Stream of Consciousness

Wow!  From subscriptions to dvd/movie/video collections to posting do-it-yourself productions on popular sites like YouTube, streaming media will change the way we do business.

Stephen Abram, in a recent podcast, gave the example of Denver Public Library, which has thousands of streaming media videos available over the web.  No more bulky cabinets required to store all of that media!  Stephen predicts that streaming media signals the death of the DVD as we know it today.

And streaming media is not just visual.  Streaming audio is here too - that includes mp3 files and podcasts.  Software programs such as iTunes create a personal ‘library’ for you of your own ‘collection’.  And watch for Spiralfrog to come out with UMI’s entire backfile of music for free very soon.

My personal view is that people are becoming their own librarians and they don’t even realize it.  I believe that there will be more need for public education on how to organize, classify, store, and retrieve information than in previous decades.

Please share your thoughts on streaming media and how it will affect the University Library System.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Technology and Libraries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.