2025 ARLIES Submissions

This short film was made to engage students at the University of Iowa and, secondarily, Iowa City community members on social media platforms. It was created with a twofold goal of both raising awareness of the variety of materials in the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA) at the University of Iowa Libraries and promoting an upcoming IWA event during Women’s History Month featuring a film screening and panel discussion about Iowa women’s basketball. In order to optimize engagement and target students, the video is brief, upbeat, and fun. By showcasing a unique item, a 6-on-6 basketball board game made by Iowans, the video educates viewers on girls’ basketball traditions in Iowa and expands their perspectives of the collections in IWA. The caption of the video on Instagram and Facebook invited viewers to attend an IWA event to continue the conversation.

This film was posted on the UI Libraries Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube pages. Across these platforms, it has over 2,400 views and was an integral part of the promotion efforts for the event, which was sold out.

The film documents the emotional journey of cousins Renee Anderson and Sharon Young as they uncover their grandfather Harry Wilson Patterson’s long-lost book, Gems of the Soul: A Book of Verse and Poetic Prose, at LSU Libraries Special Collections after more than 50 years of searching. Their discovery was made possible thanks to LSU Libraries’ recently acquired Wyatt Houston Day Collection of Poetry by African Americans, which preserves more than 800 works spanning from the 18th century through the 21st century. Initially, LSU Libraries produced a press release to share their story, which garnered six different local news reports. When the family informed LSU of their plans to visit in person, the decision was made to capture the moment on film, creating a powerful visual story around their experience.

The purpose of the film is to highlight the power of archival preservation in connecting families with their heritage while showcasing the significance of African American literary achievements. Intended for audiences interested in genealogy, African American history, and literary preservation, the film has resonated with many viewers and garnered positive feedback from students and the broader community. It has been featured on LSU’s official platforms and generated interest in LSU Special Collections and the Wyatt Houston Day collection, in particular. The video has earned more than 400 views on YouTube and continues to draw new viewers. Since the initial visit and video, even more family members have made subsequent pilgrimages to LSU Special Collections to view this treasured work.

The Canadian Women’s Movement Archives (CWMA), held at the uOttawa Library Archives and Special Collections was recognized as part of Canada’s national memory with its entry in CCUNESCO’s Canada Memory of the World Register. This announcement was released as they key story for the University of Ottawa’s International Women’s Day campaign, March 2025. The video was not scripted, the student in the video visited the archives and her reactions to the different resources was filmed.

The primary purposes of the film are to raise awareness of MIRC’s collections and to educate the community and prospective donors about the uses of the collections and their value to historical researchers and filmmakers. Key audiences include academic researchers, documentary filmmakers, and members of the community at large who have an interest in history and/or film.

The film was created to bring attention to the Marriott Library’s Ski & Snow Sports Archives at the University of Utah. It was shown to a packed audience of 320 donors at the 33rd Annual Ski Affair fundraiser.

During the 2024-25 academic year, Watson Library at the University of Kansas celebrated its centennial as a cornerstone of the campus community. So much has changed in the world of information in the past century, and the libraries have been at the heart of KU’s learning and discovery through it all. To commemorate the milestone, a marquee event transformed Watson Library’s Fourth Floor Reading Room into a celebratory 1920s themed dinner, dance floor and party for 150 of KU Libraries’ closest friends. In addition to hearing from university and libraries leadership, Crosby Kemper, former director of IMLS, delivered the keynote address. KU Libraries’ Board of Advocates presented a big surprise in the form of a check for $100,000 to KU Libraries Dean Carol Smith. Intended for a wide general audience, the video was shared across KU Libraries (@KULibraries) social platforms – with more than 2,000 views on YouTube and Facebook combined. The video helped tell told the story of an early event and built awareness during a semester-long series of celebrations, generating excitement for additional commemorative events while anchoring content on the libraries’ Watson Centennial hub at https://lib.ku.edu/watson100.

This film highlights the University of Louisville Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections’ LGBTQ+ history archive, one of the top ten largest queer history collections in the United States. The purpose is to secure financial support for the collections’ maintenance, expansion, and accessibility. Targeting potential donors, alumni, faculty, students, researchers, and institutional partners, the film underscores the archive’s significance in preserving and sharing regional queer history. Its impact will be measured by views and engagement across platforms, formal feedback from faculty and students, and funds raised directly from the campaign.

