Blogging Librarian

StoryTubes 2008 is a US-wide competition where children, aged 6 to 12 years old, can submit a video review of 2 minutes or less of their favorite books through YouTube.

StoryTubes is organized by a number of libraries spread across the US and this is the second year that they are holding the competition. The competition is also divided into different genres such as “Hair-Raising Tales”, “From or For the Heart”, “Of Heroes and Heroines” and “Facts, Fads and Phenoms”. You can view some of the already reviewed videos here.

What I found interesting is that the use of social media tools such as YouTube to engage the community in submitting the videos. In addition, they also a simple guide to the children on how they can video themselves.

A positive note from last year’s competition was that the videos generated online book discussions between the children. And this made other children interested in reading the books that were reviewed.

Maybe we can do something similar at MPOW. Think I’ll highlight the StoryTubes site to my children services colleagues.

(via Tame The Web)