New Teaching Tools for Chat Reference

This brilliant presentation using Prezi was given recently at WILU 2011. It was by Lauren DiMonte and Joanna Szurmak from University of Toronto Mississauga. They demonstrate the value of a chat reference service in a University Library and then show how they developed short videos to meet FAQs. They refer to recent articles about screencasts and include an example of their own work at Toronto. Wish I'd been at the presentation to applaud!

PubChem instruction videos

Cam across this interesting article from Jeffery Loo at University of California Berkeley demonstrating how they created several videos about using PubChem. They used Powerpoint for the slides, GIMP to edit graphics, Audacity to recoird and edit the audio, Screen-cast-o-matic to create the screencasts, Windows Live Movie Maker to edit it, and Youtube to store and distribute.
They last about 6 minutes each. Here is a sample

Best Video creation tools for the classroom

This article from School Library Journal, 1 Nov. 2010, by Richard Bryne looks well worth following up. He says :
"There was a time, not too long ago, that making a video required expensive video equipment and software. That’s no longer true. Now, without spending a dime on cameras or software, your students could craft the next great documentary or YouTube sensation."

All that is needed is creativity and patience...oh and the time to try these out!

15 easy to use apps for adding multimedia to Twitter

Want to add multimedia to your tweets on Twitter? Then this article could be your answer : 15 easy to use apps for adding multimedia to Twitter, by Aliza Sherman. I'd come across Twitpic and Audioboo and I love Screenr, but here are a load more.

Information Fluency Strategies and Practices to Help Enhance Critical Thinking Skills

Thia presentation by Chad Mairn of St Petersburg College, Florida is full of ideas for your information literacy classes.
I particularly iked the idea that
"Information fluency is the intersection of information literacy, computer literacy and critical thinking."

Information Fluency Strategies and Practices to Help Enhance Critical Thinking Skills

View more presentations from St. Petersburg College.

Want some good advice about screencasting?

Then look at Tips from the Experts Five Minute Screencasts - The Super Tool for Science and Engineering Librarians, by Olivia Bautista Sparks, Noble Science and Engineering Library, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. This excellent article comes from Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Winter 2010.

She often uses screenr. a free screencasting serice. There are some examples of her work introducing herself (Meeting your chemistry librarian) ; Exporting references from PubMed into RefWorks (this one really impressed me because I thought no-one can make this intelligible and yet I stayed wake through the whole 5 minutes..) ; more stuff on class instuction voia screencast ; and a very useful comparison chart comparing four screencasting services.

Finally : this is not just for Science and Englibneering librarians! All subject librarians can gain hugely from this brilliant little article!

Pic is of St Albans Abbey

Library Day in the Life

This post is part of the 5th version of this little project "Library Day in the Life" wiki so that we can share what we do!
I used to think : how has anyone the time to do this? Who cares anyway? In fact it can be an interesting little time capsule for others and ourselves!

Here goes :
This morning began early : at 5.30 I began to think "how can I best contribute to the brainstorm sharing on use of presentation software that we are going to have at work at 10.00 today?" Maybe I should use my iPad for the first time to show how some of these little projects I have been trying have turned out? How well will it work in the wireless environment there?
Let's forget yesterday's 3 hours bafflement with Camtasia Studio followed by trying to play the feet and left hand at the same time on the church organ in the evening...

6.00 and time to get up. No time for exercises or piano playing today - it's straight into trying to get a Photo Story movie working on PBWorks on my iPhone.
Plenty of time to make the tea and still no image. Could do a full English and eat it before this would work...
Time to get the bus to work. Still so keen ..no time today for Paul Wellman's 'Glory God and Gold' about the Spanish excesses in 16th century New Mexico! Reading latest updates on TweetDeck, favouriting the best for later scrutiny.. then deep little sleep..where am I? Is this the ride home...oh no it's the journey in!!!

8.30 Hiding the iPad on the desk - don't want to let on about it yet. Hear that there's a video conferencing and "Oh no there's no meeting - the presentation software sharing is next week!"
What a relief so can forget the agonising over the merits of Jing, Photo Story, Camtasia, Movie Maker, Audacity etc. and how it all fits together.
Let's relax and try out a little video I made on Jing in one of our blogs : loads beautifully - so easy. Let's try it on my iPhone ...aargh it's invisible.
Tomorrow is my day off : Friday is the Mashup event in Huddersfield. We have to make our own badges - have to do something for this....
Let's return to yesterday's battle with Camtasia - that slide just didn't line up with my dulcet tones - 30 more minutes or dragging, cursing, poring over help pages - time for tea.

Let's put some photos on flickr - find out about possibility of storing a short video there. Will thisd help with the badge if I can get a QR code on the badge?

11.30-12.30 moving and shelving books as part of the rebuilding exercise overthe summer.
12.30 Lunch i9n the Business School building - more building work going on. Glad to see that the wall that was being constructed yesterday in front of the main door is only partial, creating a new slim-line ingress! Lamb Rogan Josh with rice - excellent.
1.00 My first Photo Story movie placed in flickr, and works with a QR code created in BeeTagg and read via I-nigma! It was a spoof "Art Show" made up of some photos I took last year, introduced by a certain John Farquhar-Robotham.



2.00 Create new little movie in Photo Story about University of Bedfordshire using photos taken today on iPhone, put on flickr create barcode and badge for Friday! Feel like a lie down.
3.50 Phone rings and have to meet earnest new researchers and give short tour of the library (hard hats not necessary).
4.20 Return to writing this. Decide not to mention the iPad - looking forward to playing with it tomorrow planning Scottish trip, Last-fm etc.

That’s Infotainment!: How to Create Your Own Screencasts

THis is the title of an excellent article by Elyssa Kroski in School Librarian. Recommended to get you started and inspire you to use screencasts.

Screencasting for libraries

There was a very useful post by iLibrarian recently featuring many resources which will help you get started making instructional videos for your library. Includes articles, presentations, podcasts, blogs, wikis, software, workshop handouts, and link s to examples. Fantastic.

How to master screencasts in seven steps by Torley, may also interest those who are more techie.

Guides to Screencasting

For those who haven't seen it already, Elyssa Kroski has come up with a great set of links to introduce screencasting. This is likely to be the future : technology which we can employ to show a process to our users. As it gets easier, we shall use it more, and by its visual character, it should better engage our users.