You Tube (Thing 18)

I don't visit You Tube much but it has been useful when the children's performances at church have been recorded and posted on You Tube. I can email the link to friends and family and they see Austin and Alivia perform.

You Tube is a great marketing tool for libraries to use to show off their services, librarians, programs, collections. I watched the The Adventures of Super Librarian,  Super Librarian, A Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto, and Allen County Public Library Channel videos. The first two videos promoting librarian services were a little cheesy. I wasn't overly impressed with either one but they get the point across. I enjoyed the Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto even though it was a little long. The pictures were pretty amazing and the librarian's message was received: Excel in the advancement of technology to provide excellent library services. The Allen Public Library's video would make for a good commercial and came across much more professional than the 'super' librarian videos.

Cindy just recently sent us a link to Plano Library's video with puppets Eugene and Charlotte promoting Deborah Underwood's books: http://kidsbrain.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/introducing-eugene-and-charlotte/ Cute idea!

I know FPL has used You Tube in the past to promote its special events like the Summer Reading Club and the Storytelling Festival.  I searched Frisco Library on You Tube and found a Storytelling Festival video/teaser from 2009. I also found the Summer Promo video that was recently recorded in Mayra's backyard using the Dig Up a Good Book theme. Nicely done!

Music Streaming and Sharing (Thing 17)

I don't have a lot of experience with music streaming so I decided to try out Last.fm. It was super easy to set up a free account and I really like the recommended station feature. I typed in several artists that I currently listen to and it made a recommended station. I also like how you can build multi-artist stations. With music listening/downloading so accessible from music streaming (user friendly) outlets such as Pandora and Last.fm, I think we will continue to see a decrease in cd checkouts here at the library.

Google Maps (Thing 15)

I use Google Maps all of the time to get directions but I have never taken the time to look at the other tools. The picture tool is my favorite. I could see the front of my house! I tried looking up the old house I grew up in. I am pretty sure I had the address correct but I didn't even recognize the house. I guess it has been a while (16 years). I tried looking up another house I had lived in but it didn't have a street view for some reason.

Here is the super long link to the map from my house to the McKinney Library. I should have made it a tiny url! I tried to embed the map as well but for some reason it would only show the link and not the map. I will have to figure out what I am doing wrong.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=1736+Kittyhawk+Drive,+Little+Elm,+TX+75068&daddr=33.21921,-96.82527+to:33.21921,-96.82527+to:33.21366,-96.82036+to:101+East+Hunt+Street,+McKinney,+TX&hl=en&geocode=FRHX-gEdTus4-ikJnaeUkTdMhjHu5sCjs1h8jw%3BFYri-gEdSpA6-inxz0K5MT9MhjHrMZ-5btEFKQ%3BFYri-gEdSpA6-inxz0K5MT9MhjHrMZ-5btEFKQ%3BFdzM-gEdeKM6-ilb9EnqJD9MhjEmA4jH2sG0Ug%3BFY-U-gEdV7w9-ilBeUijSxJMhjFbh1NQpc_lfA&mra=dpe&mrsp=3&sz=11&via=1,2,3&sll=33.195604,-96.742859&sspn=0.385548,0.614548&ie=UTF8&z=11