ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries Training student employees by videotape By Gregory A. Crawford Reference and Public Services Librarian Moravian College Circulation staff at Moravian College are videotrained. T oday videotapes are available for use in train- ing for various activities from aerobics to com puter technology. But is there an instructional video on how to ru n th e c irc u la tio n desk? Sound f a r ­ fetched? No, it is reality at Reeves Library of M ora­ vian College and Theological Seminary where the reference librarians and support staff have become m edia p erso n alities to a very select group of viewers—our student employees. Moravian College and Theological Seminary is a small liberal arts college and seminary th a t offers the BA, BS, BMus, MDiv, MATS, MAPC, and MBA degrees. The student body includes approxi­ mately 1,200 full-time undergraduates, 550 in the Division of Continuing Studies, 160 in the MBA p ro g ra m , an d 70 in th e S em inary p ro g ram s. Reeves Library houses approximately 186,000 vol­ umes and subscribes to 1,200 periodicals. At the time th a t this project was undertaken, the Refer­ ence and Public Services D epartm ent consisted of two professional librarians and two support staff. Although the reorganization of the library in Au­ gust 1985 resulted in a departm ent which combines circulation, reference, reserves, and interlibrary loan, most of the training procedures were carried over from the previous Circulation D epartm ent, since most students employed by the departm ent perform circulation functions. Due to the extensive responsibilities of our stu­ dent employees, we estimated th a t to fully train a new student required over four hours of one-on- one contact with a staff member. Furtherm ore, be­ cause of student scheduling, rarely could more than one student be trained simultaneously. Both the librarians and the support staff shared this onerous burden. Since the 1985-1986 school year witnessed a large increase in student staffing as a result of the departm ent reorganization, the train ­ ing of 25 new students required approximately 100 hours of staff time in this one task. Also during this time a greater emphasis was being placed on ex­ panding reference services and bibliographic in­ struction. Thus, the two librarians were available less often to train or supervise students. W hen the summer of 1986 finally came, time was available for a recapitulation and review of the year. It was evident th a t some changes in student training were m andated. One librarian suggested th a t we try to produce a training videotape. Her first task was to review some relevant literature on videotape methods which showed th a t the tech­ nique might be useful when adapted to our situa­ tion. It was decided th a t an abbreviated trial tape be ventured. She then arranged with our Media Center to provide a student skilled in the use of vi­ deotape equipm ent, wrote a prelim inary script, and made a few visual aids. The day of the trial arrived and the filming be­ gan. For the initial test, one librarian was filmed explaining the circulation of books and reserve reading materials. After the filming, the equip­ m ent was hauled back to the Media Center and the test product received its first screening. The result was not satisfactory but it was encouraging. 149 150 The staff of the departm ent spent the next few days b rain sto rm in g m ethods of im proving the video. W e noted four defects. First, the cam era had rem ained stationary. Second, the graphic sam­ ples were difficult to see. Third, the script needed to be modified for simpler, clearer presentation. Fourth, the film was too tedious for the viewer if only one person presented all the m aterial. To com­ pensate for these problems, several changes were made. One of the major improvements, and simple to perform , was to use the blackout and zoom fea­ tures of the cam era. By carefully planning the script for each segment, it became possible to have wide-angle views showing the entire area of con­ cern in each segment w ith the presenter properly fram ed and then, when an item was mentioned th a t needed to be seen clearly, a closeup of the item w ould im m ediately appear after a m om entary blackout. For example, during the presentation on reserve materials, the viewer is first introduced to th e person explaining th a t segm ent in a w id e­ angled shot which shows the reserve desk and re­ serve stack area. W hen the presenter began to tell how a student signs out a reserve reading, the screen fades to black and then opens again to reveal a closeup of the reserve card itself. Thus, the viewer sees a detail missing from the trial video. A second improvement was a better m ethod of presenting any graphic item. Each form regularly used by student employees in the departm ent was m ounted on a board of a contrasting color in order to make it more visible. The zoom shots were tried in various ways in order to eliminate glare from the overhead lights and we quickly learned by trial and error the proper way to slant the boards. To further aid the viewer we compiled a book of samples. Each form shown in the video was m ounted in clear plastic covers in a notebook in the order cor­ responding to its presentation in the video. As a Equal time with typists! Gregg Sapp, science librarian at Idaho State University, shares w ith us the following letter th a t appeared in the December 17, 1987, issue of the prestigious British scientific journal, Na- j ture, under the heading, “ C redit w here it’s due” : “Sir—I note w ith interest and wonder at the reasons why authors in your journal and others so seldom acknowledge help obtained from li­ brary and inform ation services while according fulsom e p ra ise to ty p ists, p h o to g ra p h e rs , graphic artists, technical assistants, colleagues and practically everyone else.—Judith Palmer, R otham sted Experim ental Station, H arpen- I den, Herts AL5 2JQ, U .K .” W hy, indeed? Are authors in other disci­ p lin es or o th e r sc ie n tific jo u rn a ls m o re generous?