Captivate vs. Camtasia: Captivate Wins

I wrote a post awhile back attempting to compare these two software products that can be used for creating interactive screencapturing videos. I spent months learning the ins and outs of Camtasia, creating a number of videos that are now being used in the library. Now we have Captivate keyserved, so I finally have it on my computer and have had a chance to spend time with it and get to know it a little better. Conclusion? Captivate is much easier, cleaner, dynamic, and creates a nicer final product than Camtasia.

We had a training open to all library staff earlier this week on Captivate. Here is what we have determined:

• Captivate projects are easier to edit: you can copy and paste slides, delete and add sections, & extend time frames in a much easier manner than in Camtasia. In Camtasia you can screen draw and select mouse options before and during the recording phase, but cannot change this in editing mode. You have to start over. Captivate lets you play with these options afterward. So if you mess up during recording, you don’t have to start all over again.
• Captivate saves you time: this is a smart software, and can actually add captions for you based on what you’re doing on the screen (like “click X,” “you are now on X page”). These are easy to alter or delete if you like, but if you want them this will save you a lot of time.
• Captivate quizzes are pretty: well, prettier than Camtasia’s. And you can actually preview them without publishing the project.
• Captivate allows interactivity: this is a big one, and one I mentioned in my previous post. You can select an area on the screen and the user has to click it to continue, or take them somewhere. Allows a lot more customization than Camtasia’s “hot spots.” There’s also a new feature in Captivate 3 called “branching,” where you can make your product even more dynamic as users go to different places and discover different things.

This doesn’t mean to say I’m writing Camtasia off completely. I do like it’s easy ability to record audio with powerpoints, and I like it’s preview screen which Captivate is lacking (have to select “preview” to see what the project looks like in motion and any changes you’ve made). That said, an intern at the library this summer spent 2 months messing with Camtasia trying to make a tutorial on searching for newspapers using Access World News. She was very frustrated, particularly with the screen drawing and audio quality. She spend less than a week with Captivate and made a nice, clean, professional product: http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/courses/jour/accessworldnews/Tutorial.htm. That’s enough to convince me in the Captivate vs. Camtasia debate: Captivate Wins.

Focus? Me?

So my library recently went through a restructuring, and on the Undergraduate Services Team where I work we’re gaining two former science-engineering librarians, and losing one of our outreach librarians as well as our graphic designer. I am one of two new permanent librarians on the team, just hired a month ago. To help facilitate the transition, we had two days of teambuilding where we broke down all the work our team does and organized it into categories - outreach, instruction, training, reference & information commons, and the website. We were each placed in one or more of these categories based on our experience; I was put in outreach, reference & information commons, and training. Surprisingly I wasn’t put in instruction even though my job description is very heavy on instruction (I actually was put in there then removed because we had too many people there as it was & I was in too many groups). Then we went off in our groups to discuss that work and come up with a plan for how it’s going to get done.

So now I find myself being pulled in all different directions. Officially, just because you’re in the planning group for a certain category of work doesn’t mean you’ll actually be doing that work. But it’s hard to avoid it. And outreach is huge. There are 3 of us in this group and it looks like the 3 of us will be doing a lot with outreach. (Not to mention the fact that we’re changing seating arrangements in the office based on our work and I’m in the “outreach” group). Which I don’t mind because I really enjoy it, and actually even asked in my interview about if I would get to participate in outreach and was told “probably not.” Ironic, since this appears to be turning into my primary function. And while I’m not in the instruction group, I am teaching two sections of the Skillful Researcher this fall and have heard rumors my name is being proposed for a number of instructional types of work that needs to get done. I’m definitely big on the educational technology and have worked a lot with this in the past 8 months which I’d like to continue to do; I also love being in a classroom. And I am also interested in taking on a new role of looking closely at learning spaces and ways we can improve them. Not to mention reference & information commons & training.

Pretty soon our team leader will be sending out what all the groups have come up with for their categories of work, and team members get to share which ones they are interested in. The ultimate decision for who is doing what is being coordinated by the team leader. I realize I need to focus my energies, especially as a new librarian. And I want to avoid getting overwhelmed and losing quality in my work. At first I thought outreach was what I would most enjoy. Then I got into instruction and really liked it, and applied for this position believing instruction is what I was going to do. Reference and training is a place where I have a lot of experience and the background to do pretty well, and I can see how these can be improved which is really exciting to me. So now it’s time to do some soul searching and figure out how I want to focus, and I need to do it fast… yikes!

