By Steven J.

Bell

Video works when it is

relevant to the topic,
stimulates audience
involvement, and
is just plain well-done.

20 | JULY/AUGUST 2010 » www.infotoday.com

 COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
using video in your next presentation: a baker’s dozen of ideas and tips

A
t the 2009 Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) confer-
ence, two colleagues and I gave a presentation about user experience and
how to deliver it in a library setting. We framed the presentation around
the experience delivered at the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. Instead of just
telling the audience what happens there, we obtained a 30-second video shot at
the fish market. Those 30 seconds captured the essence of the experience and
told the attendees far more about the fish market than we ever could with our
words or a single visual image in our slides.
When it comes to helping others learn, there is a simple piece of advice that is of-
ten recommended to educators: Show! Don’t tell. While appealing to the visual learn-
ing style of an audience is always a good idea, there is a growing expectation for more

www.infotoday.com « JULY/AUGUST 2010 | 21

 COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
using video in your next presentation: a baker’s dozen of ideas and tips
than just static images. They want video.
If you want to deliver more dynamic pre-
sentations with more powerful visuals,
then consider integrating video into
them. It’s up to you to determine how to
find the best content and how to smartly
integrate it into your presentation. This
article will provide tips and techniques
for doing both.
Why Video?
1. Capture audience attention:
At Temple University, where I work as
associate university librarian, I see
how video grabs attendees and bolts
their eyes to the screen. Through their
shared expressions of humor or shock—
whatever response I hope to evoke—the
video quickly creates an emotional re-
action that engages the attendees in the
presentation. Experienced presenters
know the success of a presentation can
depend on what happens in the first
minutes. That may be all the time a pre-
senter has to grab the audience’s atten-
tion. Beginning a presentation with
video is sometimes a perfect way to sur-
prise, wake up, or just plain grab the au-
dience by the throat to secure their in-
vestment in what you have to say.
2. Present to the “video learning”
style: Experienced presenters acknowl-
edge attendees’ different learning styles
and leverage techniques that meet the
needs of all types of learners. Telling sto-
ries, playing music, having attendees talk
to each other, having them write some-
thing down, and using images are all
methods that appeal to audio, visual, and
kinesthetic learners. Video is an exten-
sively used medium for educators at
every level between K–16. People are ex-
posed to video throughout their educa-
tion. Integrating video into your presen-
tation ensures you will meet expectations
for video content and effectively connect
with the video learner.
3. Provide breaks for presenters
and attendees: When I first started
22 | JULY/AUGUST 2010 » www.infotoday.com
using video in presentations, I discov-
ered an unexpected bonus. Put simply,
it gives the presenter and the atten-
dees a break from each other. While a
video plays, I can take a sip of water,
check my notes, or just let my mind re-
lax. Sometimes, I just look for visible
reactions from the audience that might
provide a transition from video back to
speaking. Conversely, for the atten-
dees, the video provides a break from
the speaker. Video reduces the possi-
bility that the audience will perceive
you as a droning “talking head.”
4. Generate better discussions
and engage attendees: For me the No.
1 reason to use video is to generate dis-
cussion. The video should raise an issue
or dilemma that engages the attendees
and encourages them to comment. For
example, if I wanted to foster some dis-
cussion on customer service challenges,
I would choose a short video portraying
an interaction between an employee and
a customer that would raise questions
or point out either positive or negative
qualities of the transaction. I would fol-
low the video with a discussion opener
such as, “How do you think that cus-
tomer felt about the quality of his/her
service experience?” Brief, targeted dis-
cussions, facilitated by video, dynami-
cally engage attendees.
Options for Using Video
The options for both discovering
and integrating video into presenta-
tions are expanding as more web ser-
vices lead to video content. Admittedly,
much web-based video is amateurish
and of little use to a librarian prepar-
ing a presentation. But a wealth of pos-
sibilities still exists. There are at least
four options that video librarians
should know about:
5. Synchronized graphics video:
For a unique presentation start, to get
attendees immediately focused and in
the right mindset, consider using a syn-
chronized graphics video. These videos
are composed of images but can incorpo-
rate text as well. They are then con-
verted into a video that plays a montage
of the slides along with music. For a pre-
sentation on career advancement, I cre-
ated an Animoto (www.animoto.com)
with images and text related to career
paths and opportunities. Rather than ex-
plain it, you can view an Animoto at
http://tinyurl.com/nzxe3b. A well-done
Animoto can wake up the audience, ex-
pose them to some subliminal messages,
and prime them for your presentation.
6. Commercial video: Commer-
cially produced video—be it feature
films or professionally produced videos
such as those from Soaring to Excellence
or other educational vendors—offer ex-
cellent opportunities for establishing
themes, setting the audience’s mood, or
obtaining an emotional response. I saw
a presenter who used clips from several
different feature films to structure the
presentation by topic, for example, es-
tablishing the problem, generating sup-
port, creating the team. It was highly
creative and added a powerful dimen-
sion to the presentation. Afterward, I
asked the presenter about the use of fea-
ture films and copyright issues. The pre-
senter told me his institution’s counsel
established that showing no more than
30 seconds of a film in an educational
conference setting would not violate fair
use guidelines; it certainly did not con-
stitute a public performance. When a
publisher is identifiable, I request per-
mission to use the video, explain my in-
tent, and agree to provide credit and at-
tribution to the source.
7. Self-produced video: What
happens when you need a long video
segment that is somewhere in the
video’s middle? How do you get it? Is
there a good way to condense long
videos into short ones? I have yet to
discover a perfect technology for this,
and most of us lack the required skills
and software for video editing. My

