Reference Backtalk: Screencasting for an Audience of One
Jan 15, 2011Screencasting for an audience of one: crazy, right? To record and narrate on-screen actions takes time and specialized equipment, has a significant learning curve, and calls for an arresting voice like Leonard Cohen’s. Putting in that level of work for one particular patron with one specific question is a waste of time, right?
Wrong.
Screencasting for an audience of one is a skill every frontline library employee, from circulation to reference, should learn and use. It gives patrons a permanent record of the interaction—a recording that can be reused—and encourages library staff to have the right frame of mind when answering queries.
Birth of a screencast
I began making one-off screencasts after inadvertently making a patron feel stupid for the millionth time. This poor person took the time to come to the reference desk with a question; I provided a strong resource. My directions for accessing the best articles, however, were far from simple: eight or nine clicks, the exact keywords, and the right setup of Boolean operators. Suffice to say this patron was never going to come back for this kind of “help” again.
I failed. I was sick of failure. I needed a solution.
While researching traditional screencasting, I read about a librarian who made screencasts for her distance-education students using Camtasia, a proprietary screencasting software. An excellent idea but not really feasible since I can’t ask for a copy of a relatively expensive software on every public computer I touch and train all of my colleagues to use it. Fortunately, the next day I read a blog post on TechCrunch about ScreenJelly, a free browser-based screencasting program.
With ScreenJelly, I was able to create tangible, persistent, and customized tutorials/guides for my question-askers. Take Consumer Reports. Once I let patrons know we have an online subscription, they want to take advantage of it. However, it requires at least three clicks from our homepage to get to the resource. Moreover, navigating the Consumer Reports site is not intuitive, and many patrons need help finding the rankings—the perfect conditions for a targeted screencast.
Screencasting to an audience of one is even more useful for in-depth research questions that call for a detailed and nuanced search strategy, as was the case with a screencast I made for a patron interested in learning French (see screenjelly.com/watch/b462VqIRYXI).
The tools
Many tools exist to make these types of screencasts. I recommend using the free tools that require no installation.
Screenjelly (screenjelly.com)
The first tool I used, Screenjelly requires a login to save the recording, though it is possible to log in using a Twitter/Facebook user name. Screenjelly allows up to three minutes of recording time and audio. It stores the screencasts and provides static URLs to link to them.
Screenr (screenr.com)
Screenr is similar to Screenjelly, offering up to five minutes of recordings. Its one weakness is that it requires a Twitter login. Its strength is that it records screencasts in a format that is viewable on iPhones and iPads. Uploading to YouTube is a snap.
ScreenToaster (screentoaster.com)
With no apparent recording time limit, Screentoaster is by far the most powerful of the browser-based options. You can also add audio and subtitles after finishing the screencast, or you can use a webcam to record other video. A Screentoaster account is required.
Which tool you use isn’t important. I recommend being tool agnostic, as any of them can close up shop with little notice. Other alternatives include Capturefox, Screencast-o-matic, Jing, Camstudio, and GoView. If you can swing it, I also recommend getting a cheap USB microphone for each public service desk to enable audio recording (though a silent screencast is better than none).
Getting a good take
It isn’t enough to just make a screencast; it must be useful. These eight points will help you design useful recordings:
•Explain what you are about to do.
•Have one goal, and answer one question. Don’t clutter the screencast with unnecessary information.
•Pace yourself; don’t go racing through. If possible, let the patron control the pace.
•If using audio, speak and move the mouse slowly to allow the patron to follow along.
•Summarize the reason for the screencast near the end.
•Have a starting point. This is usually the front page of the library’s website, but it could be anything as long as the patron knows how to get to it.
•If the patron seems interested, teach her or him how to use the tool. Wouldn’t this be a great way to get help requests?
•Don’t worry about making it perfect. These are meant to be quick and dirty, so mistakes are fine. Until library websites and databases are intuitive (don’t hold your breath!), other techniques must be adopted. For now, screencasting to an audience of one is a great arrow to have in your quiver.
| Author Information |
| Mikael Jacobsen (mlarsjacobsen@gmail.com, @mickjacobsen on Twitter) is Supervisor of Computer Labs, Librarian at the Skokie Public Library, IL |
