video

Videos, Secure Data and Napping

/ dwakimoto

Happy Monday!

So my library isn’t even open to the public yet (we open at 10am as we are between terms right now) and it is going to be a pretty dead day around here. Which means, of course, lots of work will get done-thus it is a happy (work) Monday.

So, why would it be a happy Monday for you? Because, faithful reader, I have a trio of resources and articles to inspire you to protect your data, make YouTube videos and, well, nap. So without further ado:

First up is this article on students using YouTube videos for help with classes. And, no, I’m not talking about those horrible videos on how to cheat. This article talks about how students watch videos on math problems, biology concepts and physics in order to learn. Yes, they learn on YouTube. This is just great, really! I use YouTube videos in my classes on information literacy all the time and I’ve seen some library videos up on YouTube, but I think it is a place where there is a lot of untapped potential for librarians to populate the YouTube sphere with great library videos. I mean, we’ve already got the vlogbrothers on our side. If you have no clue who the vlogbrothers are, please click the previous link and find out.

Speaking of retaining what you learn, check out this article on how napping helps memory. Yes, we should have students watch YouTube videos and then nap so they retain the information and can think of new ways of using the information they have now retained. I am totally for napping; we need to institute napping during the work day.

And, in order to keep your data secure, while you are napping or otherwise, check out Lifehacker’s guide to the top 10 ways to lock down your data. This is very important stuff. No one wants to be the poor person who loses the confidential company data. So do yourself a favor, and lock down your data.

As a bonus, just for fun because this is probably the last post before I leave on vacation, check out John, of the vlogbrothers talking about his library and other fun stuff.

Enjoy, happy Monday, and happy holidays!

Keeping Current and Living in the Library

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I don’t know about your place of work, but at my library, it has been dead all week long (I mean, we still have people coming in but after the crush that was finals week, it feels like a ghost town). Granted I work at an academic library, and the term is over, and it is quickly nearing many holiday celebration days, and most of the faculty members have left on vacation, but I’m still here! Which means, faithful blog readers, that I’m still blogging.

This will be a much shorter post than usual because, as my colleagues know, I just finished about 7 hours of captioning a video to make with 508 standards. Want to see the labor of my hard work? I captioned the wonderful Fair(y) Use Tale Video from Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society. Thank goodness they made the video available under a Creative Commons License, and with this post I am trying to fulfill the Share Alike clause. And, yes, my eyes hurt from trying to sync captions that long.

Onward to other great things on a Friday.

How do you stay current about trends online? Are you interested in what people are tweeting about? Why should you care? Well, it is always a good idea to know what is happening out there in the Internet ether. You never know what might be super-important to you and your library. Plus, it is just fun to play with new stuff. Here is a great article about 21 sites to Find out What’s Hot Online by makeuseofit.com. Just don’t go overboard on the web surfing. Remember to back slowly away from the computer every once in awhile.

I love this article about students camping out in the library. Take that people who say libraries aren’t relevant! It also goes to show that furniture needs to be moveable so students can rearrange the spaces in ways that work for them. And, in my opinion, people designing library spaces or renovating spaces, could do well to talk with students about how they use the space and what they need before assuming they know best. In another library I was at, it was obvious someone had taken the time to figure out what the students did in the library. Why? Because there were tons of electrical plugs for laptops and wireless worked throughout the building. Not to mention, the chairs were fabulously comfortable. Think I’m joking about the importance of designing for laptops? Check out this post about laptop use from the Ubiquitous Librarian.

Best wishes for a happy weekend! Safe travels to everyone who is traveling this holiday season.

And, never fear, the Waki Librarian will be blogging until the 23rd and then be back again with techie, library goodness after the new year.

Some Great Technology for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Okay, here it is, more love from Lifehacker for a Friday. Yes, some random stuff, but also some great tips for making technology work for you. Yes, I heart Lifehacker.

First, for the random, here is the great 40 Inspiration Speeches in 2 minutes YouTube video. Watch it and see just how many of these movies you know.

Here is Lifehacker’s Most Popular How To Features of 2008. I love tutorials and how to posts. This one is great, especially for all you Mac lovers out there–iPods and iPhones make multiple appearances on the list.

Chrome has left the building. No, actually Chrome has just officially left beta. Too cool. I love the Google Chrome browser–it is fast, sleek and the tabs rock. Oh, yeah, this article offers tips and tricks for getting the most out of Chrome too.

Love this (also found through Lifehacker) but here is the original post: The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook. Check this out to make sure you aren’t committing a faux pas on a social networking site.

And last, but certainly not least, How to Save Time during the Holidays. Great tips for saving time as everyone is so busy during the holiday season.

Speaking of which, everyone have a great time getting ready for the holidays and a lovely weekend. This has been your Waki Librarian info for the day. Now go forth and geek well and support your local library.

Making Movies: IL2008

/ dwakimoto

Making Movies: Cameras, Lights, Action

by: Sean Robinson and Kaye Gregg

Anime studio 5: software to use

American public on average watch 28 hours of TV a week

Tools of the Trade:
Camera
Tripod
Microphone
Lights
Computer Software

Lowest entry point:
using camera on the video setting and large SD memory card (cool!)

Upping Production Value
Sony pd 170 $1600 (many manual settings)
They use Mac for editing (I don’t use Macs, PCs work too)
Final Cut Express ($155)
Anime 5 ($44)
Sound editing: Audacity (works well–love it, I use it for podcasting)
Fast track M-Audio ($100)
Make your own soundtrack

Lighting kits: scoop lights from Home Depot, etc.

