Developing a Best Practices Plan for Tutorials in a Multi-Library System

• Published in: Medical reference services quarterly Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 253 - 263
• Main Authors: Blevins, Amy E., Deberg, Jennifer, Childs, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis Group 01-07-2014
• Subjects: Best practice; Best practices; collaboration; Computer-Assisted Instruction; Cooperative Behavior; guidelines; Guidelines as Topic; Health administration; Humans; Internet; Iowa; Library Services - organization & administration; Multi-Institutional Systems; online instruction; Online tutorials; Project management; Software; Surveys and Questionnaires; tutorials; University libraries; Iowa; guidelines; online instruction; tutorials; collaboration; Best practices
• ISSN: 0276-3869; 1540-9597
• DOI: 10.1080/02763869.2014.925662

In 2010, the University of Iowa's library system administration created a task force to conduct a reevaluation of tools and spaces used for video tutorial creation across a multi-library system. Following this effort, a working group was charged with improving documentation and staff awareness of resources for developing video tutorials. The group observed that librarians were often independently creating videos that were variable in quality, lacked consistent branding, and were not often shared with others. This article will describe experiences at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa in selecting video tutorial software, and striving to establish a more structured process, including team-developed guidelines, for tutorial creation in a multi-library system. Project limitations and areas for future work will also be presented.