Beyond Method #8: Capture Your Computer Screen

1. Read Meredith Farkas’ October 2009 American Libaries Magazine article “Your Desktop: The Movie“.  (Done) I liked both the Orange County Library's page of online tutorials, and MIT's overview of its many libraries and how to take best advantage of their resources. I think our library system could benefit from both of these types of screencasts.
2. Read Mikael Jacobsen’s January 2011 Library Journal article “Reference Backtalk: Screencasting for an Audience of One“. (Done). Our library does use a chat service where customers can be allowed to look at the librarian's screen as she/he searches or describes a process, but being able to record this would be even better. Often times when working at the reference desk, I ask a customer to step behind me so that they can more easily follow my directions on how to access information. They often have to take notes on what links to follow. How much better it would be to record the process and give them the link to what has been demonstrated!
3. Take a look at this amazing collection of screencasting resources on Polly-Alida Farrington’s lib20 wiki. Check out at least 4 examples of screencasts. I liked these:

-- Cornell Universities "Research Minutes" (although they lasted 90 seconds!)
-- Nashville Public Library's "How to Request a Book"
-- Pierce County Library's "Meeting Room Reservations"
-- "ireadBlogs"

One bad thing I noticed: Those examples created with software that has gone "extinct," like ScreenToaster, were no longer available. I guess putting a lot of work into creating screencasts with free software could have its potential downside!

4.    I choose to use Screenr to make a short screen cast tour of our library web page.  Here is the embedded version of one of my first attempts:


I found the software reasonably easy to use, and very easy to share. I learned these lessons:
-- Don't use a laptop with a defective screen to do your recording.
-- Do write out your script so that there are no awkward pauses in what you have to say.
-- Be ready to adlib in case your Internet doesn't cooperate and the pages load slowly.
-- Use a mike on a headset if possible, so the background noise resulting from the handling of the mike is lessened.

I think that screencasting will be a powerful tool to use to on our website. A picture is often worth a thousand words when trying to teach something, especially to visual learners. By being able to post easily to YouTube and Facebook, the results can be widely shared. And the price is right!!