Creating video using Flip camera software
Editing a video segment in Flip camera software
technique keeps it simple. I play the
desired video and use my Flip Mino
camcorder to record the portions I need
off my monitor. Even better, I can take
several clips from a longer video and
then blend them together to make a
short, transformative video that gets
to the important points I want to make.
using video in your next presentation: a baker’s dozen of ideas and tips
The proliferation of low-cost, handheld
camcorders such as the Flip Mino or
Creative Vado introduces a new option
for presenters. Shoot your own video.
8. Web-based video: Video in this
category consists of whatever exists on
sites such as YouTube and Blip TV. But
COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
there are loads of video segments out
there. How do you find the right one?
The options for video discovery are ex-
panding. It’s no longer a matter of just
searching for video on YouTube. Multi-
ple search engines are dedicated to
finding the right video online. Google,
Yahoo!, and Bing may help you find a
video, but other engines are specially
optimized for video retrieval. Four
video search engines that are often
recommended are Blinkx, ClipBlast,
Truveo, and Veoh. Between them, these
engines index thousands of hours of
video, from sources on YouTube to CBS
News. Find a list and summary of video
search engines at http://news.cnet.com/
8301-17939_109-10281507-2.html.
Tips for Using Video
What more do you need to know to
successfully incorporate video into
your presentations? Just a few things:
9. Keep it short: Video is no dif-
ferent than any visual. It’s bad pre-
sentation style to talk over a slide that
just sits on the screen for several min-
utes. Likewise, limit your videos to 2–3
minutes. People like video, and it can
capture their attention, but they can
also tire of it easily. If you are doing a
longer workshop, perhaps a half-day to
a full day, then you’ll have more time
to show a longer video, especially if it
sets up a discussion.
10. Check the Sound System:
Make sure the venue you are present-
ing in has a working sound system.
This sounds too obvious, but all your
hard work on acquiring video content
and incorporating it into your presen-
tation will be for naught if there’s no
audio. And you’ll feel like a real loser.
11. Go with a MacBook: With-
out getting too technical here, which
I couldn’t do anyway, let it suffice to
say that it all just works better on a
Mac. If you do use a Mac for your
www.infotoday.com « JULY/AUGUST 2010 | 23
 COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
using video in your next presentation: a baker’s dozen of ideas and tips

Integrating Your Video:

