So my first project was assigned to me on Thursday, with a mere two days to prepare. A group of grade 4-7 students- 72 of them! – are coming to the library next Wednesday for a tour. I was asked by a co-worker to prepare some slides and give a brief 15 minute presentation to the group, demonstrating how to use the library catalogue and our online resources. I really did stress about this initially. I literally had no time to actually practice doing a live demonstration, and if I’m going to be speaking in front of 72 people, I’m going to need time to practice! I didn’t feel comfortable doing this on-the-fly, as a newbie librarian who’s never done any children’s programming before, so I thought, “Why not make a screencast!?” I did a lot of screencasting in grad school and really enjoy putting together these tutorials. I thought this would be the perfect solution to my dilemma; I’ll create a screencast showing how to use the catalogue and play it for the students on Wednesday. I asked my supervisor if I could use this format for the presentation and he said I could do it whichever way I wanted (gotta love the freedom that comes with being a librarian!) I told my co-worker about this idea and she thought it was really unique, a nice change from the ordinary. Also, by creating a screencast, there will be a video made that info staff can use if a similar last-minute group arrives again, or if a librarian is sick that day. Another plus is that the kids will get to watch a “movie,” instead of listening to a boring librarian blab away 😉 Now if only the technology gods will be on our side on Wednesday…