Libraries are fun!

I recently took the plunge and finally got broadband connected at home, which means for the last couple of months I've been able to check out the amazing range of videos on websites like youtube and google videos.

I found a library related video to include in my blog. It's a clip by an Australian electronic musician called Artificial (Real name Nicole Skeltys. Nicole was one half of legendary electro-femme duo b(if)tek). This track is from her second Artificial album called "Libraries are Fun". The album was actually launched with a live performance in a public library somewhere in Melbourne (not sure which one though).

I like the idea of libraries using online video. At the library where I work we conduct a lot of activities and events (author talks, cultural celebrations, law talks, HSC lectures, etc), it would be great to record some of these and make them available on the library's website via youtube or something similar in the same way that Mosman Library has done with their author talks.

Other good uses for video could be clips giving demos on how to conduct advanced catalogue searches and also library information presented in different languages. I think there are definitely some good things that we could do with online video at my library. Unfortunately, at the moment our IT department considers youtube to be the root of all evil and so I think we'd have a few hurdles to get over before we could start doing something like this, but I like to remain hopeful.

Ok, here's a completely non-library related clip of one of my all time favourite bands, "Mark Stewart & the Maffia" performing live in some dingy club.