ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 5 0 0 / C & R L N e w s ■ M a y 2001 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s e wNs A multilingual virtual tour for international students The Web-based library at Baruch College opens doors by Arthur Downing and Leo Robert Klein Pr o v id in g e f f e c t iv e lib r a r y o r ie n ta t io n fo r internation al stu d ents p o s e s sp e c ia l ch allen ge s. A n in tern ation al s tu d e n t’s p ro cie n c y in th e la n g u a g e o f th e h o s t c o u n try m ay b e lim ited, a n d his o r h e r fu n ctio n a l v o ­ cab u lary is u n lik e ly to in c lu d e library term i­ n o lo g y . Intern atio nal stu d e n ts e n c o u n te r li­ b r a r y p r o c e d u r e s , r e ­ sou rces, a n d syste m s that are q u ite d iffe r e n t fro m w h a t t h e y h a d e x p e r i ­ e n c e d in th eir h o m e la n d . M oreover, th e ed u ca tio n a l s y s t e m o f t h e i r n a t i v e co u n try m a y en tail a role for th e lib ra ry that c o n ­ trasts w ith th e c o u rs e re­ q uirem ents fo r library re­ search fa c e d in th e h o st c o u n try .1 A c a d e m ic libraries h a v e e m p lo y e d a va ri­ ety o f m eth o d s to in tro d u ce international stu­ dents to th e library and h e lp th e m a cq u ire a ge n e ra l k n o w le d g e o f library re so u rc e s an d services in a d v a n c e o f m o re in ten sive instruc­ tion. S om e libraries h a v e e x p e rim e n te d w ith fa ce -to -face tours o r o rien tatio n p ro g ra m s in the n ative la n g u a g e s o f their international stu­ The m u ltilin g u a l W eb-based library's homepage. den ts, h o w e v e r , this a p p r o a c h is lab o r-in te n ­ sive , d ifficu lt to ad m in ister to a large stu d e n t fi­ p o p u la tio n , a n d d e p e n d e n t u p o n th e s c h e d ­ u lin g ava ila b ility o f stu d e n ts.2 D e sp ite th e ini­ tiation o f in n o v a tiv e p ro g ra m s ta ilo re d to the n e e d s o f in tern atio n al students, it is still m o st c o m m o n fo r libraries to sim p ly in c lu d e inter­ n ational students in a b rief tou r o f th e library as part o f the g e n e ra l stu d e n t o ri­ e n ta tio n to th e c a m p u s. B a se d o n reports w ith stu­ d e n ts at c o lle g e s a cro ss th e U n ited States, it see m s that internation al students d o n o t u n d e rsta n d o r re­ call v e r y m u ch o f the in­ f o r m a t i o n p r e s e n t e d a b o u t th e lib rary d u rin g th e se e n c o u n t e rs .3 L ib raiy o rien tatio n p ro g ra m s te n d to b e d e liv e re d at a tim e w h e n in tern ation al stu d e n ts are d is­ t r a c t e d , a n x i o u s , a n d s o m e w h a t o v e r ­ w h e lm e d . T h e y are ad ju stin g to a n e w livin g e n v iro n m e n t a n d a fo r e ig n cu ltu re, as w e ll as stru g g lin g to a b so rb a g re a t d e a l o f info r­ m ation a b o u t the c o lle g e that is b e in g p re ­ se n te d to th e m in a la n g u a g e th e y are still lea rn in g . About the authors Arthur Downing is chief librarian and Leo Robert Klein is Web coordinator and digital resources developer at Baruch College, CUNY, e-mail: adowning@baruch.cuny. edu and leo_klein@baruch.cuny.edu. The authors wish to acknowledge the work o f Rita Ormsby, Spencer Means, and many other library staff who contributed to the development o f the tour. mailto:leo_klein@baruch.cuny.edu C&RL News ■ May 2001 /501 The William a n d Anita N ew m an Library o f Baruch College, City University o f New York, w as faced w ith th e n e e d to deliver a m eaningful o rientation for a large p o p u la ­ tion o f international students; Baruch College has the highest enrollm ent o f international students am ong institutions offering a m aster’s p rogram in th e U nited States.4 T he library sought to offer a self-paced to u r that w ou ld b e p ro v id ed in an international stu d e n t’s n a ­ tive la n g u ag e a n d b e available w h e n e v e r n eed ed , including prior to arrival on cam ­ pus. T hese requirem ents led the library to d e ­ v e lo p th e m ultilin g u al W eb -b ased library fo u n d at h ttp ://n e w m a n .b a ru