Lately I’ve been looking into different ways of teaching library skills to library customers and staff. Librarians and (and trainers, like myself) need to be where our audience is; we can’t always expect that they’ll be able to attend training sessions in person, and I believe that creating brief library skills videos is a great way of timeshifting the many training classes we offer. If we distribute the content widely over several different services, such as video sharing sites, social networking communities, and on the library’s website, we’ll broaden our audience and possibly increase awareness of what the library has to offer.
So tonight while sitting here in front of my computer recuperating from whatever the heck it was that has been making me sick to my stomach lately, I whipped up a video that teaches users how to search the library catalog for video games by console type. I did it in less than five minutes flat, and you can too, thanks to Jing Pro.
First, go to screencast.com and have a look the full size video, or watch the smaller embedded copy below:
Thanks to Jing Pro, recording this video was as simple as launching Jing, defining the part of the screen I wanted to capture, and pressing the “Capture a Video” button on the application’s interface. Jing Pro allows you to record both MPEG-4 and Flash videos, and provides one-click access to uploading your videos to YouTube, to your own server, or to Screencast.com. With a Screencast.com account, you’ll get 2GB of server space, plus 2GB bandwith with your subscription (pro accounts are available). You can record videos with the free version of Jing, but only in SWF format, and you can only upload to your own server, or to screencast.com.
The video isn’t perfect by a long shot, but perfection isn’t the goal here. My goal was to quickly solve a customer’s problem, and provide them with the knowledge to solve their problem on their own with a minimal amount of effort. Mission accomplished.
In addition to recording video, you can capture screen shots, annotate your images, and upload them to the web, or copy and paste into documents.
Jing Pro costs $14.95 for a yearly subscription, but the potential benefit for the library and for the library’s users more than makes up for it.
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