The Amazing Library Race 2008

This past Friday we held the 3rd annual Amazing Library Race: Desert Edition at the UA’s Main Library. We broke previous numbers and had 210 participants show up, including students, staff, faculty, and community members. To learn more about this event and how it all works, see my post from last year.

Amazing Library Race - Public Library Station

As an organizer this year, I spent all morning helping with setup and coordinating volunteers, then was a floater during the actual event, and helped with take down. By the time the Amazing Happy Hour started at 5:00 I was completely exhausted. But it was well worth it, and here’s why:

• Participants really learned a lot about library resources and services. They also learned about how to navigate the 5 story building, which is often intimidating - not to mention confusing - for newbies.
• It is the only event held in the library where we have this substantial number of participants who are our primary audience. Exhibits, lectures, and other events don’t even come close. The energy that’s present up and down the library stacks is something you really only get to see this one time a year.
• Marketing a lot this year has made the event known to the campus community. Even those that didn’t make it to the event itself very likely heard about it. We had hundreds of table toppers in the student union that week, and posters around University Blvd. where students are constantly passing by. While we only reached a small percentage of our audience during the actual 2 hour event, we reached many more in other ways.
• This event promotes an image that the library isn’t usually known for. Libraries and the people that work in libraries are fun. And approachable. And we want to help.
• Those that work in the library get to all come together to make this event possible. I coordinated over 60 volunteers to staff the stations & help with set-up and take-down. It’s a great opportunity to work with people you don’t see every day and don’t otherwise get to work with.
• Word of mouth is powerful. I think this event is extremely important, and hope those that joined us that day share some of what they learned with friends, classmates, and colleagues. The actual impact of this event is difficult to measure, but I truly think it has the potential to educate library users far and wide about the many services we offer.

Amazing Library Race - Presentation Practice Room

A few things were organized differently this year:

• Rather than having a raffle at the end of the event where we later contacted prize winners, we gave away all of our prizes during the actual event (with the exception of the grand prize - an IPod). To win prizes, students completed an activity or played a game. 4 prize stations could be found along the trail, but they weren’t advertised to avoid those stations getting backed up. Those that were successful could pick from a list of prizes. As time went on, obviously, the list got smaller. All prizes were gone soon after 2:00. The prize activities were:

Media Station: Play “Scene It?“. This could be answering a question about a movie clip, placing films in the order in which they were released, or guessing what movie an image is from.

Middle Eastern Studies Collection Station: Capitals of the Middle East. Pick a slip from a hat, where there would be the name of a Middle Eastern country’s capital. Correctly state the country’s name and you win. (We had a map displayed of the Middle East to help out a bit).

Reference Desk Station: Knock Down a Librarian. My wonderful colleague Forrest let us borrow his librarian action figure which we set up on a table with a backdrop of reference materials. You stand behind the line, are given a ball, and get one shot to knock her down.

Amazing Library Race - Knock Down a Librarian Game

Express Check-Out: Find a Bookmark. You select a book from a cart of books about desert survival. If the book you pick has an Amazing Race bookmark in it, you win.

• We also had some new stations this go around:

• University College. This is located in the Integrated Learning Center (ILC) right off the courtyard where we have our final station of free pizza, soda, & eegees. Undecided students, which is much of our audience, are a part of this college and receive advising here. Keith Rocci - who is also our partner in crime for the Skillful Researcher course - staffed this station and had students answer riddles to win a ton of prizes that they had purchased.
• Reference Desk. This was a station before but it was combined with the Presentation Practice Rooms; this time it stood alone so it could focus more on the reference services provided at this site.
• Maps. We added this to the microforms station, which is in the same section on the first floor, so students could pick between answering a maps question (based on maps on display) or a microforms question (based on microforms on display where they had to use the machine to find a certain news story). We also displayed a number of globes, including globes of the moon and astronomical globes, which many library users don’t even know that we have.