c h .c u n y .e d u / about/v_tour. This virtual to u r is offered in th e nine m ost com m only rep o rted native lan­ guages o f B aruch College students: English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, G reek, an d Turkish. The to u r co n ­ sists o f three sections: W elcom e— a te x t an d a u d io w e lc o m e m e s ­ sage; Tour— a 28-frame “slide sh o w ” that p re ­ sents the key features of the library usually dis­ c u s s e d in a w a lk in g tour; a n d Maps— Inter­ active floor plans that are linked to each item included in th e tour. Development process After the library adm in­ istration, the W eb coor­ dinator, a n d th e Inform ation Services Divi­ sio n (i.e., re fe re n ce /in stru c tio n librarians) ag reed o n th e initial co n cep t o f th e tour, the In fo rm atio n Services D ivision p re p a re d a 2,000-word English-language script based o n the talking p oints the librarians cover in their usual w alking tour. The W eb coord in ato r u sed a digital cam ­ era to obtain im ages for each slide in the tour. The library identified the stu d en t trans­ lators by contacting stu d en t cultural organi­ zations a n d posting signs on cam pus. Native speakers o f the target language w ere hired o n a contract basis. Each initial translation involved at least tw o translators w h o com ­ p a re d their w o rk to reach consensus. W e b pa ge f o r th e Chinese ve rsio n o f th e N e w m a n L ib ra ry V irtu a l T o u r a t h t t p : / / n e w m a n . b a r u c h . c u n y . e d u / a b o u t / v _ t o u r/c h i n e s e _ t r a d /v _ to u r_ h tm l.h tm . Next, the w ork w as review ed by at least o n e translator/editor. Translators w ere asked to avoid literal translations o f th e English text. The goal w as to get as close as possible to a text that seem ed to have originated in the target language. W hen in d o u b t ab o u t the m ost ap p ro p riate translation for a segm ent o f text, translators w ere asked to select the expression they w ould use if they w ere speak­ ing to a friend. W hen translators w ere u n cer­ tain ab o u t library term inology o r technical term s, they solicited opinions from friends at h o m e via e-mail o r tested their choices in native-language Internet chatroom s. Tw o versions o f th e to u r w ere c re a te d - an anim ated version in M acromedia Flash and a m ore traditional version in HTML. The Flash version is d esigned to m ake th e library’s m es­ sage m ore m em orable for th e students. The HTML v e rsio n is p ro v id e d for u sers w ith slow er Internet connections, special accessi­ bility needs, o r b ro w s­ ers that lack th e n eces­ sary plug-in. File sizes w e re k e p t to a m in i­ m u m , a lth o u g h F lash occasionally ran into lin- I guistic difficulties w ith particularly rich charac­ ter sets—traditional Chi­ n e s e b e in g o n e — a n d this w o u ld b e reflected in th e ultim ate file size. N on-Rom an charac­ ter sets, in fact, p o se d a considerable challenge, at le a st initially, w ith m o st ap p licatio n s an d the operatin g system itself (NT4) refusing to cooperate. A w o rk -aro u n d w as finally found using Mac OS/9 language kits. Even then, two texts that cam e from n o n stan d ard w o rd p ro ­ cessing app licatio n s h a d to b e re -e n te red m anually. The Web design, anim ation, audio file creation, an d im age processing w ere ac­ com plished using standard Web developm ent to o ls (e.g ., P h o to s h o p , Illustrator, Flash, D ream w eaver, Premier, an d Peak LP). As a dramatic, albeit optional, touch, an audio narration plays in sync w ith the scroll­ ing text in the w elcom e section in each o f th e lan g u ag es. It s o o n b ec a m e ap p a re n t, how ever, that the individual responsible for th e translation w as n ot always th e best can- http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/ http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/ 502 / C&RL News ■ May 2001 The virtual tour is meant to enhance, rather than replace, face- to-face interactions between the library staff and international students, which is w hy w alking tours and other orientation