Background: Due the shift to remote learning at a public university during the spring semester of 2020, the Libraries needed to immediately respond to dynamic changes in delivery of services and policies. The university has continued to operate remotely during the fall semester of 2020 and the Libraries have recently implemented a new discovery search tool. To meet the needs of the university learning community, the Libraries created an array of video tutorials to address commonly asked questions. As the perceived need for video materials grew, a team of librarians self-organized to create this content.
Description: This session will focus on the team-based processes of a group of librarians formed to hasten the creation, scope, and assessment of video content within an institution that highly values face-to-face instructional methods. The use of a flat hierarchical team structure and a consensus-based approach to address potential topics, themes, directions, statistics, and organization of content will be explored. This presentation will describe an ad hoc cohort founded to address an immediate need while honoring personal choice, autonomy, academic freedom, and responsibility. Democratic voice and inclusivity informs the views, processes, and actions described in this case study.
Results: The Libraries Tutorial Team created 13 videos during the summer of 2020, followed by 18 more videos in fall. There were 152 tutorial viewings that occurred over the summer and this increased to 761 views in the fall. The most viewed tutorials dealt with common library-related questions such as, performing basic searches using a discovery tool, accessing full text, obtaining print books, and using interlibrary loan. One discipline-specific tutorial demonstrating the use of the database, CINAHL was also viewed heavily during the fall semester. The team also reviewed survey results from library faculty and staff that pertained to tutorials. Library colleagues indicated specific content they wanted to see the team focus on and indicated that they would like training events centered around video creation.
Conclusion: As this effort is ongoing, limited evaluation data is available currently. Further statistics related to video content use and reference assistance will be analyzed following the conclusion of the spring semester.