Several months ago, Mike Somers wanted to get together a team to investigate the use of Streaming Video for library applications. At that time the Streaming Video Team was formed, and we started work on a video to explain wireless networking in the Library.
While we had a fairly extensive Web site for the Wireless project, I asked a family member if they really understood just what it was all about by reading it. The bad news was that they didn't really get a good grasp of what all the possibilities were. When the video was finished, I asked the same person to watch it, and see if they understood Wireless better? After viewing it the answer was "Oh, now I get it". Clearly streaming video offers a learning experience that previously was difficult to match.
Taking it a step farther, the Streaming Video Team asked Mike Somers to approve the purchase of equipment so that we could produce our own videos without having to borrow equipment from other departments on campus. Currently only two video workstations are available on campus. With a budget of about $2,700 we were able to get all the hardware and software needed to make another workstation happen here in the Library. Most of this equipment has been delivered and is ready to go.
Specifically we a have a Gateway 1.8 GHz Pentium 4 computer with a DVD writer, and ample disk space. We have a Dazzle DV-Bridge that allows you to connect a camcorder, VCR player, or any other device that uses RCA cords, SVGA adapter, or Firewire to capture video. For software to create the videos we have MGI VideoWave 5, and Adobe Premier 6.
We also have software called Camtasia that allows you to capture as video any work you do on the computer screen. For instance you do a specific task in the Voyager Acquisitions module, and want others to learn it, just capture the process with Camtasia and then others can watch it as a video. With a companion product called DubIt, you can add voice to your video so that you can explain the process while they watch the video.
The next step is to create a video studio right here in the building. With the studio in-house making videos will become a much easier task. Work started on the studio at the end of February, using room 256 in the southwest corner of TM. Hopefully by early March all the equipment will be here, and the lab will be fully functional.
One library that has done a particularly good job with this is Bowling Green State University in Ohio. You can see their work at DataLine. As you can see what they have done is to make library education a fun and efficient way to learn.
The Streaming Team has one project in the works, that explains full-service stations in the Library, and another one planned is in partnership with the Writing Center. If you have nay ideas for videos for internal or external use, just let us know. The team maintains a web site at panther.indstate.edu/video.