Not For Shy People

Is the Internet a good tool for shy people? Looking at YouTube I wonder. There certainly are the folks out there who aren't shy; watching some of them I wonder if some day they will regret their willingness to do dumb things in front of a camera, when they want to run for president or something. That old view from my "wisdom" that comes with age. But then I think, times a changing. Pretty soon so many of them will have stuff out in cyberspace, that those of my generation might view as ill advised or compromising, that it just won't carry that impact that it does right now. So even shy people can be bold, brave, stupid, because the Internet is so impersonal that they feel safe in expressing themselves.

Libraries are no exception. A site like YouTube will change the way people perceive libraries. I'm pretty sure those perceptions will not always be positive, because you can find lots out there that may be in questionable taste, even though it is really funny. (I'm being purposely vague here.) But I do see the potential for a good PR opportunity too. Then I get mired in the proprietary questions. If a library wanted to post an event, would they need to get permission from all the people attending the event before they could post it? The would be screen writer in me can come up with all sorts of modern day scenarios that could play out. You could have a mom whose kids were snatched 5 years before, who goes to YouTube to check out other sites for her job. She comes across a library program posted on the Internet and sees her children attending a program. Drama and pursuit follows. They were just visiting. Hope dashed. The ideas are limitless.

Hulu and Fancast both offer the potential to help customers find things they want but that the library doesn't have. It is like a supplemental collection. They seem to carry a lot of less popular, some almost cultish selections. I could see suggesting to a patron that they might be a good place to look for something if it wasn't a part of the collection. If I didn't have dial up I could see suing either of these sites. I found Hulu much easier to use initially but I could see going to both if I didn't find what I was looking for on one. they certainly warrant more playing with if I have the time.

These three sites certainly highlight the advantages available to those people in our population who can afford high speed computers and high speed access. For the rest, the sites might not be so useful. They are "FREE" but only f you can afford the extraneous stuff, like a computer and high speed access to begin with. Yes, you can access them from your library but that access is limited. If you only have a limited amount of time, are you going to use that time to watch an old movie? Choices, choices, choices.