Multilingual Audiotape Walking Tour for Library Orientation

1980s witnessed Library staff shortages coupled with a proliferation of time-intensive library user services, thus creating a need for an alternative method for providing basic library orientation. This situation is not unique to Iowa State University. In response to increased user demands and critical staff shortages, many academic libraries have successfully implemented individual self-paced audiotape tours similar to those used by museums and have them found to be effective. The self-guided tour solves the problem of providing needed library orientation without increasing demands on the library staff. Comprehensively covered in the library literature, conducted group tours have been criticized for lacking effectiveness. Often, groups are so large that people cannot hear or see what the librarian is explaining. An individual audiotape tour avoids these flaws by allowing the patron to proceed at his/her own pace.

Due to budget cuts and a rise in diverse student and faculty demands, library orientation services were affected. The solution was using audio-cassette-taped tours to simultaneously solve the problem and serve a particular user group.

In response to increased demand and staff shortages, self-paced audiotape tours have been implemented successfully by many academic libraries and have been found to be effective. This method solves the problem of providing necessary library orientation without putting extra strain on library staff. Additionally, conducting group tours has been criticized for lacking effectiveness due to issues such as:

• Group size causing people not being able to hear or see clearly
• Individuals not being able to proceed at their own pace

Iowa State University receives approximately 6,000 new students each academic year. A significant portion of the student body, as well as new faculty and staff, desire some kind of orientation to the Parks Library. The conducted group tour has long fulfilled this need and served as a systematic introduction to our major collections and service points. The General Walk-Up Tour was developed in the early 1970s and provided tours to interested international student population.

In April 1989, the Library was awarded $1,254 to develop a 20- 30-minute self-guided audiotape tour of the Parks Library in English and the six most common languages spoken by our international student population. The narrative is recorded on audiocassette and distributed to the user with a lightweight player powered by rechargeable batteries. A package of maps and descriptions of the Library's collections and services is issued with the tape.

After the completion of the first drafts, all four members of the group had the opportunity to register their approval, suggestions, or revisions of both the script and the handout.

August, 1988 - Completed drafts of the script and the handout were routed to the Library Assistant Directors and appropriate Department Heads for their comments and any changes they might wish to make concerning the information we were providing about their areas.

The feedback we have received on the audiotape tour so far has been quite favorable, and even enthusiastic. With a few minor adjustments, the tape and handout can be finalized and ready for use. Our next step is to identify translators and readers for the six other languages. We hope to accomplish this in the coming months, and with luck, will have the multilingual audiotape tour fully implemented by the beginning of 1990.

Here are the problems encountered in making the translated versions of the audiocassette library tour:

• Keeping translations down to 45 minutes.
• Making sure the translations were correct.
• Recording and editing the tape when the sound technician doesn’t understand the language.

Here are the other problems not anticipated for the audiocassette use:

• The audiocassette taped tour quickly becomes outdated.
• Equipment or battery failure.

The evaluations of the English tape were consistently positive, but this was to be expected for it was self-motivated individuals desirous of a tour who tested the product.

Feedback on the non-English tapes were not sufficient enough upon which to draw conclusions. Rarely checked out and quickly obsolete, the audiocassette tapes in foreign languages, overall did not meet the needs intended for the user group.

• How quickly the audiocassette taped tour can become outdated
• Equipment or battery failure
• Inaccurate information when the sound technician does not understand the language that is being recorded

The self-guided tour solves the problem of providing needed library orientation without increasing demands on the library staff. Comprehensively covered in the library literature, conducted group tours have been criticized for lacking effectiveness. Often, groups are so large that people cannot hear or see what the librarian is explaining. An individual audiotape tour avoids these flaws by allowing the patron to proceed at his/her own pace.

Feedback to date on the audiotape tour has been positive and enthusiastic. The tour was assigned to a section of English 105 and Library Instruction 160 instructors routinely recommend its use. The evaluation forms indicate that most of our users learn of the service through informal channels, suggesting that publicity for the audiotape tour should be our next priority. In addition, an in-depth evaluation of the effectiveness of using audiotape for library orientation is needed.

The ISU Library is working on developing self-guided audiotape tours in various languages. Currently, English language tours are available and have received positive feedback. The project was granted $1,254 to develop a project that will include tours in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, and Spanish and hopes to implement the multilingual tour by the beginning of 1990 after identifying translators and readers.