Infographics: Make Your Own!

Has anybody noticed that Infographics are everywhere? Now don't get me wrong. I love infographics. In fact, I have a Pinterest board full of them. But have you ever wondered what it would take to make one of those? Luckily easel.ly and infogr.am make it remarkably simple and free (if you set up an online account at no charge) =D

Easel.ly

From what I've seen, this program does a really nice job making visually and aethetically pleasing infographics. You can change the size and shape of the font, the graphics, and the clip art. While there are plenty of templates to choose from, you can also start from scratch.

Infogr.am

Instead of focusing on the visual side of an infographic, this site focuses on the data side. You can either enter data onto the website which will change the graphs and visuals it makes for you, or you can upload data from a document that will change the graphs as well. Pretty cool, no?

Now, I haven't had the time to make an infographic using these sites, but this video does a nice job of explaining and showing these services step-by-step. Thank you Kathy Ishazuka from TheDigitalShift for making it. Enjoy!

Library Teen Film Fest: Red Carpet Event

So you've decided to do a Teen Film Fest, you have a million films entered because you promoted the craziness out of the thing, and now you are wondering what to do with all of it. Here are a few suggestions:

1) Host a Red Carpet Event at your library. Go all out with trophies, decorations, a red carpet, cash prizes, and everyone dressing up all fancy.

2) Have your judges pre-screen the videos. This saves you the headache of trying to create certificates on that night, and lets the judges breath easier because they don't have to make snap decisions. But, it wouldn't hurt if they still attended the event and had some nice things to say to the filmmakers.

3) Share them like crazy on Social Media. You just had middle and high school students create content for you. Don't miss the opportunity to promote their work and your library in ways that you might not have been able to do before.

4) Send the films to a local TV station. If the films are good, why not send them over to the local TV station and see if they'll play them? They might not, but you never know...

5) Stream the event live, or have a celebrity (librarian, director, building manager) interview guests and the filmmakers and edit it into a post-Red Carpet Event video.

That's the end of this series on our Teen Film Fest, but I'll be back (next Monday).

Library Teen Film Fest: 5 Promotional Things To Try

1. Find out if your local schools have video production classes, and promote to those students directly. Most likely, these students will be excited about participating, and will have the necessary equipment too.

2. Ask a video production company to offer an internship or a day pass to the creator of the top film.

3. Create a promo video (this one was from last year).

4. Include a Public Service Announcement category, and send the winner to the CSLP Video Challenge (The Collaborative Summer Library Program has teens from across the nation submit PSAs, and then uses them to promote summer reading).

5. See what other film fests do. Obviously there are the big film festivals like Sundance and Toronto, but there are also many libraries (Yorba Linda, Houston, Topeka and Shawnee, and Greenwood for instance) that have done film fests before. Each one of them does it a little bit different, but they are definitely worth checking out.

Next Week

I'm going to chat about cool things you can do at the film showing event, or as we like to call it, The Red Carpet Event (because who doesn't want to see their project on a big screen?).

Library Teen Film Fest: How Ours Works

So here comes a combination of a program idea and shameless self-promotion. For the past four years, we've held a Library Teen Film Fest, and this year, I'm going to tell you a little bit about how we do it.

Basically, teens (ages 13-18) create a video using a theme (typically the Summer Reading theme for that year), and then we show the films at the library and give out cash prizes.

This year, the videos will all be Short Films (up to five minutes long), created around the theme, "Beneath the Surface." Once the films are created, we have teens fill out an entry form, and upload their video to our YouTube Channel.

The first year we held the festival, we allowed participants to submit on YouTube by giving us a link to their video, or giving us a DVD. But, we found it was difficult to promote these videos on social media, and also made the Red Carpet Event (where we show the films) not go as smoothly as we would like.

Now, when a participant enters the competition, they are given the username and password for our Film Fest YouTube Channel to upload their video. This allows us to keep the videos all in one place, and makes setting up the Red Carpet Event much easier.

While I've found most teens who enter the competition would have done so anyways, it never hurts to have some incentives. We ask our Friends of the Community Library Network group for funds to offer snacks, refreshments, and cash prizes.

Well that's about enough for this post, but I'll be writing next Monday about ways to make the Film Fest work better (sometimes you got to learn the hard way lol, and sometimes there are ideas that you just can't quite implement that might work for others).

