Instant Access: Using Technology to Bridge the Access Gap at the Library
1. INSTANT ACCESS: USING TECHNOLOGY TO BRIDGE THE ACCESS GAP AT THE LIBRARY Nadia Lalla, Anne Perorazio, Carol Shannon Taubman Health Sciences Library, University of Michigan Midwest MLA Annual Meeting 9 October 2011
Anne & I asked to look at resources that existed on campus for webinars And to recommend tools to use to create our own online video tutorials At this point, Anne had created a few videos, such as SL & PH
Looked at campus resources Digital Media Commons on North Campus—rich source of equipment, studios, people School of Public Health—On Job/On Campus programs had become half online, so studios, teleconference rooms, experiences with Camtasia
Web survey, supplemented by some phone calls, to see what was out there
Discovered a variety of screencasting programs; we quickly focused on Jing, Camtasia, Captivate; also microphones & other tools; really liked what we saw of Lei Wang ’s (Yale Medical) videos (good video, audio, scripts) Found spaces we could use on campus, but decided to stay in the library Found great people who could get us started, esp SPH folks who gave us help with Camtasia. Good as TechSmith ’s videos are, we really appreciated this extra help
Jing—downloaded to a couple of computers & later to anyone who wanted it Camtasia—purchased 2 copies; now have 4 Decided to not use Captivate immediately (& in fact we never have used it) Use Samson mic for recording audio; use headset with mic for Jing recordings & playback of Camtasia videos
In the center, the Samson mic with shockmount UR: inexpensive (~$35) headset LR: pop screen UL: Port-a-booth bought this year LL: Port-s-booth with mic set up
Anne editing
Anne editing, with new headset that covers the ears & gives a better sense of the audio
Jing—free! But the 5 minute limit is potentially too limiting & it can ’t be edited (unless done in Camtasia) Used for ref Qs & for non-public videos (some liaisons make their own videos in Jing) How to find an author ’s h index is one of our most popular videos; created by a student (later edited in Camtasia & produced; now being redone in Camtasia)
Because Camtasia videos can be edited (audio & video) & can be as long as you want them to be, this is the program we use for our public (ie, on YouTube) videos Camtasia files are smaller than those of Captivate (Captivate creates videos using a series of slides, which creates a bigger file) Relatively easy to use
In creating videos, the most important thing is to plan know why you ’re making them & who your audience is (our users are overwhelmingly grad students, researchers, faculty, & clinicians, with staff as well; our undergrads all have a focus—DH & Nursing, so are more like upper class undergrads); we make videos to supplement & take the place of our open workshops length comes from audience: don ’t be constrained by the common thought that videos can’t be more than a minute or 2, but also don’t make videos any longer than they need to be; the younger your audience the shorter your video materials—screencast, PPT, or a combination: we always use PPTs to brand our videos front & back Format/proportions: 16:9 is the most flexible; the precise dimensions may be determined by where you store your videos (for ex, YouTube has specific size requirements) script: keep it simple (relatively informal lang, but it should also sound like you, not somebody else); remember you ’re showing as well as telling—edit!!
Anne & I started out firmly convinced that perm staff (us) would have to create the videos to keep the quality up. But we just don ’t have enough time [I wrote the script, created the screencast, & did a rough cut, then Anne did the fine editing (audio & video); b/c of other responsibilities not enough time] We were encouraged to use students, but they didn ’t have enough time to really learn to use the programs fluently & with enough qulaity This year we ’ve hired a student with a video background & it’s going to really help
Decide where you ’re going to store your videos before you make them
Where do we keep them/how do people find them?
The University Library has a YouTube channel; Anne has created some playlists, so that we can send users to a particular place (for ex, all Taubman videos), as well as to the channel itself YouTube allows our videos to be found by people from all over the world
They ’re embedded/linked on our research guides (aka LibGuides)
The University Library has a video gallery page that lets our colleagues, who are physically separated from us, see more easily what we ’re doing; users can also find videos here
MTube, the Health System ’s private video channel, which makes our videos more readily available to clinicians
We collect stats so that we can tell not only how often the videos are viewed but also how they ’re being found, if they’re embedded on other web site, ets.
Some YouTube stats. Yes this video has been watched almost 7000! See that people find it by searching YouTube & Google & seeing it linked from other YouTube videos
Fun maps! Anther way to see where your videos are viewed. Note that Yemen has a high viewership for this video (not something that I thought about beforehand)
Another YouTube stats page Note that this video has been embedded on other web sites (b, c), on our own web sites (f, j), and viewed on mobile devices (h), in addition to being found through searches
Anther YouTube stat: “audience attention” compares your videos to other YouTube videos of similar length (in this case, we’re probably competing agains videos of kittens doing cute things)
Here ’s an example that shows that people stay with this video, even though it’s long (& it’s video isn’t very good; I’ll show you a still from the video next) If people want to learn something, they ’ll stay with a long or not very good video (don’t count on this though)
Here ’s an image from the video. This is part of a presentation that I made at the School of Dentistry. I thought about the presentation in terms of the live presentation & of SlideShare, but not of video (the S of Dent captured the presentation for their own use, but later generously allowed us to put it in YouTube)