Now scrolling: The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Week 9, Thing #20: YouTube and all that jazz

If you have never visited YouTube, you are in for a treat. I opened an account and started adding favorites right away.

First of all, I thought it was about time this blogsite had its own Zapruder film, so I found a great video of the Lincoln assassination from the movie "Birth of a Nation" and posted it to my blog. There are over 1,000 Lincoln-related YouTubes, but frankly, if Lincoln isn't really in it, I'd as soon watch Cab Calloway singing "Minnie the Moocher." So I wandered over to the jazz section and got into all kinds of trouble.

If you love early jazz as much as I do, you'll love the music section of YouTube. I've already saved original performances by Ray Charles, Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Fats Waller and George Gershwin. Three jazz videos are now in the jazz section of this blogsite. (Yes! There is a jazz section on this site!) Scroll way, way down in the right-hand column under "Singing Jazz at LincolnFreak" to see Billie Holiday and Cab Calloway, and hear Johnny Mercer's song to a tour of Savannah's historic houses. Johnny, by the way, is Confederate General Hugh Weedon Mercer's great grandson. Wow. You never know where you'll wind up.

There are four YouTubes on this blogsite now, but I can remove some if that's too many. Adding them was easier than I thought. The codes are very user-friendly and can be adjusted to fit a narrow space.

Anyway, I think YouTubes have great possibilities in the library setting. Every instructional video we've seen so far has been a form of YouTube. Also, they could be used on library websites to give virtual tours of buildings and collections, televised book reviews and lectures, even storytimes online. There is a personal touch to watching a person give instructions rather than just reading them. Whoever smiled back at a PDF file?
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