Creativity Mode
When COVID-19 forced the Mercer County Library System to close its doors to patrons in the middle of March, it meant it was time for the staff to get into creativity mode and find new ways to provide online content for patrons.
The use of the MCLS YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/MercerCountyLibrarySystem) channel has been a great platform to get patrons some of the content they are missing with the branches closed to the public.
Through the end of October, the MCLS YouTube channel has over 500 subscribers and over 1,000 videos with everything from children’s programs to storytime videos, as well as book reviews, online resources, adult programs and author studies.
You can learn how to do a buzzcut or play the piano. There are tutorials on how to use library databases and make a variety of different foods. MCLS now offers book groups as well as online virtual computer classes.
I figured I would try my hand at making some trivia videos as my way to contribute to the cause. The first one was just good old me asking baseball trivia questions. It was fairly well received, so I tried another one. But this time I assumed people didn’t really want to keep seeing my mug on the screen, so I enlisted some local people in the baseball community and we came up with another video. (You can click on the photo to view the video).
At that point, fellow members of the MCLS staff got into the mix and we had trivia videos about books, movies, sports, and just general trivia.
From there, I decided to reach out to authors themselves and see if they might be willing to participate in getting some author trivia together. The authors each asked a question about one of their own books. I found that authors are pretty amazing people.
The response from authors willing to provide a question was incredible, which is why I can’t help but think people who write books are amazing people. With over a dozen author videos already on the YouTube channel and more in the works, more than 100 authors have taken the time to record themselves asking a question about one of their books.
We’ve had children’s book authors such as Dan Gutman, Laura Numeroff and Annie Barrows, as well as authors of adult fiction and non-fiction books such as Blake Crouch, Fiona Davis and Lisa See. We’ve had authors from Europe - Jenny Downham and Michelle Robinson - and many from right here in Mercer County.
None of the authors who responded had any idea who this guy was that was asking them to take part in this. They just knew it was an idea to help the library and they were happy to do it. They took the time to record and send the video - sometimes with great effort. David Adler stuck with it while we figured out the best way to get his video question about his Cam Jansen series to me. And Cindy Copeland went the extra mile while on vacation, driving into the closest town with wifi on two different occasions to make sure her video got through.
Every one of these authors just received a random email from someone they didn’t know and instead of simply hitting delete, they took the time to contribute to what has become a fun project.
There are videos in the works with questions from mystery authors and more authors of books for younger people.
It’s been interesting to get comments back from the authors after they see the final product. They are often pleased to see friends in the same video and seem to enjoy being a part of keeping books on people’s minds during these unpredictable times.
It’s been fun reaching out, getting such a positive response and putting the videos together.
Make sure to check out www.mcl.org for all of the offerings from the Mercer County Library System. Also, check out and subscribe to the MCLS YouTube channel. It’s filled with interesting videos and there is something there for everyone.
The use of the MCLS YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/MercerCountyLibrarySystem) channel has been a great platform to get patrons some of the content they are missing with the branches closed to the public.
Through the end of October, the MCLS YouTube channel has over 500 subscribers and over 1,000 videos with everything from children’s programs to storytime videos, as well as book reviews, online resources, adult programs and author studies.
You can learn how to do a buzzcut or play the piano. There are tutorials on how to use library databases and make a variety of different foods. MCLS now offers book groups as well as online virtual computer classes.
I figured I would try my hand at making some trivia videos as my way to contribute to the cause. The first one was just good old me asking baseball trivia questions. It was fairly well received, so I tried another one. But this time I assumed people didn’t really want to keep seeing my mug on the screen, so I enlisted some local people in the baseball community and we came up with another video. (You can click on the photo to view the video).
At that point, fellow members of the MCLS staff got into the mix and we had trivia videos about books, movies, sports, and just general trivia.
From there, I decided to reach out to authors themselves and see if they might be willing to participate in getting some author trivia together. The authors each asked a question about one of their own books. I found that authors are pretty amazing people.
The response from authors willing to provide a question was incredible, which is why I can’t help but think people who write books are amazing people. With over a dozen author videos already on the YouTube channel and more in the works, more than 100 authors have taken the time to record themselves asking a question about one of their books.
We’ve had children’s book authors such as Dan Gutman, Laura Numeroff and Annie Barrows, as well as authors of adult fiction and non-fiction books such as Blake Crouch, Fiona Davis and Lisa See. We’ve had authors from Europe - Jenny Downham and Michelle Robinson - and many from right here in Mercer County.
None of the authors who responded had any idea who this guy was that was asking them to take part in this. They just knew it was an idea to help the library and they were happy to do it. They took the time to record and send the video - sometimes with great effort. David Adler stuck with it while we figured out the best way to get his video question about his Cam Jansen series to me. And Cindy Copeland went the extra mile while on vacation, driving into the closest town with wifi on two different occasions to make sure her video got through.
Every one of these authors just received a random email from someone they didn’t know and instead of simply hitting delete, they took the time to contribute to what has become a fun project.
There are videos in the works with questions from mystery authors and more authors of books for younger people.
It’s been interesting to get comments back from the authors after they see the final product. They are often pleased to see friends in the same video and seem to enjoy being a part of keeping books on people’s minds during these unpredictable times.
It’s been fun reaching out, getting such a positive response and putting the videos together.
Make sure to check out www.mcl.org for all of the offerings from the Mercer County Library System. Also, check out and subscribe to the MCLS YouTube channel. It’s filled with interesting videos and there is something there for everyone.
- Bob, Hopewell
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