Connect Create Collaborate: Connecting Using Google+ Hangouts

I bet that quite a few YALSAblog readers use Skype for connecting to authors, other librarians, teachers, colleagues, friends and family. It’s a great tool for real-time conversations with people across the world. If you haven’t tried Google+ Hangouts in place of Skype, I think you want to. You might find that Google+ Hangouts suits your purposes for connecting with others for meetings, classes, conversations, teaching, training and more, even better than Skype. But, you don’t have to take my word for it, check out the recording of a Hangout below.


As mentioned by Renee McGrath and Chris Shoemaker in the video, there are lots of ways you can use Google+ Hangouts to connect with teens and others in the community. It can be used for:

• Author visits
• Book discussion groups
• Training on databases, catalogs, computer programs, and more.
• Meetings
• Brainstorming
• Working on collaborative projects

And lots more. Some YALSA members are using Google+ Hangouts for committee meetings, last year’s ALA Emerging Leaders working on the YALSA project used Google+ Hangouts for their meetings, and one of my favorite uses is short presentations on topics of interest. For example, the Connected Learning initiative brings experts together, using Google+ Hangouts, to talk about education topics. It’s a great way to connect to experts in a field.

If you haven’t tried Google+ Hangouts you’ll want to give it a try. If you want to learn more about ways Google+ Hangouts is being used check-out some of these resources:

• Connected Learning Webinar Archive
• Google+ Hangouts On Air Feature Now Available to All
• Join the Club: Talk Books and Hangout with NYPL Librarians
• Using Google+ Hangout in Education

Do you use Google+ Hangouts to connect with others in the community? Or, do you have questions or ideas about using Google+ Hangouts to connect with others? Let us know in the comments.