Videos and QR Codes in the Library

 YouTube 

The purpose of the first part of this assignment was to explore the YouTube channels of four different school libraries. Featuring a school library on a platform like YouTube can increase student engagement and generate interest. It is also a great way to keep administrators, school staff, and families informed about what is happening in the library at your school. Students and staff can share book talks, make important announcements, or share research projects. YouTube is also a great way to share how to navigate a school website or an OPAC system in the library by using a program like Screencast-O-Matic or Screencastify.  Most of the videos on these four YouTube Channels are pretty dated, but some have stood the test of time better than others!

 The Norman High School Library

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheNHSLibrary/videos

Students would enjoy the video titled Norman Public Schools Celebrates Your Freedom to Read because teachers share passages from their favorite banned books. The video titled Getting Started with the NHS Library Website would be helpful to students. The Librarian for NHS does a great job of explaining each tab and link on the website. It is a resource that is beneficial to both students and parents!

 

 The Unquiet Library

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQNFeBXPQbHh0UGaHrSgQQg

On this YouTube Channel, several teachers from different subject areas are interviewed about how their students used the library and the collaboration that took place between themselves, the librarian, and the students. I think students would enjoy listening to their teachers’ take on their collaborative projects, and I think these types of videos are great for parents and administrators to see. The video that I think would be most helpful to students is titled How to Export a Bibliographic Data File from LRC to EasyBib. This is a great video (or was a great video at the time) that students could watch to learn how to complete this task and reference it later for a refresher as needed.

 Pikesville High School Library

https://www.youtube.com/user/pikesvillehslibrary/videos

This YouTube Channel had the most videos out of the four school channels that I explored. Students would like the videos from this channel that they are in or that they helped create, like the Back to School Night or AVID Summer Bootcamp videos. The most helpful videos for students from this channel would be the videos where each teacher explains their subject’s AP course. That would be a great resource for parents and students to watch together as students plan what courses to add to their schedules as they are being created.

 BBMS Media

https://www.youtube.com/user/bbmsmedia/videos

This channel also had several videos and was my favorite! They are all so cute and clever! I think the students would enjoy all the overdue parody videos, and there are several of them! Those videos include a lot of students, and I’m sure they like seeing themselves and their friends when they watch them. The videos that would be most helpful to students are the tutorial videos on how to use NoodleTools to create a book or website citation and how to print/export a final works cited page. The library media specialist at this school definitely put in a lot of time and effort to make this YouTube channel fun and informative!

Animoto & QR Codes

I used Animoto to create a Booktrailer for the picture book Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich. It was one of my favorite picture books I shared with students this past school year. 

The following synopsis for this book is from Goodreads: 
      Celebrated artist and lead character designer of Brave, Ratatouille, and Despicable Me, Carter Goodrich, shows that sometimes, even the prickliest people—or the crankiest cacti—need a little love. 

    Hank is the prickliest cactus in the entire world. He sits in a pot in a window that faces the empty desert, which is just how he likes it. So, when all manner of creatures—from tumbleweed to lizard to owl—come to disturb his peace, Hank is annoyed. He doesn’t like noise, he doesn’t like rowdiness, and definitely does not like hugs. But the thing is, no one is offering one. Who would want to hug a plant so mean? Hank is beginning to discover that being alone can be, well, lonely. So he comes up with a plan to get the one thing he thought he would never need: a hug from a friend. 

Check out my Booktrailer created with Animoto by Scanning the QR code below: 

QR codes can be used in the library to create Booktrailers or Book Talks. They can also be used to share Screencasts that can share important information with students and parents. The possibilities are endless!