The Madison Public Library announced that it will build a YouTube presence focusing on the arts, literature and technology.
In March, the library will release a full audio production of Macbeth showcasing the language skills of the library staff, including teen pages on the Theater of the Mind YouTube playlist at www.youtube.com/c/MadisonPL a press release.
New videos are added weekly with love poems read by employee Joe Phommavichit, who debuts this month. Associate Deanna Bottar recorded Martin Luther King Jr.’s “letter from a Birmingham jail” near MLK day.
“We’re doing so many things online this year because of the pandemic, but we’ve really found a way to have fun and reach people on YouTube,” Library Director Dee Culbertson said in the publication. “People spend different time this year. Many are trying out new technologies and need a little help, while others are looking for distractions or craft ideas.”
The library’s Byte-Size Tech playlist contains videos on using free online resources such as the library catalog, databases, and Sora, a free e-book resource for schools, as well as using WiFi hotspots and the online meeting platform Zoom.
Charley Barnicoat, the library’s guiding Ohio online trainer, works with Shawn Walsh, an aspiring services and technology librarian, on tech-related YouTube content.
“We know that people depend on YouTube to help when they get stuck,” Walsh said in the press release. “If we can show people how to use things they can check out from the library, like hotspots, or how to use technology like zoom before they get stuck, we’re really helping.”
The Get Crafty @ MPL playlist contains tutorial videos from Jenny Vernyi from the library and projects like tie dyeing, gnome making, and more recently hot cocoa bombs and paper flower making. The library also gave away free yarn to encourage people to learn how to crochet a granny square with library attendant Margaret Bushman on YouTube.
“We’d love to see our YouTube subscribers grow,” said Culbertson. “If you have an idea of something you’d like to learn or hear, let us know. You never know what we’ll come up with next.”
A local history presentation by Dianne Cross, president of the Madison Historical Society, had the most views of any library video – more than 630, the press release said. In a sporadic series entitled “Raising Kids Together”, parents from the region talked about topics such as food allergies, racism and special needs education.
Guiding Ohio Online is funded by a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the State Library of Ohio.
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