program s are still provided. didate for th e voice w ork. In these cases, ei­ ther those involved w ith the translation en ­ listed friends or library staff w ere recruited. A broadcast-quality voice w as n o t as im portant as enthusiasm an d patience. The com pleted tour w as evaluated by students and library staff. In addition to review ing occasional student comments about the tour, formal student evalu­ ations are obtained in library instruction classes. How the tour is used The virtual tour is used by the library and other college departm ents for b o th recruitm ent and orientation. The college’s International Student Services Center informs all prospective inter­ national students o f the tour an d has publi­ cized it in their newsletter. The English as a Second Language Program o f th e college’s Division o f Continuing an d Professional Stud­ ies also provides students w ith the URL for the tour. Student cultural organizations have notified their m em bers an d friends at h o m e about the tour. There are students w h o take the virtual tour prior to arriving o n cam pus an d others w ho use it to clarify o r rem em ber w h at was described during the w alking tour that the li­ brary continues to provide during n ew stu­ dent orientation. Some students use the tour to increase their English-language proficiency by opening sepa­ rate brow sers for the English version an d the version o f the to u r in their native language in order to com pare the text. All versions o f the tour w ere visited m ore than 2,500 times in the four m onths since the public release in th e fall 2000 semester. The virtual tour has h elp ed the library dem ­ onstrate its com m itm ent to the success of its diverse student population. It represents a sub­ stantial investm ent o f staff time, funds, and technical resources over the 18-month devel­ o p m en t period, as w ell as an ongoing alloca­ tion o f resources to u p d ate the content to re­ flect inevitable changes in th e library. The collaborative w o rk b eh in d the creation o f the tour brought the library closer to stu­ d en t cultural organizations. Although student translators w ere p aid a nom inal sum for their work, they contributed m any additional hours because o f the strong sense of pride they felt in being included in the project. As n o ted o n th e Web page for the virtual tour, th e library w elco m es assistance from m em bers o f the Baruch College com m unity to translate the tour into additional languages. To ensure the quality o f the translation an d the accuracy o f the content, th e library requires a reliable po o l o f native speakers o f the target language to b e available o n a periodic basis to upd ate the translation. T he virtual tour is m eant to enhance, rather than replace, face-to-face interactions b etw een th e library staff a n d international students, w hich is w hy walking tours an d other orienta­ tion program s are still provided. The tour is designed to apply the m ultim edia capabilities o f the Web to establish an early rapport with international students an d supply them with critical inform ation in a form at that is under­ standable an d convenient. T he aim is to help a large, grow ing p o pulation derive m axim um benefit from the daunting yet valuable experi­ en ce o f studying abroad. Notes 1. Ziming Liu, “Difficulties an d Characteris­ tics o f Students from D eveloping Countries in Using Am erican Libraries,” College a n d Re­ search Libraries 54, no. 1 (January 1993): 2 5 - 31. 2. Manuel D. Lopez, “Chinese Spoken Here: Foreign Language Libraiy Orientation Tours,” C&RL News 44, no. 8 (September 1983): 267-69- Daniel Liestman an d Connie Wu, “Library O rientation for International Students in Their Native Language,” Research Strategies 8, no. 4 (1999): 191-96. 3. Yoshi Hendricks, “The Jap an ese as Li­ brary Patrons,” C&RL News 52, no. 4 (April 1991): 221-25. 4. Institute for International Education, Open Doors, 1999/2000 (NY: Institute for Interna­ t i o n a l E d u c a tio n , 2 0 0 0 ), h t t p : / / w w w . o p e n d o o rsw e b . org/Lead%20Stories/Colleges_ and_Universities.htm#M aster’s. ■