Services & Policies - Spring 1998

Video Helps DHC Library Orientation

What do you do when the time you have been given for orientation shrinks? Well, you look for innovative ways to cover the same material in a shorter span of time. Every department that participates in orientation has their own sermon to preach of what they know is essential for Dexter Hanley College students to hear. The librarians feel it is important that non-traditional students become familiar with the Library and where information is located, but the walking tour usually lasts 45 to 60 minutes. How could we do it better? Ann Bass, Assistant Dean of DHC, in cooperation with library faculty/staff, and Mary Beth Holmes, Instructor/Director of U of S Radio and Television, answered this question by putting the library tour on video. Ann scripted the tour and contacted a 1991 DHC graduate to ask if he would conduct and narrate the library tour on the video. This graduate and former library user was none other than Tom Burnett, Channel 16 Consumer Advocate and News Commentator.
 
Professor Holmes as part of a new course, Comm48l - Television Production in Educational Settings, assigned the video as a class project. During this summer class the students not only got to participate in the shooting of the video on location under real life conditions, but also were able to work with a real television professional. Tom's professionalism made a lasting impression on all of us who participated on this project. Library faculty, staff, students and some teaching faculty participated in the acting that was the background of the film. To edit the film, Prof. Holmes used the new non-linear digital editing system. What once took 45 to 60 minutes was now condensed to a 20-minute video.
 
The first showing of this video took place in the Library instruction lab, room 305, as part of the August 28, 1997, Fall DHC Orientation. Katie Duke, Coordinator of Bibliographic Instruction, showed the video to four different groups. It was well received by all. It will continue to he a part of DHC Orientation, and library administration and faculty will evaluate the video to see if others should be produced to help with other U of S orientations.
Katie Duke
Pride, Passion, Promise: Experience Our Jesuit Tradition