Creating Short Form Content for Academic Libraries: A Workflow

Purpose: This article describes a workflow designed for liaison librarians at an academic library creating short form video content to increase student engagement with the library and improve student awareness of library resources and services. Design: This article outlines a framework for creating short form content video tutorials, including how to identify information that should be included, and what should be left out. The workflow also introduces different tools librarians can use to create and edit video content, as well as recommendations on how to make videos more accessible to students. Findings: Research shows that shorter videos have higher learner engagement and that students retain information best when it is presented in short, frequent chunks rather than traditional lecture-style formats (Mendez-Carbajo and Wolla, 2019). Value: Video tutorials are a staple of most academic libraries’ collections of digital learning objects. However, this new generation of learners will benefit from a different approach to creating library videos using short form content.