AsapSCIENCE: Show, don't Tell Science

You know that old idiom, "Show, don't tell?" Well it has finally been applied to science lol.

AsapSCIENCE posts a weekly video on an interesting science topic through YouTube, and has daily content posted to Facebook and Twitter. Their idea is instead of telling you about science, they'll just show you.

Their "showing" method is based on a whiteboard where characters and images are drawn. But, it is much more than that. A narrator breaks down pertinent facts while the drawing is going on, and studies and more information is always referenced.

I found several of the topics very interesting; Productivity, Alcohol, Zombie Apocalypse, and the Moon Illusion were just a few of them =D

Glancing through their daily content, they have some fascinating facts and pictures as well. I'm always looking for information and inspiration for my Ka-Boom program, and I think this will be another one to add to the list!

P.S. We're taking a break for the Holidays, so I'll see you again on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 (weird much?) for a discussion of Slideshare. 

Jing: Screen Video Capture

For a little while now, I've wanted to know how to capture video from my computer screen. If you click the "Print Screen" button on your PC, you can get a picture of your screen and then paste it into a program. But, I've seen several companies make tutorials and introductions while recording what they are doing on their screen. I wanted to figure out how to do that.

So, I asked some of my colleagues and they mentioned Camtasia. This software allows you to capture video from your computer screen, and then edit it inside Camtasia. The only problem is that you have to purchase this software. The good news is that there is a free trial available from the website.

But, there is even better news. The same people that make Camtasia also offer Jing. Jing only allows you to create 5 minute videos, but it is absolutely free =D. The website does want you to make an account, and sign up for the newsletter from TechSmith, the creators. But the software works really well, allows you to capture videos and photos, and then it gives you a link to share with others. Here's a quick video I created, that shows you what it looks like and what it does.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Something that I continue to run into in my travels and perusing across the Internet is TED. In short, TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. The main way I've become familiar with them are the TEDtalks that I've watched, but I've come to find that this is just one facet of what they do.

TED includes two annual conferences held in the US, and a global conference held in the UK. They also have volunteers that work on translating TEDtalks into other languages. TEDx supports local communities that want to have a TED experience on the local level, and the TEDPrize awards an individual $100,000 to support an idea that can change the world.

As I mentioned, I'm the most familiar with TEDtalks, and just this aspect of TED is so cool that I needed to share it! There are over 1,100 free videos ranging in topics from libraries, to technology, to music. Originally, TED brought together people from 3 worlds; technology, entertainment, and design, but there are many talks that have nothing to do with those topics as well.

A recent talk that I found interesting was on Sixth Sense technology. If you like the video, check out the other TEDtalks that are out there :)

Informative Videos from Scout :)

This is actually a Techno Tuesday from a little while ago. But, I was having some trouble with the keywords on the original post, so I had to delete it. But, here it is again, with better keywords :)

So I got to attend a webinar on a new service from Idaho Public Television and the Idaho Commission for Libraries, and I wanted to tell you about it.

The service is called Scout, and its basically a free database of informational videos from Idaho Public Television.

There are two sides to the interface. The Idaho Collection features full episodes on topics like history, science, and places. The Classroom Edition (requires a very short registration, but is still free) features three to six minute clips on almost any topic a teacher or student could need. The Classroom Edition also features the ability to creat playlists, and to favorite and organize videos.

If you're a fan of Idaho Public Television, need quick, informative videos, or are just curious about what kind of content is available, I encourage you to check this out!

HISHE: You Can't Watch Only One

So a large part of Techno Tuesdays is to let you know about great resouces at your library, and online. But, another part is just to show off some cool websites. One such website is HISHE (How It Should Have Ended), and if you haven't heard about it, you are in for a treat.

There tagline is "sometimes movies don't finish the way we'd like." So, to rectify the situation, Daniel Baxter, Tommy Watson, and Tina Alexander do a monthly animation parody of a popular movie.

Now, two things about these parodies. First, they are hillarious! This group of creators are extremely talented and funny. Secondly, these videos are addicting! You know how some chips are marketed with "You can't eat only one?" I think that applies to these videos as well.

To give you a taste, I've attached a HISHE video. This one is called Super Cafe: Super Social Network, and it paradoies the characters of Batman and Superman. Enjoy!

Library: After Hours

As we approach our 2012 Teen Film Festival, myself and the Next-Gen Advisory Team here at the Hayden Library, couldn't help but make a video :)

What Makes a Great Video?