Putting levity into literacy: Professionally produced library instruction videos

Abstract

Students believe that mandatory library workshops are boring and by default so are library instruction videos, but they do not have to be so. The Stanford Libraries have created a series of professionally produced videos, which are examples of effective ways to inject levity into literacy while conveying high-level academic content. Professor and student feedback confirmed that these videos held their attention and are therefore worth the expense incurred in creating them. This paper describes an original and effective method of introducing library services to students through engaging, professionally produced videos.