American Libraries video site celebrates first birthday with Top Ten Videos
Contact: Daniel Kraus
Associate Editor,
American Libraries
(312) 280-4219
dkraus@ala.org
NEWS
For Immediate Release
June 3, 2008
American Libraries video site celebrates first birthday with Top Ten Videos
CHICAGO - American Libraries Focus (ALF), the video home of American Libraries magazine, debuted in June 2007. Since then, the site’s collection of nearly 70 videos has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Editor Daniel Kraus celebrates ALF's birthday by posting 10 of the most popular videos in the "Featured Video" and "Editor's Picks" section on the homepage (alfocus.ala.org).
“ALF has been an invaluable tool for reaching out to people who otherwise might not know about American Libraries or the ALA,” says Leonard Kniffel, the magazine’s editor in chief. “In fact ALF is coming off its biggest success yet, a series of eight National Library Week videos starring Chicago improv comic Shad Kunkle. The videos have been viewed at least 80,000 times as well as being embedded in dozens of blogs, library websites and information monitors. That’s a lot of eyeballs!” The most popular NLW video alone, "Reference Desk" ( http://alfocus.ala.org/videos/national-library-week-reference-desk) has been viewed roughly 25,000 times.
The videos to be included in the Top 10 are:
National Library Week: Reference Desk
Magnum, A.L.
Annual 2007 Wrap-up
Short Pencil Saga
Wheel of Confusion #1
We've Been Everywhere
Welcome to Anaheim - ALA Annual Conference 2008 Preview
FBI Whistleblower Answers Questions
A Conversation with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton
This "best of" feature will stay in place until the ALA Annual Conference begins in Anaheim, Calif. on June 26.
All the NLW videos can be found at
http://alfocus.ala.org/categories/national-library-week on the AL Focus site. ALF has also recently created a new YouTube version of the website, accessible at
http://www.youtube.com/user/AmLibraryAssociation. All ALF videos are now iPod-compatible and available for download in your choice of three formats: Quicktime, MPEG-4, and Flash. Instructions are at
http://alfocus.ala.org/how-download-al-focus-videos
ALF editor Daniel Kraus is the creative force behind most of the videos, writing and producing the pieces as well making the occasional cameo appearance. In addition to his work at the ALA, Kraus is a well-respected filmmaker whose recent documentary “Musician” was featured in the
New York Times as a critic’s choice.
American Libraries, which celebrated its centennial year in 2007, can be found at www.ala.org/alonline .
