LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Spring 2010)

This week, we will be looking at the creation of video content online, including vodcasting and screencasting. These have become increasingly popular outreach tools in libraries, so it's definitely a good idea to be well-versed in their use.

Vodcasting

A vodcast (also know as video podcast or videocast) is a video broadcast that is syndicated so users can subscribe to the content and play it on a portable or computer media player. Some vodcasts are one-off videos while others are episodic. People have been putting video online for some time, but only over the past few years have people begun to create episodic videos and syndicate them. In 2004, the popular vodcast, ”Rocketboom”, premiered and became the first to really reach a mainstream audience. In fact, vodcasting has become so mainstream that even the staff at American Libraries magazine has developed an episodic video series called ”AL Focus”.

It wasn't until the birth of YouTube that vodcasting really took off. YouTube is more than just a site for hosting videos; it is a social phenomenon. The site allows people to chronicle their lives, become amateur journalists or share their creative vision. People can find almost anything on YouTube, from skits, to celebrities caught on tape, to blog-like confessions, to kids doing stunts in their backyard. There are millions of videos on YouTube created by people of all generations and backgrounds. There are many hosted video sites, but none that have developed the same sort of community and following. YouTube makes it easy to subscribe to people's videos via RSS, comment on them, and to embed videos into blogs, e-mails and other websites.

Vodcasts can also be used to promote library services. Lots of organizations create marketing videos, and there's no reason why libraries can't do the same and make it available online. Libraries could use clips from some of their filmed events and footage of everyday life at the library to portray their library

Vodcasts are terrific for making library programming available to a larger audience. Libraries can record speakers, events and classes using a digital video camera and make the videos available online. Making videos of events can help to advertise future events by showing people what they've been missing. The Orange County Public Library (FL) makes videos of past events available on their website.
as a welcoming place. The Birmingham Public Library created a clever 30-second video to promote the teen summer reading program featuring a 40's-style detective.

Some libraries are creating videos designed to humanize the library presence and make the librarians seem more fun and approachable. The librarians at Williams College (MA) have created several fun videos to promote the library, the most notable being a spoof of “The A Team” called “The L Team”, which introduces the members of the library staff.

Staff could also create episodic vodcasts, where staff can produce regular features about the library, its services, collections and events. Some libraries have shows on public access cable channels, but putting videos online would open them up to a much larger potential audience.

Other libraries are getting their patrons involved in the creative process and are creating marketing materials in the process. At the Pima County Public Library, teens wrote and produced movie-style trailers of their favorite books with the help of a local television station.
The Denver Public Library sponsored a contest in 2007 where teens could create videos on YouTube about how they had fun at the library, with the winner receiving an MP3 player. These programs get teens engaged in a creative endeavor, while at the same time creating library marketing materials.

The majority of libraries use YouTube to host their videos, and may also make them available through iTunes. This means that they don't have to take up space and bandwidth on their own server. Another benefit of YouTube si that most young people are frequent YouTube users, watching videos on it much as other people channel surf on their TV. YouTube also allows individuals to embed the videos on other websites, meaning that the video can be made available on the library website and on any other spaces the library would like to advertise their services.

Screencasting

Screencasts are a bit different from vodcasts as they're not filmed through some sort of a camera. A screencast is a movie taken of your desktop. It can show everything you do on your desktop, from typing in a query, to clicking on a link, to resizing a window and more. In addition, you can add captions, audio narration, and highlighting. With some software, you can zoom in on certain elements you wish to highlight. Other software allow you to create interactive components, requiring users to actually take a correct action for the movie to continue. The movies are exported into a variety of different web-ready formats, depending on the software you use. With the software I use, Captivate, the movies are exported as Flash. With Camtasia, you have more options including AVI and Quicktime.

Screencasts are often used to demonstrate software and so are great for library tutorials. Instead of reading a list of instructions on how to use a database or some other tool, a screencast concretely shows the librarian going into the database and executing searches. I’m the sort of person who needs to see something done to learn how to do it and I’ve never been able to learn much from text instructions. With screencasts, you can show a user concretely how to do a search and then have them execute a similar search before the screencast will advance. Lots of academic libraries have created screencast tutorials on how to use library databases, the catalog, ILL, etc. They vary from being extremely polished to quick-and-dirty demos.

When I first discovered screencasting (before I even worked in a library and before screencasts were called screencasts) I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. I was blown away by how easy it was to create a Flash or Quicktime movie of your desktop with very little in the way of tech- savvy. You can make a very basic screencast that you film and narrate simultaneously in 20 minutes. Or you can spend an entire day or more developing a really polished screencast tutorial. Other than the time invested, screencasts are pretty easy to create. I've used popular software options Camtasia and Captivate and found them both really intuitive. I’m still very excited about screencasting, but my enthusiasm has been tempered by the realities of creating them for library patrons. I thought I’d be creating screencasts day-in and day-out when I first got my job, but I have realized that it’s not always the best solution.

Screencasting has some major drawbacks. The first is the size of the file created. A movie of just five minutes can be as big as five megabytes, which is fine for those of us with broadband, but for people on dial-up, it can take forever to download. I created a screencast introduction to library services and resources for our online learners, and I felt that I had to create a text and screenshot HTML version of the same tutorial for students on dialup or those who can’t play audio for some reason. In addition, they take up lots of space on the server and can be real bandwidth suckers if they get a lot of use.

Another issue is that databases and other things we are demonstrating may change, forcing us to completely redo our screencast. I’d created a screencast on using Thomas (the tool from the Library of Congress that allows you to search for legislation) about a week before they redesigned their Website and had to do it all over again.

Finally, screencasts can take a long time to create. I’m sure there are some people out there who can competently narrate a screencast and do the screen capture part flawlessly at the same time, but I’m definitely not one of them. Most other people aren't either. I usually do the screen capture and then add elements like captions and highlighting. Sometimes I find that I missed something and have to film extra pieces and paste them in later on. Only once I have all the video ready do I do the narration and I need a script for that (otherwise you’d hear a lot of “umms” and “likes”). Finally, I edit the timing of the slides so that the audio syncs up with what I’m demonstrating. It takes a good long while to do... a lot longer than a little HTML tutorial that I can create in a couple of hours.

So, like most of the things we've looked at, a screencast has the potential to provide a greater benefit than other modes of online library instruction, but it definitely makes for a lot more work for the librarians. There's actually an interesting project called ANTS that has the goal of bringing librarians creating screencasts together to share screencasts so that librarians won't have to reinvent the wheel. It's not necessary for each library to create their own tutorial on using Academic Search Premier if someone has created one generic enough for everyone to use. I think this sharing will probably be the most sustainable route for screencast development. No one librarian can do it all.

This week, you will actually be creating a screencast! It definitely doesn't have to be perfect; the real goal is to get experience using screencasting software and seeing the pros and cons to creating a screencast. Definitely also take a look at the examples of screencasts and vodcasts.  Libraries are doing some really creative stuff with these technologies, and seeing these examples always gives me interesting ideas for using them in different library settings. Some libraries are doing a great job with video and some are creating videos that are neither helpful nor entertaining. I'll be curious to hear your impressions of the videos you look at this week.