The University of Bergen Library wanted to make a broad audiovisual presentation of the library to provide an interesting, exciting and fun review of the library collections, resources and departments. The film was to be a pilot to get experience with the production and impact of film as a tool in library marketing. Ole Gunnar Evensen(Ole.Evensen@ub.uib.no) and Svein-Arne Selvik write about the video in detail :
We started with a clean slate and our goal was to create something new and different. The film was not first and foremost intended to show where the library is or how to borrow books/ search the databases but was meant to convey the fantastic opportunities the library offers by presenting it as an exciting, inspiring and cool place. The film was also meant to challenge prejudices about libraries in general.
The general impression was that knowledge of the University Library and the broad range of resources we offer was not good enough. In particular, the various options other than books and electronic resource, such as the special collections, photo collections, and our many departments were not well known. We simply wanted to increase the public’s desire to use the library. The target group was the university’s patrons but with a special focus on new students.
The ambition of the project was that production should have professional quality. Subsequently there is a great emphasis on dramaturgy and narrative technique. Obviously high ambitions and low budgets are difficult to combine, so this called for creative thinking. We initiated collaboration internally at the University with the Department of Information Science and Media Studies. As a result of this the recent (June 2009) graduates from the course in movie and television production, Jade Hærem Aksnes and Stian Hafstad, were hired for a summer job to make the movie. Technical equipment for filming and editing was put at our disposal free of charge from the department. With their youthful enthusiasm, talent and creativity, the two students did a fabulous job. The students were supervised by Svein-Arne Selvik who functioned as the producer. Mr Selvik is employed at the library's Acquisitions Department, but has a background in TV production. As the production budget did not cover for actors, one had to rely on the library’s own employees to step in front of the camera, and Acquisitions manager Ole G. Evensen was assigned the part of the film’s recurrent character.
The primary target group for the film is students and the film was posted on our website (link) and used in training and information seminars. We wanted the students to gain a better understanding of the vast collection of resources the library can offer. We also wanted to highlight the potential of the library as a meeting place.
In addition to its primary role as a university library, our library is also open to the wider community. We wanted to reach out to the public and used distribution channels such as You Tube, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
As we quickly received many positive comments on the movie and high ratings, we decided to make a dubbed English version of the film to reach a wider public. The version Youtube.com has subtitles that can be auto translated into many languages.
Our experience is that this information film project really has paid off in many respects. The film has created greater awareness of the library in the academic society as well as among the students. The librarians use the film to kick off training sessions, and we experience that more than 6 months after the release of the film the number of views at Youtube is still increasing.
ENGLISH DUBBED VERSION http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wytQ3pudf5k&feature=related
The Norwegian media has noticed the film, and there have been numerous postings about it, including on the websites of Norway's two largest TV stations.
It is a great honour for us to be awarded the third runner up place for the IFLA International Marketing Award 2010. Indeed, this has inspired us to further promote our library so that as many people as possible will get to experience the importance and usefulness of the library. The follow up of the first general library information film will be a film specially aimed at new students and focusing on the risky business of cheating and plagiarism. We are planning to release the new film at the end of May.
