YouTube and Academic Libraries: Building a Digital Collection

Abstract

Although still a relatively new technology with less than 10 years of history, YouTube's extensive reach and integration in mainstream society as well as lifelong learning habits of online users cannot be understated. This article examines how the YouTube collection at the University of British Columbia Library's Irving K. Barber Learning Centre has become an exciting extension of the digital collections and services. By briefly examining the history of traditional collection development at academic libraries, the author demonstrates how YouTube fits into the long continuum of library media collections in an open-access platform.