Rudaí 23 #thing10: Live streaming for libraries

Live streaming isn’t something I’ve experienced in the various libraries I’ve worked in so I did a little internet exploring to see how it has been or could be used in a library setting. The first library live-streaming event that jumped out at me was D.C public library’s 11-hour reading of George Orwell’s 1984 in January 2015. It was broadcast as part of their Orwellian America? series of events and the library invited well-known guests and members of the public to read from Orwell’s classic dystopian novel. Audiences attended the readings in the library and the various events were live-streamed, highlighting issues surrounding government transparency and personal privacy in the digital age. D.C. library then hosted videos of the various events and speakers on their Youtube channel.

The second set of live-streamed events inspired by an equally brilliant writer are the Roald Dahl Day interactive webcasts broadcast by Puffin Virtually Live each year. According to the Puffin books website, over a quarter of a million students tuned in to last year's webcasts. Broadcasts have featured readings, a drawing lesson from Quentin Blake and an appearance from David Walliams as the BFG - brilliant! In the context of the public libraries I work in, some of the branches have organised Roald Dahl Day events during September but in these particular cases the branches are small local libraries and events involve the participation of young children. In terms of child protection issues live streaming probably wouldn’t be advisable in their situation but bigger branches would have the capacity to stage events without filming young audience members. A successful event like this would be a great way to raise the profile of the public library.

The academic library I work in is hosting Culture Night this year for the first time and if they were to do this going forward I think live streaming would be an ideal way to make the event visible to a wider audience. Using the right equipment along with staff who are capable of putting together a professional looking broadcast would be important, however, especially if we planned to host the video on the library’s Youtube channel. 

I enjoyed taking part in my first live-streamed event as a viewer with the Rudai 23 hangout on air on the 23^rd of August. Though there were a few technical difficulties it definitely added an extra element to the proceedings to be able to watch the event unfolding live. I really liked being able to send tweets to the moderators and other viewers using the #r23hoa hashtag. My room felt like a telecommunications tower at one point as I was watching the live video stream on my tablet, tracking the tweets on the Rudaí 23 website on my laptop and tweeting from my phone! It was a good way to have a group discussion about how the participants are finding the course and the viewer tweets were heartening as they touched on the challenge involved in completing the blogs each week. I felt reconnected with the course as the event reminded me about the support network of other people out there taking part in Rudaí 23. It was good to hear the moderator side of the process from Wayne and Stephanie too and hear that each blog is being read by at least one person!