Amazing Library Race - Maps Station

• We invited students from SIRLS to volunteer for the event. Two did, and after helping handout flyers around campus they got to staff the stations, promote library services, interact with librarians, and have some fun participating a large scale orientation event.

• And we’re working harder to get feedback, so we can prove to the library that this event is worth the time, effort, and money that goes into it. We took CatCard numbers at the opening station so we can gather details on who participated. We are also going to send out a Survey Monkey to gather better feedback from both participants and volunteers. This is all in addition to the feedback form all the participants were asked to fill out during the race. My hope is that once we collect this data, we will have a stronger argument for why this event is important, why it should continue to be supported in the future.

NOTE: video from the event coming soon…

Official Librarianship!

I have been offered a permanent position as an Undergraduate Services Librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries. This is actually - essentially - the position I have been filling on a temporary contract since January. It’s still an Assistant Librarian level, and it’s for the most part the same work I have been doing with instructional design and educational technology. There are a few differences, though:

• I am permanent, so I don’t have to worry about where I will be come December. Wahoo!! This also means I can work on more long-term projects. Things like grant projects, event planning, and cross-functional groups where members serve a term of a year or often more.
• I am continuing-eligible, which means in 5 years I submit paperwork to become an “Associate Librarian.” This requires scholarship and service - things like publishing, committee work, etc. Shouldn’t be too hard. I’m already on the ACRL Committee on Ethics and have two potential papers in the beginning phases. I’m actually excited to get to do this sort of thing and be encouraged to do it. A few years later (although often many years later) I can go up for the ”Full Librarian” title, which requires you be nationally recognized as contributing substantially to the field.
• I get paid less! Silly, right? It’s all about timing. Supposedly, in January the median pay grade was $300 more per year than it is now. So I’m going to get a little less per paycheck. Bummer.

Overall, how do I feel?

• Excited. There are a lot of things I really enjoy about working in this library and especially in Undergraduate Services. Developing online learning objects and classes. Reconfiguring reference services. Teaching undergraduates. Developing curriculum. Creating outreach opportunities. Working collaboratively. Working independently. Being creative.
• Surprised. Last December I was convinced that I would be moving somewhere outside of Tucson. This isn’t because I didn’t like the location or the library, but staying didn’t seem realistic. For one thing, it’s unusual to move from a classified staff position to a librarian position. Most new hires have some outside library experience, almost always professional librarian experience. Plus I was in a position where I could move - there are many more opportunities outside of Tucson, so I figured that is what would happen.
• Reflective. Who would have thought? I started as a student shelving books in 2003, to see if libraries is where I wanted to end up. I held a number of student positions, then in 2005 became a part-time Library Specialist the same time I entered library school. I then went to full-time Library Information Associate then Library Information Analyst in access services. I moved to the temporary Librarian position this year and now landed a permanent Librarian gig. Pretty cool…

Utilizing Technologies for Engaged Instruction

I presented this to the library on Friday so thought I’d share it here:

How to Narrow a Research Topic

I’ve just finished revamping the second module of the new online info lit class, “The Skillful Researcher,” a collaboration between the library and University College. The module is on “Narrowing Your Topic.” The students are writing a hypothetical research paper; they are doing all the research and creating an annotating bibliography as their final project. The second module is very important, since it’s where they pick their topic for research, and create a few potential research questions.

The students have already selected one of 5 broad topics we give them - education, food, human rights, music, or sports. For the assignment and discussion posting, they have to come up with 2-3 research questions that are appropriate for writing a hypothetical 8-12 page research paper.

Here are the techniques we’re teaching them:

1) Brainstorming. We have them complete a worksheet where they can talk about what they already know about a topic, what interests them about it, and what they would like to know more about.

2) Concept Mapping. I found this really cool YouTube video demonstrating how to do this:

3) Reviewing What’s Out There. We have them select an article from a list on various aspects of their broad topics. All the articles are from CQ Researcher, which is great for topic overviews and includes nice bibliographies. I created a Camtasia video on how to use CQ Researcher, and directions are presented in an Articulate template.

4) Defining Certain Aspects. A tutorial created using Articulate demonstrates how they can narrow a broad topic by looking at thing such as certain time frames, geographical locations, types of people, and/or aspects (sociological, economical, legal, etc.).

