YouTube Video Library for Educators and Trainers: A two-year pilot project utilizing historic occupational and environmental health and safety films

Social media applications can be valuable tools to disseminate occupational and environmental health information worldwide to professionals in the field, to workers and employers, and to the public. This presentation reports on a two-year pilot project testing the use of YouTube as a platform for a video resource library for educators and trainers. A YouTube channel, Workplace and Environmental Health and Safety Films (http://www.youtube.com/user/markdcatlin), was created by the author and populated with films and film clips that are up to ten minutes in length; films are primarily from government and industrial sources produced from 1915 to 2000. Films selected are in the public domain but are not readily accessible. They present events and issues from the rich history of workplace and environmental health and safety and are intended for use by teachers and trainers as triggers for discussions and to increase participant engagement. Accompanying each film is information on the original source, a description of its historic significance and continued relevance, and links to current sources of information. A keyword search tool is available on the channel homepage. The channel currently contains more than 600 films on a wide range of topics. During 2010, the channel logged more than one million hits worldwide with about 50% from the United States. Quantitative and qualitative information on the use of the channel will be provided, along with lessons learned on the creation, operation and use of this social media application.