LibGuides (v2) Summer

"What did you do this summer?"

The perennial inquiry from returning students - and student workers - has a different flavor this year. Prior to their May departure preliminary second floor moves and collection weeding led to reorganization of activity books, curriculum text books, big books, book kits, and award book areas. Next in the grand plan was back-shifting the juvenile collection into a full row of newly empty shelves. It was on my summer 'to do' list.  However as LibGuides administrator, my time and efforts were focused mainly on the project. Instead of floor moves, summer moves were of the digital variety. We migrated and went live with LibGuides v2 and E-Reserves to start the new academic year (woot!).

A new platform is a great opportunity to re-brand our guides and feature what they offer to faculty. Effort by our web services team, marketing, and information technology department helped us seamlessly integrate LibGuides v2 with our existing library and IRC web sites. Initial marketing of the updated resource includes information posted on the IRC and Library blog, accompanying tweets and Facebook posts, and will be followed by a short video overview of what LibGuides can provide for course support, instruction, research, and general library resources.  The video will post this week, as soon as I decide which to use.








Library and IRC blog posts are planned to feature information about E-Reserves, A to Z Databases, LibGuides and library instruction, IRC LibGuides, and course support guides.  I have already created two new library guides to support education course assignments and the response has been very favorable. It has also been a stark reminder that I need to consistently promote what these guides offer beyond traditional instruction resources.

Animoto iphone app

I was excited to see the new iphone app introduced by Animoto in mid-December; their blog post Introducing the new Animoto iphone App includes the following 30 second video:

Being able to create Animoto videos directly from photos on my phone is intriguing, convenient, and time saving.  For example, while developing the QR code tab to present at ALAO I took several shots with my phone depicting how I'm using them in the IRC. I determined a Photobucket slide show would run easily in the background while presenting ...

and I'm still pleased with the final result. However, my first thought was an Animoto slide show. I was hampered somewhat by getting the images from my phone (at work) to the Animoto web site and optioned to use my Photobucket account. After downloading the Animoto app I was able to upload images, create a video, and post it to Twitter in fifteen minutes or less.

In some ways, the app is easier than the web site as there is no extraneous information distracting the user.  My finished video is 360 p, slightly better quality than non-HD web videos and seemed to allow for a higher number of images for a thirty second free project. After login, I was able to see mobile and web project on both the app and my web account. There are a few drawbacks with the app, with a streamlined process there were fewer style and music options presented and the embed code was not easily accessible. In my opinion, the immediacy and ease of the app far out-weigh any of the drawbacks. Here's the finished product:

Revisiting Animoto

Last August I spent some time happily working with Animoto to update a library video (or two) and create a short technology Animoto video project based on snippets of information from CDWG's 21st Century Classroom Report 2010. The library video is happily living on my YouTube channel and embedded in a LibGuide highlighting library services. The technology video is embedded in my online class in Angel, or more appropriately it was part of my course. This evening, I received an email from the YouTube team announcing:

"Your video, 21st Century Classrooms, may have content that is owned or licensed by -----. No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information."

I spent time reviewing the information provided by YouTube's Copyright Overview Center, it seems the music accompanying my Animoto project was found to possibly be copyrighted and not available for use. I considered using AudioSwap and over-riding the audio track on the existing video, but ultimately went back to Animoto, remixed the video with a different audio track, uploaded the new video to YouTube, and deleted the offending video. I used the same audio track as selected for one of the library video projects; even though the other was more appropriate to the topic and images, there have been no problems reported with the library finished project. I am unsure how an audio track available to freely use with one entity causes copyright problems on another, but not naive enough to think it couldn't happen.

My librarian's heart is happy the potential copyright infringement has been resolved. Even better, the issue is resolved prior to working with video projects in class. Overall it’s been an interesting YouTube week for me; first I was contacted by Google Docs Community for permission to include my Google Docs videos in their revamped channel playlist - more on that later- and the second resulting in removal of a video.

Animoto Rocks!

Diane turned me onto to Animoto last week and since then I've gone cray! To think a a low techie person like me could create something snazzy is simply amazing!

I've done a total of seven so far, including one about an upcoming exhibit on Harry Potter.

I'm cheap; I do the free 30 second videos. Works for me so far. I recommend this to anyone with limited time and skill; it can help market your library in many different ways!

Working with Animoto

It's time to update a library video or two, both the university and library web sites - as well as LibGuides and ERes - look significantly different. I have the original movie saved and could easily insert updated screen shots, but thought this might be the time to try Animoto again. I spent Thursday evening playing, starting with images from the existing one minute video; it quickly became obvious the thirty second free project limit meant significant editing.

The video ran short before several important elements, such as introduction of online resources, were viewed. While processing, items were removed and the project edited to meet time constraints (as promised). It was time to re-interpret the original project and present what was important. I removed the lead in items, images highlighting the differences between old and new, and focused on what is important now. I ruthlessly culled out text and started the movie with a photograph of the library, "cheating" the time limit somewhat by labeling the image as opposed to using the text option in Animoto.

Because the process is fun, I definitely spent more time with it than necessary but it is easy to get involved. Now it's time to share. Each of these Animoto projects feature the same images and text, only the music and style selections are different.

I'm leaning towards the first of the revised projects. While the option to download and save is not available with the free version, it's possible to embed directly from Animoto and the option to export directly to your YouTube account; the export may take time and it warns resulting images will not be as clear. Still, it's an option to have a secondary record. I'm considering a couple additional projects, possibly something for class and/or promoting the Cyber Zed Shed call for proposals.

I also hope to convince Betsy to share her Animoto project from Friday afternoon ...

Update: Exporting the finished Animoto project to YouTube took less than five minutes (including processing time on YouTube). I would guess the amount of time needed would vary considering traffic on either site and internet connection. Overall, video images are not as clear on YouTube, but they are acceptable and text is readable. This is a nice way to have a backup of my project.