Since it’s only a one-credit class, and this module only lasts one week, we can’t teach much more than this. Another technique that I would like to teach (possibly if we create a “Skillful Researcher 2″) is how to review what’s out there by looking in library catalogs and databases. This gets a little more complicated but is a great skill for students to learn.

If anyone has other methods they teach students, I’d be interested to hear what they are! I’m hoping these 4 will be a good foundation for them, but any feedback would be appreciated as well.

Not at ALA, it’s time for some reflection

I was lucky enough to go to ALA Annual the past two years (New Orleans and D.C.), but I didn’t make it this year. It’s actually pretty ironic, since I just got my MLS this past December and now have a librarian job, but it just didn’t work out. A lot of people on my work team are going, which means a few of us are needed to cover the reference desk, and there was also confusion over what I could get funded (since I have a strange temporary/permanent/special assignment status).

The good news is I plan to go to Midwinter, which I haven’t done before, and not going to Anaheim right now makes that more realistic.

So what am I doing this weekend? Preparing a 40 minute presentation for an interview I have in a couple of weeks - for a permanent position. And reflecting a little bit on the past 6 months since I graduated.

I don’t usually like to talk about the job search on this blog since it’s so public and you have to be careful, but I will say that this will be the third librarian position I am interviewing for this year. The second presentation. I was actually offered one of the two earlier positions but unfortunately had to turn it down.

For those that may not realize this, the interviews for academic librarian positions are a full day. They usually follow a phone interview, which is the first round, and then less than a handful of candidates are invited for round two. In my first one of these, there was an informal dinner the night before, then a full day 8am-4pm. In the second, there was also dinner the night before, followed by breakfast first thing the next morning and a full day until 5pm. The one in a couple weeks starts at 8pm all day and ends with dinner. Exhausting!

Although reflecting on my experiences I think they are a good thing, and in those jam-packed 8-12 hours you really get a feel for whether or not the position is right for you, and the librarians on the other side of the table get a chance to do the same. As another librarian once told me, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. Another once told me that once you’re past the phone interview phase they know you’re qualified for the position & would do well at the job; the question is whether or not you fit in the organization. It’s true, and it’s good advice. It’s best not to think of it as the “scary interview” where you try to answer their questions the way you think you’re supposed to, as I always perceived it before. Approaching it in this other way eases the pressure - at least a little bit - and makes the interview process more of a learning experience, and a decision for both parties involved.

“What Research Libraries Will Be”

On Monday this week I had the opportunity to experience the UC Merced Library. It’s the University of California (UC)’s newest campus, and the first American research university of the 21st century. The library is visionary. They’re motto is “Not what other research libraries are, what they will be.”

They’re crossing boundaries other libraries only dream of, and they’re situated in such a way that makes this possible.

Being the 10th UC campus, they have access to the impressive California Digital Library (CDL) - 20,000 full text electronic journals - as well as quick access the extensive print collection throughout the system. While their own print holdings are minimal, the loan system among the UC Libraries is fast and very active, getting all local materials to library users within 48 hours of request. Their acquisition philosophy is “tell us what you want” - meaning they primarily (if not only) buy what is specifically asked for by students, faculty & staff. That is their priority and built into their budget.

The library building has only a handful of desktop computers, but they have about 200 laptops being circulated at any given time. Their first year circulation stats showed that laptops were checked-out far more often than print materials.

There is one service point in the 4 story library, and it is staffed primarily by student workers. That’s right. While other libraries are struggling to make the case for pulling librarians from the desk, UC Merced isn’t even scheduling staff members let alone professional librarians.

Donald Barclay, the Deputy Director, wants to get rid of 4 things in libraries - reference, instruction, the OPAC, and the website. Say what? While this freaks people out (and for good reason as this sounds like the core of many of our jobs!), the idea is to not ask “how do I do X” but to ask the bigger question, “what do you want to do?” This can open your eyes to the bigger picture of what services we’re ultimately trying to provide, and exploring the most effective means of doing so.

So is this the example of what research libraries will be in the future? Could be. If nothing else, perhaps this library can inspire us to take those risks, ask those tough questions, and move forward with passion, creativity, and vision.

