The Joys of CamStudio

I've known about CamStudio for a while (and likely all of you have too), but I never bothered with it because my old computer was too weak. Now that I have my new one, I thought I'd try it out. I think it's absolutely fantastic.
http://camstudio.org/

Of course I got down to serious business right away: Making a quick demo video of a PC game to show to some friends who'd never heard of it:
http://bambam.info/stuff/demo1.swf
All of that video is only about 3 MB. I imported a huge .avi into Flash and compressed it. Importing the video clips is pretty easy, so I may use CamStudio more in the future. Go get it, if you can; it's a great free way to demo.

May 8th, 2008 meeting

The ULMLWPC had a meeting on May 8th which began at about 11:40 and ended at about 12:30. In attendance were:

CA
CH
DW
KC
CR
ML
MMag
MW
KN
(did I miss anyone?)

We continued the discussions of the last meeting. Here are the links and categories we've chosen.

Find articles
Databases by name
Databases by Subject
newspapers
Off-campus access


Help
Ask A Librarian
FAQs
Subject Guides
Subject Librarians
Tutorials
Style Guides
The Reference Desk


Also Homeless:
Comments

Next part of the plan... is there anything else to change about the overall choices made? How are they to be arranged?

Flash objects are searchable

While updating the library map again, I thought I would a add a description for the Office of Academics and Compliance (ultimately I decided not to).

So I searched for it in ulm.edu with Google, and check out what the second result is:


It's the libray map itself. I didn't know that text in flash objects was searchable, but it makes sense that they are. It's funny that the title includes the preloader text, though.

I suppose its no big deal, but it's neat.

Digital Preservation

I've recently finished a tutorial on Digital Preservation meant for the average student (or just anyone).
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/pdp.swf
Let me know if I've made any glaring mistakes.

I took an entire class on this in library school, so it's a big subject to compress into 10 min. I had to over-simplify a lot to make it easier to get, and even so, I'm sure it will still be difficult for some people.

I'm more than a little embarrassed with the sound quality and my diction. I should get a new microphone.

I'd like to have a slider bar that lets you drag it to move through the frames (like on youtube), but I haven't figured out how to get that to work yet.

Perhaps I might make a page to accompany it.

New Webfeat search box

Mike has put a new search box on the library home page that searches web feat! It's really great to have some interactive stuff on the page.

Is it going to confuse patrons? Perhaps, but only the ones who were confused before they saw it.

Some more things...

I'm making these comments separate from the minutes so that my dictation won't be a part of it.

Looking at it now, the "services" list is a little bit long. That's not a columnar problem-- it can can fit in, I'm sure, but for eye-scanning it's maybe a bit too much to handle. This could be solved once we start making other categories. They may fit into those (so these currently finished categories are mutable). Or we could try some other ideas like these:

-- remove "for student," because at ULM, the motto is "students first!" and it should be assumed that everything on the page is for them unless otherwise noted. ULM is for teaching, right?

-- separate the actions that occur in the library itself (and nowhere else), as in, things one must do on-site?

-- stick "purchase requests" at the bottom on the home page, but mention it agagin on the little faculty page we make (and probably again on the reference page, which I plan to redo as soon as we decide where all this stuff is going to)?

-- I've just remembered that the first demo front-page I made last semester had 5 category groups on it rather than 4:
http://ulmlwpc.blogspot.com/2007/12/deciding-what-goes-where.html
I like less better, but if we need more, I guess we'll have to add more.

Also, Who represents The Friends of the Library? Would it be worth asking them how they feel about their link being called "Be Our Friend"? I know it sounds really (really) corny, but it asks the audience to do something and includes them while "Friends of the Library" seems like something they don't have to feel a part of. Maybe it could increase membership?

BTW, calling it "visitor" info rather than "driving" is also great because not everyone drives to get here (now how could I forget that?). The #1 and #5 go to ULM. I just know these things.

April 17 Meeting

The ULMLWPC had a meeting today which began at about 11:40 and ended at about 12:40. In attendance were:

DW
KC
LJ
ML
MMag
MW
KN

The hour was spent talking about what links will go on the home page and what we'll call them. 2 categories were completed, and others will be next time. Conversation was very active today, so it would be most productive to show what was decided as the minutes:

About the library
FAQs
Contact
visitor Information
floor plan
Staff and Departments
History
Friends of the Library


Services
for the community
Interlibrary loan
computer lab
for faculty
distance learning
tours & instruction
for faculty/staff
for students
purchase requests
copying/printing

HOMELESS (links that can go at the bottom or anywhere)
Blog
annual report
policy
Privacy
job opportunities

This is not written in stone, of course, and the order of the lists can be changed.