EDITOR'S NOTES
Content in Motion
by Dick Kaser
It seems as if everything on the web these days hinges on video. News. Weather. Sports. Politics. Instructional clips on YouTube. Comedic moments on Facebook. Empowered by our devices, we now have the ability to produce and consume video on-the-fly, and it seems we just can’t get enough.
At Information Today, Inc., in addition to covering libtech, we have been at the forefront of the digital video movement with our Streaming Media magazine, website, and conferences (see streamingmedia.com). But this issue marks the first time I have attempted to devote an issue of CIL to the subject.
In these pages, with many thanks to deg farrelly—he shouldn’t be so modest in not capitalizing the initial letters of his name—you’ll find his excellent review of the top providers of streaming video content for library patrons, along with his notes on the various licensing models that are governing the flow of this highly desired format.
In today’s libraries, the demand for streaming video is not limited to the content you can bring in, but it may also involve the content that you already have. Christopher Lewis and Molly Hubbs present the results of their efforts at American University to digitize and make available a collection of VHS tapes that, in some cases, represents the institution’s own legacy content—as well as commercial tapes that are still in high demand, but are disintegrating and can’t be replaced.
Librarians are increasingly the creators of video and other visual content. Sophia Guevara gives tips from her work with The Consortium of Foundation Libraries and Special Libraries Association (SLA) in producing successful webinars and runs down the tools you can use to produce visual presentations, starting with push slides, moving right on up to video.
Columnist Terence Huwe takes it one step further, suggesting that libraries are not just media repositories or streaming content conduits, but may also serve as the perfect setting for hosting media events. (Witness Hofstra University and the recent presidential debate, which, according to Nielsen, drew 84 million viewers.)
Libraries have always been the repositories for the media of their day. This issue should give you plenty of ideas about the role you might play in the new age of streaming media.
Dick Kaser, Executive Editor
kaser@infotoday.com
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