Our College of Nursing & Health posts podcast lectures on iTunes U. Perhaps video podcasts might be useful for library tutorials, but I really have doubts about whether the screen resolution using Camtasia or LecShare is good enough even for a regular size computer monitor, let alone an iPod. I am working on a narrated CINAHL tutorial using LecShare, but the slides seem to be much clearer as a straight PowerPoint slide show than they are when they are converted in LecShare. This probably has to do with the compression required to convert it to a video file?
The same issue is a concern for posting tutorials on YouTube. There seems to be a wide range of resolution based on the videos I viewed. I guess it has a lot to do with the software, equipment, and settings used during the recording process. I did find an existing CINAHL tutorial from Salve Regina University. To me, it seems blurry on the wide shots and clear in the close ups. Although I would like it to have better resolution throughout, I guess it is sufficient to get the point across–assuming students will look for it on YouTube. I think students probably use it more for entertainment and their posting their own school projects than for viewing lectures and tutorials posted by others.
I must have trouble “thinking outside the box” because I find it difficult to think of many library applications for photo sharing, at least where health sciences libraries are concerned. Until looking at the LC flickr site, it did not occur to me how useful this would be for increasing the knowledge and use of unique archival collections.
We do have unique special collections in our library and I will have some part time duties where those collections are concerned, so maybe photo sharing has some potential in the future–perhaps as an alternative or supplement to full-fledged formal online exhibits.
Photo sharing could be useful for publicizing or reporting on special events (sponsored lectures, receptions, etc.) that have already taken place.
These tools are really fantastic for collaboration. It’s great not to have to rely on e-mail attachments. However, I still have major concerns about privacy/security, especially where Google is concerned. I don’t know if e-mail is any more secure (–maybe I am just being paranoid), but Google doesn’t have a great reputation where privacy is concerned.
I’ve explored Google docs in the past, but I have not earnestly used any of those tools for my everyday work yet, partly because of privacy concerns, and because I get the impression many of the people with whom I collaborate are either reluctant to get Google accounts or to use these document features. Also, I think a lot of times it is habit to send e-mail and I sometimes forget that these tools are available.
I definitely see the possibility of using these kinds of tools for research assistance.
At our library, we bookmark useful reference sources on the web using Furl, and I also have my own account. However, I have not really taken advantage of the social aspect of Furl yet. Furl pages strike me as much less cluttered than del.icio.us pages, but I also get the impression that furl does not have nearly as much traffic as del.icio.us. I managed to import my Furl archive into my del.icio.us account while doing the discovery exercises, so now I am planning to spend some time comparing the features of both of these services in terms of usefulness for health sciences libraries.
I have stopped bookmarking through my browser at work; I was one of those people with the really long and long bookmarks list. I like Furl much better.
