This spring, not long after Rush Rhees Library was physically closed, librarians began creating short videos to help students navigate and use library resources virtually. These videos were put on the library’s YouTube page, shared on social media, and embedded in Blackboard courses.

 Using their workflows and guide, I created two videos for our department; How to Navigate the RBSCP Website and How to Access and Use a RBSCP Finding Aid. Both were created to give information to UR students who would normally be visiting us in-person for instruction sessions. The goal was to create videos that would be useful now, as well as in the future.

As summer progressed, a decision was made to make all instruction in our department remote for the Fall semester. At this point, we decided to create two additional videos. A team of four librarians from RBSCP and the Robbins Library collaborated to choose the topics, write the scripts, and shoot the videos. I was tasked with being on-screen so that these new videos would have a consistent look and feel to the first two we created.

The topics selected are A General Overview of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation (RBSCP) and Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation (RBSCP) Collections. These were chosen because we thought they would be most helpful to faculty who want to give their students an overview of our department and collections.

 Many of the students in our instruction sessions use special collections for the first time with us. We wanted to share some of what makes our collections special and how we are different from the circulating collections. We are hoping they can be viewed by students before a virtual instruction session with one of our librarians. If they are, the virtual instruction session can be more focused on the topic of the class since students will already have a little information about our department.

The videos can be found on our website: https://www.library.rochester.edu/spaces/rbscp/informational-videos.