Inserted video in a PowerPoint slide
Where and How
Presenters using PowerPoint or other slide software should aim to em-
bed their video directly in the slides. This will make for a much smoother
transition from standard slides to videos and then back to slides. Im-
porting a video into a slide is accomplished reasonably easily on a Mac.
First, obtain the video as a single, manageable file. There are a few op-
tions. If you make your own video, the file should be easy to output in a video
format ready for embedding. Your best bet is an MPEG-4 file. I have en-
countered no difficulty importing that format into a PowerPoint slide. Sim-
ply open up a PowerPoint slide and choose to “insert” a movie onto a slide.
Just add the file at that point and specify to start it with a click on the slide.
Then, during the presentation, just click on the movie image to run the
video. When the video ends, simply advance to the next slide. One im-
portant caution here: Whether you create the embedded video on a Mac
or PC, be prepared for the type of computer you’ll use for the actual pre-
sentation. If you used a Mac to embed video into a slide, it may not work
on a computer that runs Windows. Just be consistent.
If you plan to embed video from YouTube, there is a specific proce-
dure for capturing the video from YouTube so that it can be downloaded
to your computer and then uploaded into your slides. Again, this cap-
tures the entire video, not just one segment of the video. Saving a YouTube
video as a file may require a bit of practice. There are several good tu-
torials on how to do this, including one at www.macosxhints.com/
article.php?story=20070420014456930. These instructions are specific
to Macs and the Safari browser. The goal is to capture the video in the
FLV or Flash format. Once the video is captured as a unique file, it is easy
to insert it into a slide in PowerPoint. My YouTube video ran flawlessly on
my MacBook during a presentation.
What if the video you want to show is on a commercial DVD? You have
two options. If you want to capture just the section you need and then
embed that as a file in your slides, it will require more sophisticated soft-
ware (e.g., Final Cut Pro) and skills to capture a single file. An easy op-
tion is to simply play the DVD at the appropriate moment in your pre-
sentation. Simply have it load in your media player, cue up where the
video begins, and then pause until you are ready. Make sure you are com-
fortable with the “Alt-Tab” method to switch between applications, and
use it to quickly transition from your slides to your media player. De-
pending on the presentation venue, there may even be a separate player
for DVDs. It is always best to find out in advance the specifics of the sound
system and how it shows a DVD.

presentations, make sure you have,
if needed, the correct adapter for
connecting your Mac laptop to the
standard projector cable. Never as-
sume the presentation venue will
have what you need.
12. Watch other presenters: If
you see presenters using video and
their methods look interesting, be sure
to speak to them after their presentation.
Ask how they captured the video and
used it in their slides. This is how I first
learned to capture YouTube video and
embed it in slides. Learn from others.
13. Relevance is a must: Do not
underestimate the importance of using
video clips that directly relate to points

24 | JULY/AUGUST 2010 » www.infotoday.com

 COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
using video in your next presentation: a baker’s dozen of ideas and tips

being made in the presentation. The
video needs to be relevant to the dis-
cussion. Some videos are fun, others
are slick—and they can be entertain-
ing. But use caution: Be purposeful in
selecting video content, and remember
your overall goals as a presenter.
Video Is the New PowerPoint
I didn’t make that section heading
up. It was actually a statement made in
the closing remarks at a conference I at-
tended. The speaker, in summarizing
the conference, made special note of the
proliferation of video in the presenta-
tions. She said, “As a conference orga-
nizer I dropped into nearly every session
and I’ve never seen so much video con-
tent.” That’s when she said, “Video is the
new PowerPoint.” Given PowerPoint’s
reputation as a presentation killer, the
statement may suggest that video is evil
too. I know what that speaker meant.
PowerPoint, for better or worse, is a pre-
dominant presentation technology. You
almost expect to see it in use. That’s
where video is headed. Expect to see it
being used more frequently in any num-
ber of creative ways. Video, like any com-
munication medium or presentation
technology, can be used for good or evil.
It is up to all presenters to make sure
their use of video is for more than just
filler. Video works when it is relevant to
the topic, stimulates audience involve-
ment, and is just plain well-done. This
article, hopefully, will get you started on
the path of video righteousness.
Steven J. Bell is associate university
librarian at Temple University. His blogs
include The Kept-Up Academic Li-
brarian, ACRLog, and Designing Better
Libraries. He authors the From the Bell
Tower column for Library Journal Aca-
demic Newswire. A co-founder of the
Blended Librarians Online Learning
Community, he co-authored the book
Academic Librarianship by Design.
Learn more at http://stevenbell.info,
bells@temple.edu, and www.twitter.com/
blendedlib.

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