There was an interesting story in USA Today recently by writer Anne Godlasky outlining some of the NYPL’s new media / live web / social marketing initiatives. Here’s a sample:

The New York Public Library quietly rolled out a new video series last month. Titled &#8220Treasures,&#8221 it showcases 11 gems of the library’s vast collection of more than 50 million items.

And since then it has joined Facebook, broadening an online reach that already included YouTube and iTunes pages to gain more of an audience — which, for one of the world’s largest public libraries, includes &#8220everybody from preschool toddlers to the greatest writers in the world,&#8221 says president Paul LeClerc.

Curators and administrators whittled a list of hundreds of ideas to record videos of the most &#8220visually grabbing,&#8221 says director David Ferriero.

The library has made the videos available on its site, nypl.org, as well as on YouTube— where its photography piece is by far its most popular with more than 13,000 views. The video, &#8220Knowing What to See&#8221 is the only one featuring current events: the drug trade in Afghanistan as photographed by Stephen Dupont.