.  My 5th grade class did a in depth project on the book last year.  I used Animoto to make it.  This was my first experience with something like this.  I have made video slide shows with photos and music and the videos for the morning announcements.  I liked that it already had some templets to choose from.  It was frustrating that many of the ones I liked required an "upgrade" in membership.  I also struggled with finding copyright free materials for this project.  Normally (before my library science classes), I would have used a picture of the cover and possibly illustrations found in the book.  It was also challenging for me to shorten my words / ideas due to a character limit on the text slides.  Overall, it was easy to use.  I will use this program again to create exciting videos for announcements in my library or at my school.  Here is a picture of the cover and a synopsis of the book from the publisher's website.


Publisher's webpage

"A brilliant, emotionally charged novel about two boys. One is a slow learner, too large for his age, and the other is a tiny, disabled genius. The two pair up to create one formidable human force known as "Freak the Mighty".
MAX. FREAK. BEST FRIENDS. FOREVER.
I never had a brain until Freak came along. . .
That's what Max thought. All his life he'd been called stupid. Dumb. Slow. It didn't help that his body seemed to be growing faster than his mind. It didn't help that people were afraid of him. So Max learned how to be alone. At least until Freak came along.
Freak was weird, too. He had a little body, and a really big brain. Together Max and Freak were unstoppable.
Together, they were Freak the Mighty.
A brilliant, emotionally charged novel about two boys. One is a slow learner, too large for his age, and the other is a tiny, disabled genius. The two pair up to create one formidable human force known as "Freak the Mighty".
MAX. FREAK. BEST FRIENDS. FOREVER.
I never had a brain until Freak came along. . .
That's what Max thought. All his life he'd been called stupid. Dumb. Slow. It didn't help that his body seemed to be growing faster than his mind. It didn't help that people were afraid of him. So Max learned how to be alone. At least until Freak came along.
Freak was weird, too. He had a little body, and a really big brain. Together Max and Freak were unstoppable.
Together, they were Freak the Mighty."



Here is an example of how this could possible work. Scan the QR code to watch my book trailer.