Videos and QR Codes in the Library

YouTube Channel: Calypso Gilstrap

YouTube Channel : theunquietlibrary

YouTube Channel: pikesvillehslibrary

YouTube Channel: bbmsmedia

Which is the most helpful for students?

The video that I think would be the most helpful is from "the unquietlibrary"  YouTube channel. It's a great online tutorial that guides students on how to use their OPAC. At the beginning of the school year, the librarian usually guide students on how to use their online catalog. However, throughout the school, other students are enrolled or transferred from another campus and don't know how to use the catalog. So, by having those types of videos, it can certainly help out those students. It can also serve as a resource for those students that forget how to search a book, and they can always refer back on that video.

Which is the video that the students would like the best?

At my school, the students would certainly like the video from "pikesvillehslibrary" The Panthers Library in Action. Students take a lot of ownership when their work in displayed. Every time that there events at my school, the students are always very involved and wanting to participate. The students can certainly be accountable for what they showcase in the video and always making progress
.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Synopsis:

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. Monster.

Fade In: Interior Court. A guard sits at a desk behind Steve. Kathy O'Brien, Steve's lawyer, is all business as she talks to Steve.

O'Brien
Let me make sure you understand what's going on. Both you and this king character are on trial for felony murder. Felony Murder is as serious as it gets. . . . When you're in court, you sit there and pay attetion. You let the jury know that you think the case is a serious as they do. . . .

Steve
You think we're going to win ?

O'Brien (seriously)
It probably depends on what you mean by "win."

Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout.

Guilty or innocent, Steve becomes a pawn in the hands of "the system," cluttered with cynical authority figures and unscrupulous inmates, who will turn in anyone to shorten their own sentences. For the first time, Steve is forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life.

As a way of coping with the horrific events that entangle him, Steve, an amateur filmmaker, decides to transcribe his trial into a script, just like in the movies. He writes it all down, scene by scene, the story of how his whole life was turned around in an instant. But despite his efforts, reality is blurred and his vision obscured until he can no longer tell who he is or what is the truth. This compelling novel is Walter Dean Myers's writing at its best.

Book Trailer

Scan QR code to view book trailer. 

How will I use videos to promote my library?

Videos are excellent to use in the library for many reasons. First of all, you can create an abundant number of book trailers, how-to tutorials, and to showcase the activities that you do in the library. Students watch videos all the time to listen to music or to watch their episodes. So, why not connect with the students with what they normally do. 

QR Codes

QR codes are interactive and require a mobile device to be able to scan them.  Elementaries now provide students with tablets, kindles, and other mobile devices and in Secondary most of the students have mobile devices. Why not integrate technology into the library? I envision my library having QR codes that take students to book trailers, online tutorials, author's website, or even interactive websites. After watching the videos on the YouTube channels, QR codes could also be used to show videos on how to checkout and check in books, information about overdue books, and students giving their own book reviews.  Is an app is required to read the QR codes, but they are free to download.