Orientation Begins

Last week was the first New Student Orientation of the summer, where approx. 600 students and their parents spend two days sitting through presentations, running around going to different meeting rooms, signing up for classes & university ids, & touring the campus - all in 100 degree + weather.

Prior to last year, the library’s only role was to staff one of the dozens of tables at the CatConnections Expo; this is an optional expo that takes place on the second day during lunch time across from a number of other sessions & schedule advising. We’ve had some luck at this Expo, reaching 30 students or so each time, but they are very quick conversations as the students are walking by. We give them a brochure, encourage them to come to the Amazing Library Race, tell them as much about our services as we can in a few minutes, and send them on their way.

We’re still staffing this table, which is great, but now we also get to deliver an actual presentation, which is much better. This year I’m coordinating these presentations, which are delivered by librarians and library staff from around the library. Of course it’s not required (which would be the ideal - maybe one day), and it takes place across from 8 other sessions going on at the same time. We get half an hour, and deliver two sessions on the first day of orientation during lunch time. This year it’s a “brown bag” which means the students get to pick up their lunches and head off to sessions of their choosing. Although it didn’t work out that way. We actually only had a couple students still eating their lunches when they got to our room, which wasn’t set up to allow for eating since it was auditorium-style seating and no tables.

But it was a huge success. The first session we had 12 students. The second we had 37! The room only seats 50 (or maybe less) so this was a wonderful turnout. We had a number of people asking questions, and they enjoyed learning about all the library has to offer to get a head start in the fall.

Right now we have just a powerpoint, 10 slides, lots of pictures, few words. We really encourage people to go to the Amazing Library Race and give them promo bookmarks, as well as our standard library brochure (titled “Think Libraries are Just About Books? Think Again…). I’ve been working with a colleague on putting together a short video to show, but it’s becoming more difficult that we originally envisioned due to formatting issues with our video camera. Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll sort that out to play it at orientations throughout the rest of the summer. When it’s done I’ll post it on here, too.

Library Study Break

Last Monday when speaking with a colleague of mine we decided it would be really cool for the library to host some sort of “study break” for the students during finals cramming time. This is something we talked about at the end of last semester but we didn’t have the time to make it happen. This time we thought let’s go for it, even though we only had a few days to plan it (finals began on Friday).

Magically, everything came together. By Tuesday I had communicated with my team leader, he had communicated with the dean, and she had communicated with other team leaders. We managed to secure a $250 budget from the combined donations from team events budgets of Social Sciences Team, Team Y & Materials Access Team. We established a date and time of Sunday at 8pm - the night before finals week, and I’ve since heard the busiest night of the year in the library.

After talking with the knowledgeable events coordinator in our administration office as well as a number of other admin assistants & the manager of Bookend Cafe nextdoor, on Friday I ordered coffee & hot water/tea from the student union to be delivered Sunday evening.

Friday afternoon 3 freezer bags full of cookies were sitting on my desk as donations, left over from a staff workshop earlier that day. I printed signs advertising the event and put them at the service desks.

Sunday afternoon I went to Grocery Outlet and picked up $80 worth of goodies - about 10 packages of cereal bars, a dozen snack cakes, 3 tins of wafer sticks, handfuls of bags of crackers & chips, a case of bottled water, a ton of candy, and 24 bottles of grape juice.

I arrived to the library at 7pm, went down to the information commons to work with the staff on sending a message out to all the computer stations at 8pm letting them know about the event upstairs. We set up in the main lobby near our open reserves/holds section. 1 table for library materials (advertising study areas & new services), water/juice bottles, and the bowl of candy. The other table for all the other food, napkins & plates. And a third table for the coffee, tea, & ice water.

8pm rolled around and students started arriving. By 8:15 there was a line all the way across the lobby area. By 8:25 all the food was gone except for the candy. By 9pm the coffee & tea was all gone, too. Crazy! The students absolutely loved it, though. They were very appreciative and I’m sure needed the break. We’ll definitely have to do this again at the end of the fall semester. I think a cool thing to do would be to have the library staff bake & bring things in. That way we’d save money, have more food, and have personal, homemade stuff from the librarians to the students