Circulation — The Making of: Library Videos and the Real World

The Ohio University Libraries has been a part of the university's Freshman Year Experience (FYE) classes almost since their inception. Over the past ten years, we have tried many variations on the “library day” lesson plan, with various (low) success rates. For fall of 2010, the FYE coordinator asked for an extremely simple plan: just some videos about services and a walk through the library. It was well-timed; we were both frustrated with the low use of our lesson plans and getting better at video production. It seemed it would be so easy … and then, of course it wasn't. We were saved by collaborating with a film student, and one of our videos was awarded an ALA 2011 PR “Best of Show”. Students and instructors respond well to humorous short videos in which we do not take ourselves too seriously.