Strategic Librarian

Note:  This post includes a template and video tutorial.  Links to those items are included in paragraph 3.

If you are treating your library, resource center, etc. as a business, then you may have already written an annual report or are preparing to do so.  It can be a one page or many page report that you distribute widely or to your own manager, but it is important that you provide those inidividuals you report to and/or those in leadership, an update of what you’ve accomplished during the year and what your goals are for next year.

I’ve written many annual reports over the year and have a format I use for this purpose.  I’ve changed it over the years but the purpose has always remained the same – communicating news and information to leadership that they might otherwise not know and assisting them in understanding what your department is doing for the firm as well as what you are capable of doing in the future.

As a way of commemorating 2010 and because I decided I needed to learn to create online tutorials, I’ve created both an annual report template and an online tutorial on writing annual reports.  The tutorial walks you through the steps of using features in Word 2007 and the content you might want to include in the report.

I created the tutorial using the free streaming video capture software,  CamStudio, and converted it into the mp4 format using the Moyea Video4Web Converter, which is also free.

Also, the mp4 format is supposed to be one of the best flash formats but if you have problems viewing the video, please let me know.  Finally, be kind.  This is a new technology for me that I am just learning to use and since I have an aversion to reading instructrutions it has been created using the trial and error technique.

I am planning on creating other tutorials if there is enough interest and would love to hear your ideas on what topics you might be interested in.