—GME result, as students w atch the video, they can also see an actual form in the notebook. Additionally, the script was improved as was its presentation. Although completeness was a prior­ ity, the script for each segment of the video had to be fairly compact. The num ber of segments was decided upon and divided among the staff. One li­ brarian presented reserve readings and shelving/ shelf reading procedures. The other librarian ex­ plained the circulation of books and fine policies. One of the support staff discussed interlibrary loan while the other delved into the intricacies of the photocopiers and the change draw er. Each staff member wrote his or her own script and m ade vis­ ual aids for th a t section of the video. It was then practised before the others who w ould suggest changes, additions, and deletions. By the time the actual filming was done, the script was fairly well memorized. In addition, each person devised a test for the m aterial he or she presented. Generally the questions paralleled the order of presentation in the video. These questions were compiled into a test which each new student must complete success­ fully after viewing the video. The day finally arrived for filming. Each seg­ ment was done individually w ith a personal intro­ duction of each staff member. As a result, new stu­ dents can at least identify the staff visually. As film ing progressed, errors and m istakes often arose. If an error or miscue was m ajor bu t not found until after the segment was completed, the entire segment was retaped; if caught as it oc­ curred, the smaller section only was retaped im m e­ diately. Most of one day was spent in the filming. After the initial filming, the director of the library added an introduction to the video w hich was edited onto the beginning of the tape. The resulting video has a run length of over an hour. Although the product has an obvious amateurish quality, the results from students have been posi­ tive. The w ritten test has shown th at the students have heard and retained, at least tem porarily, much of the information. If a student does poorly on a section of the test, he or she can view th a t p art of the videotape again. Furtherm ore, if a student’s performance on the job shows a lack of understand­ ing, the videotape can be seen and the w ritten test taken again. O ther students have viewed the tape as a refresher after a long break such as Christmas or summer vacation. We realize th a t the evolving nature of the departm ent will cause the video to be­ come dated quickly, but the experience gained will produce an even better product next time. As tim e has passed, we continue to identify areas th a t were neglected in the video. To compensate for this, we keep a list of items about which we must personally tell each new student. In this m an­ ner we have been able to interact personally with the students and to keep them current on policy and procedural changes. The use of a videotape and w ritten test for tra in ­ ing purposes has substantially reduced the am ount MORE BA N K FOR THE BUCK. W hen they have questions about banks, do you have the answers? Sheshunoff bank informa­ tion is bona fide bank information. That’s why over 13,000 bankers use our books and reports. You can get the bank data you need the way you want to use it. Complete with guides to how to use it. You can have books that quickly analyze every bank in the country. Detailed analysis on all the banks in a particular state or examine just one bank in as much detail as you want. And more. You don’t need to be a banker to use our information. Anyone who can compare numbers can find answers to their questions with our useful reference tools. And our industry surveys present easy-to- follow data from banks across the country. No resource is more thorough, more accurate, or easier to use. Our Customer Service Representatives will be happy to tell you more about our books, reports, and surveys. You can even examine a book for 30 days without obliga­ tion. For more information, please call us at (512) 4 7 2 -2 2 4 4 . Sheshunoff & Company, Inc. One Texas Center 505 Barton Springs Road Austin, Texas 78704 152 of tim e th a t librarians and staff members are d i­ rectly involved in training new student circulation employees and has insured th a t all the students are presented w ith the same m aterial. The results have been notew orthy. ■ ■ Online databases and book preservation By Danielle Mihrani Assistant Curator, Bobst Library N ew York University Two topics of increasing interest to literary scholars were discussed at M LA. T h i s year’s annual m eeting of the M odern L a n ­ guage Association (MLA) took place in San F ra n ­ cisco on Decem ber 27-30, 1987. The attendance w as q u ite la r g e — a p p r o x im a te ly 11,000 particip an ts—and the sessions w hich w ere distrib­ u te d over t h a t p e rio d re a c h e d a b e w ild e rin g n u m b er—721. Even for a single scholar, the a t­ tem pt to attend all concurrent sessions of interest w ithin a single subject specialty was nearly impos­ sible. Though m uch of the program had to do w ith lit­ erary studies, a few sessions proved quite interest­ ing from the lib rarian ’s perspective: those th a t re­ lated to online literary databases, and, for the very first tim e, to book preservation. There were also sessions dealing w ith desktop publishing, the ethics of publishing, and the evaluation of educational software. Anyone interested in obtaining a com ­ prehensive view of the program should consult the November 1987 issue of the P M L A . This report will concentrate on a few sessions th a t brought together teams of librarians and academics in discussions re­ garding online databases and book preservation. The m ain focus of one session (#230) was the question: “Should there be a L ibrary of G reat B rit­ ain like the L ibrary of America?” w hile another (#137) concerned itself w ith “D ating Manuscripts: C urrent Science Techniques for the Identification of Paper and In k .” Another session of note (#130) was chaired by Geoffrey D. Smith (Ohio State Uni­ versity) and entitled “L iteratu re on File: Prospects for a N ational L iterary D a ta Base.” Smith had a t­ tended an MLA m eeting in 1984 w here he h ad p re­ sented the results of his work on the American Fic­ tio n P ro je c t; th is tim e , th e session in c lu d e d presentations dealing w ith th e “A fro-A m erican Novel Project” (M aryem m a G raham , University of Mississippi) and the “Black Periodical Fiction Proj­ ect” (Ilenry Louis Gates Jr., Cornell University). L ib rarian s interested in o b tain in g inform ation about these two databases are encouraged to con­ tact each of the tw o speakers. The session began w ith MLA’s Eileen M. Mack- esy’s “Overview of C u rren t and F u tu re Develop­ m ent in Online L iterary D a ta Bases.” Mackesy’s p resentation echoed m any lib ra ria n s’ concerns about the impossibility of obtaining an accurate tally of existing online databases in the hum anities.