The document summarizes a project by the Yale Medical Library to create online video tutorials on library skills. It discusses why the project was undertaken, including serving a decentralized user community and new digital environment. It provides an overview of creating over 50 tutorials in Flash and iPod formats and collecting usage data. Analysis found the tutorials were highly accessed and cost-effective compared to traditional instruction. The document concludes by offering tips for screencasting like keeping videos short, improving audio quality, and balancing file size with quality.

1. Screencast i ng and Podcast i ng Experience of the Yale Medical Library Lei Wang October 24, 2008 Wallingford, CT

2. Outline Why this project? Project overview and demo Cost and cost-effectiveness Tips and tricks

3. Why this project?

4. User community

5. User community

6. “ We wanted to go to your classes, but we’re kinda stuck here.”

7. The new digital library environment

8. Electronic resource expenditure at Yale Medical Library

9. Electronic resource expenditure at Yale Medical Library

10. Gate counts at Yale Medical Library

11. In-library patrons

12. In-library patrons

13. A new generation of users

14. A new generation of users

15. Why this project? Decentralized, busy user community with a relatively small student population The new digital environment at medical libraries A new generation of users

16. Project overview

17. Created 50+ online video tutorials about the most frequently taught library skills; Distributed the tutorials in Flash as well as the iPod compatible formats; Collected and analyzed usage data for these tutorials. What we did

18. Demo

19. Cost

20. Budget Constraints

21. Media production software Camtasia Studio Audacity Quicktime Pro

22. Media file and feed hosting services Libsyn Blogger Feedburner

23. Statistics services Libsyn Feedburner

24. Hardware Microphone and accessories

25. $500

26. Staff time

27. 1 hour per minute of video

28. Cost You can use free tools or tools with minimum cost to do a screencast / podcast project; On average, expect to spend 1 hour of staff time for 1 minute of video.

29. Cost-effectiveness

30. What are we trying to measure? Did they need what we delivered? Did they get what we delivered when they needed it? Did they learn from what we delivered after they got it?

31. Two kinds of usage data Media file download / access statistics Feed / subscription statistics

32. Download statistics from Libsyn for mov / m4v files

33. Download statistics from Statcounter for swf files

34. 47,275 downloads!

35. Subscriber statistics from Feedburner

36. Subscriber statistics from Feedburner

37. Subscriber statistics from Feedburner

38. Subscriber downloads VS. non-subscriber downloads

39. Total video downloads VS. reference & education activities

40. Campus IPs VS non-campus IPs

41. Video downloads from campus IPs VS. reference & education activities

42. Video production hours VS. instructor hours

43. Cost-effectiveness Compared with traditional reference and education statistics, screencast / podcast projects prove to be cost-effective.

44. Tips and tricks

45. Content is king.

46. Plan well.

47. Length matters.

48. “ I shall be so brief that I have already finished.” -- Salvador Dalí

49. Recommendations About 1 – 3 minutes is best. Ask yourself: what can I teach in 1 – 3 minutes? If your video HAS to be longer, use TOC menus.

50. Size matters. Tips and tricks

51. Screen resolution statistics from Google Analytics

52. Recommendations Don’t make your users scroll. Use 640 x 480 for podcast compatibility. Use the “zoom-and-pan”, “auto-pan”, or “smart-focus” features in screencast software to solve screen size problems.

53. Nobody likes to be lectured to.

54. “ This tutorial demonstrates the subject heading search function of the Orbis catalog ...” “ In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to find a book in the library by subject ...”

55. Recommendation Use an informal, familiar, first-person tone. Please, no librarian-speak.

56. Audio quality matters.

57. Recommendations Use a uni-directional USB mic. Learn to use your software applications’ noise reduction or audio enhancement features. Practice, practice, practice!

58. File size or video quality?

59. Connection speed statistics from Google Analytics

60. Recommendations Use mono audio only. The less motion in your video, the smaller the file size. About 1 MB per minute of video is the norm.

61. Tips and tricks Content is king, so plan well. 1 - 3 minutes long is best. Use 640 x 480 screen size. Use an informal, familiar, first-person tone. Spend time improving audio quality. Balance file size and video quality.

62. Outline Why this project? Project overview and demo Cost and cost-effectiveness Tips and tricks

63. Happy screencasting and podcasting!