Making the PSA on the main page took alot of work. We used the NYS Summer Reading Grant money to buy a HD Flip Mino camera and Adobe Elements/Photoshop software. We found archival photos of events at the library and we decided to try to re-create them with the original participants when able. Over the course of several weeks, we took video of the re-creations. We used the Flip Mino software to clip snapshots from the video and then saved them as .jpg files. We imported all the scanned images (thanks to Emily) as well as the new photos into Adobe Elements. When necessary, Photoshop was used to crop or update the photos. From there, a sceneline/timeline was built with the application and fade-in effects added. We decided to use music from the Final Fantasy series (Kids Run Through the City by Nobuo Uematsu) so we had to fiddle with file formats (imported CD into iTunes then burned to disc to get an MP3) and use Audacity to clip 29 seconds of the song which we used twice (due to copyright). After importing the background music into Elements, we had the narration written and recorded using a mic which took several takes. From there, we had to export the video for use in Youtube. It was tricky. We exported in Flash format first, but it created a pixelated fading scheme. We tried Windows Media and Quicktime versions and uploaded them all to YouTube. The Quicktime version was best. Lastly, we copied the ‘embed this video’ code to our main site which is a WordPress Content Managed site, so it was easy. Some of us also imported the video to our Facebook pages and spiderwebbed distribution to our friends lists.
We could have polished it for weeks but we had to let it go and we are very pleased with it.
All these applications and more are available in the library for use by anyone.
Sue Scott, Technology Librarian
