LCCN, May 28, 2013
ISSN 2324-6464 Producing Training Webcasts for the Name Authority Cooperative Program By Beth Davis-Brown Program Coordinator, Cooperative & Instructional Programs Division, Library of Congress I have many duties at the Library of Congress, including helping with LCCN, and one of which I am most proud is that of producer of two recent Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) training webcast series to teach authorized NACO contributors the tenets of RDA: Resource Description & Access. The initial series came out in May of 2012, and a version in Spanish was released just this month. You can find them at http://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/courses/rda_naco/ and http://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/courses/rda_naco_spanish.html . When the need for mass training in RDA for the more than 800 partners in the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) became apparent in early 2010, PCC Secretariat staff knew that the traditional method of sending trainers out to visit institutions to conduct training in person was simply not scalable. It was time to truly implement online training, in which some form of video presentation would play an integral role. Paul Frank, cooperative cataloging specialist and NACO coordinator, suggested presenting the RDA training material in a talk show format. The minute I heard Paul's idea, many images flashed through my mind of how we could accomplish the series and make it informative, and I hoped, entertaining, for the professional audience around the world. I had already been working with the Library of Congress Multimedia Group, which is available to produce webcasts of events for the Library, and through my relationships with members of that team I was able to schedule and acquire the resources to produce an entire training series in webcast format, a first for the Library. After scheduling studio and filming time and working with Patrick Raison, my director for the English series, I began rehearsing Paul and Library of Congress cataloger and NACO trainer, Melanie Polutta, for what it would be like to film the series. We did not have a lot of time in the studio, and while editing and post-production services were available, I knew that we basically had to shoot the segments straight through and could not spend hours and hours fine tuning afterwards. My goal was to give the feel of a conversation that one might have in a classroom with two instructors interacting, so the objective was not to have a "perfect" presentation, but one that was relatable and friendly to the audience. Paul and Melanie are superb trainers and teachers, and they already had a firm grasp on the still-changing RDA landscape when it came time to film. In rehearsal, we worked on what it was like to speak to a camera instead of a live audience, how closely they needed to sit to each other to make the scene look natural (because of how the camera distorts space), and how they would enter and exit each segment with casual banter. The pre-production sessions enabled Paul and Melanie to know more about how they needed to prepare themselves for filming, and they updated their slide presentations that are integrated throughout the webcasts. When filming day came on March 8, 2012, we were nervous but ready to go. Patrick's calm direction and the supportive camera crew helped Paul and Melanie relax, and they were off and running-or, rather, talking, to be precise. With a short break for lunch, we shot the entire 25 segments of the English training series on that one day. I knew after the first few minutes of filming that we were going to have a very successful product for the NACO community, even though there was a lot more work to do after actual shooting ended. Post-Production Once shooting was complete and a rough cut was available, careful review was necessary to coordinate the slides into the correct places in the webcasts and to divide the material into usable segments. Even though Paul and Melanie had essentially been "one take wonders," with little need for retakes, there was still some editing to do. Patrick and I also talked about how we wanted the opening and closing of each segment to appear, and just randomly, I played Patrick music my brother had composed and recorded for a television show. (My brother, John M. Davis, composes music and performs sound editing and post-production work for film and television working from his studio in Brooklyn.) Patrick suggested we use this as our theme music for this series, John generously gave us permission since it had not been used by the show, and that is the upbeat interlude you hear at the opening and closing of each webcast segment. Next time Release and Success, and here come the Spanish speakers! Melanie Polutta Library of Congress LCCN Editor