Don’t make bad videos:
Make a video that is both informative and entertaining

Challenge: move idea to reality!

Devil is in the details
get idea, write and rewrite, scout location, secure location, know light sources, outside–shoot in morning or evening (light is better), be aware of ambient sounds, take shots with still camera, test your equipment

Finding talent: searching inside your organization, look for extroverts, give them a screen test

Be prepared! Write out script on large piece of paper and hold under the camera so they can read it

Score it!
Put music into your video, archive.org (public domain clips/video loops) or create your own if you are musical, expectation to have music with video
Layer sound: voice, soundtrack, special effects sound

Microphones: stationary mic, lapel mic, if moving around a lot you can use a boom mic, or put in sound after the filming in the editing process

Sound design: work seamlessly, you shouldn’t notice it, register subconsciously, create auditory clues

More tools:
comb, water to drink and makeup
A little makeup is good, too much is a crime
Costuming: clothing should be in harmony with the surroundings

Prep work should be done before the talent gets there: check lights, camera and audio

Lighting 101:
Overhead florescent lighting: horrible, makes people look angry and green
Try to control lighting
Back light: hits at the base of the neck, separates subject from background
Fill light: in from the side, filling out the shadows
Should use: Back light, fill light (soften the face), key light (makes sparkle in the eyes) (15 degrees from the camera, 45 degrees angle)

Editing
If it doesn’t advance the story, it needs to go (even if you love the shot)
Make the subjects look and sound as good as possible

How do you do the editing?
Plan for the edit
Make the person make a script from their idea
Storyboard your script (it will keep you on schedule)

Edit wisely:
Viewers are visually sophisticated and can spot a bad edit, rely on your instinct, smooth edits and give a pace to it. Always have an intro, middle and end/wrap-up

Time needed:
40 minutes of film shot= 2 minutes usable footage
1 minute of footage=4 hours of editing
Double how long you think it will take and round up to the next Friday

Making a video in the session–we actually filmed a video that will be used for IL2009 marketing! So cool

Take Home Message:
Making videos is hard work but rocks. Rock on librarians!

Packing, Goal Setting and YouTube

/ dwakimoto

Okay, so it is Friday and we all need a little something fun and some tips to help us through the day as the weekend is fast approaching.

First the really awesome YouTube video from CSU Long Beach. CSULB had students give a tour of the reference services at the library–it is a great video. Again, marketing is so much better if students get in on it. I think my library should start a YouTube station. It definitely solves the problem with hosting streaming videos and with Overstream, we can even close caption the videos. Just a thought. Enjoy this video, I did!

Now from one of my favorite technology blogs, Lifehacker, here is an article on “Goal Setting for Skeptics”. I think goal setting is important, whether you write down your goals or not. I fine setting goals helps me from becoming bogged down in the day-to-day chores that have to get done and allow me to focus on longer-term projects, both at work and at home. But then, I’m the kind of person who also keeps journals to track project progress, keeps books of inspiring quotations and am always looking to learn. I know people that hate writing down goals and they get things accomplished just fine. I’m just saying, give the article a chance and see if it works for you. Who knows, maybe you could make one of your goals to adapt a Web 2.0 application to use in your library!

And last tip for the day, check out Wired’s article, Pack Light for Geek Travel. Great article to read for those of us who travel with a lot of tech gear and are getting ready to head out to conferences.

Speaking of conferences, I’ll be at the Internet Librarian Conference this coming week. So if you are going to be there, say hi.

New Visual Search Engines

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

Today is search engine day! Or, rather two search engines to keep your eyes peeled for their debut soon: Imprezzeo and VideoSurf and one that is already here: facesaerch. I am so excited about this and you’ll want to share this information with anyone who uses a lot of images and/or is interested in art. I know these search engines will come as a relief to those in art documentation as the access to images and non-textual material is very complicated. So what exactly makes these coming attractions so great? They don’t run exclusively off keywords, subject headings or other text interpretations of the images (still or moving). Yep, you heard that right–these search engines function beyond text capabilities.

Imprezzeo is the still image search engine. Read an article about the use of facial recognition software and other techniques used for searching in Imprezzeo. This will be an awesome search engine when up and running. Talk about a great addition to a digital art collection held at a library. How cool would it be to integrate this into a catalog search? And throw Cooliris on top of it. That would be something I would love to see.

VideoSurf is going to revolutionize searching for video like Imprezzeo will do for still images. Right now VideoSurf is in beta and you must request to be invited to set up an account to use it. I was playing with it this morning and have to say that I love the layout and the ease of refining the results. The fact that the whole video is analyzed, not just tags and other metadata, truly thrills me. Again, great for moving image archives and libraries. I’m not the only one who thinks it’s cool, check out this review of VideoSurf.

Okay, and in my quest to not just give interesting information but some technology you can use right now–I give you facesaerch! (Yes, that is spelled correctly.) This reminds me a lot of Cooliris; it has the same slick look and moving images. This search engine is designed specifically for searching for faces. Click on one of the images that you get in your results stream and it will take you to the webpage that the image is taken from. Handy tool if a patron wants an image of a person. Add to your list of specialized search engines.

Enjoy and have fun playing around with facesaerch!