According to the National Center for Educational statistics, the average cost of textbooks for an academic year is over $1,200. Nationally, about 65% of students simply don’t buy their required textbooks because of that cost, which has risen even faster in recent years than food, medicine, and real estate. As a result, the NC State University Libraries created the Alt-Textbook Project, awarding grants to faculty to adopt, adapt, or create free or low-cost alternatives to expensive textbooks. In fall 2014, the Libraries awarded the first round of grants, saving NC State students more than $250,000 in the one year. Since then, the project has become a nationally recognized leader in supporting teaching and learning that is more equitable and effective. Over the past ten years, the Alt-Textbook Project has worked with faculty in 45 departments and every college on NC State’s campus, saving over 125,000 student in excess of $14,000,000. This video was created to commemorate the program’s tenth anniversary and to tell its story of impact in order to inspire more and more faculty to participate and more and more donors to support it, with the ultimate goal of reducing the financial burden of higher education for more and more students. In the just over two months this video has been on the Libraries YouTube channel, it has been viewed nearly 300 times with no promotion whatsoever. To that end, we will be publishing an issue of our FOCUS magazine, both online and in print, featuring an article on the Alt-Textbook Project, which will include a QR code linking to this video. In addition, we will be amplifying both the article and the video with posts to our various social channels which average 5000+ followers each. Our hope is that the story this video tells will reach far beyond our NC State community, so as many students and faculty can access these open educational resources as possible.

Both to show appreciation for the largest gift in the UT Libraries’ history and to honor the historical figure behind the naming.

Purpose: Engage with Generation Z on Instagram while highlighting one of our branch libraries. This generation tends to prefer personal and “unhinged” content. Modeled after the viral Trent Miller real estate speed tours (https://www.instagram.com/p/C6WFOVhOsCb/?hl=en), our communications interns filmed a chaotic tour of one of our smaller department libraries. Some feedback from students over the years is that libraries can be intimidating and unapproachable. We strive to eliminate those fears and encourage visits and community through student-focused content on our social media accounts.

Hosted on Instagram, this video has so far received 110 shares, 7,284 views, 3,982 accounts reached, 351 likes and 17 saves.

The purpose of the film was to promote a dog costume contest event at the Richard J. Daley Library on Halloween 2024. The event was geared toward undergraduate students so they could have fun/relieve stress by interacting with dogs in silly costumes. Other goals of the film/event were to generate interest in the library account on Instagram and stimulate engagement, build the reputation of the UIC Library as a fun/supportive place for students/create campus publicity, and to create goodwill/strengthen our partnership with Undergraduate Student Government and the Office of the Student Trustee. USG and OST also posted the reel to their account and co-sponsored the event and donated snacks and beverages. The Instagram reel generated 3.3K plays and reached 2,202 accounts. The event itself was very popular and had more than 100 attendees in a two hour period.

“In Focus: Creating a Safer Drinking Experience at IU,” made by Audra Sapp, was selected as the first place winning video in “Safety Together: An Archival Remix Contest” organized by Indiana University Libraries. In Spring 2024, IU Libraries launched its second ever archival remix contest, “Safer Together,” a donor-funded contest from IU Libraries Moving Image Archive. In response to the alarming number of IUB students who reported binge drinking and consuming hard alcohol, participants were invited to create a short, compelling video using archival footage to raise awareness about alcohol misuse. All videos were judged by a Review Board in categories of originality, quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of raising awareness around alcohol misuse. As first place winner, Audra received a prize of $2,000! The video was shared to incoming IU students through online orientation and was played regularly on screens in the Wells Library and across campus. It was also included in an Indiana Daily Student News social media campaign and shown before some films at IU Cinema. Of the process, Sapp commented, “I realized I wanted to emphasize that the four years at IU are so special. I was really feeling that myself as a senior. As an alumni, you want to walk away with all these memories.” Sapp’s winning video offers the perspective that misuse of alcohol can make the details in those memories out of focus.

Level Up with River Campus Libraries was created to engage and inform undergraduate students at the University of Rochester about the essential library resources available to help them navigate the challenges of the end of the semester. Designed with the aesthetic and energy of a retro video game, the video transforms the student experience into an interactive quest, highlighting tools like course reserves, research guides, and subject librarians as power-ups for academic success. Since its release, the video has garnered 1,507 views on Instagram, 243 views on TikTok, and 28 views on LinkedIn. Engagement rates—key indicators of impact—stand at 7.55% on Instagram, 5% on TikTok, and an impressive 18% on LinkedIn, demonstrating strong resonance across platforms. By combining nostalgia with practical messaging, the video effectively captured student attention and reinforced the library’s role as a supportive academic partner.

This was a student-produced project (Braedyn), concepted in partnership with supervisor direction (Sandy). Each year the Libraries promotes an introductory student guide geared toward new students, so all of promotion for this video pointed to that guide online. It was definitely one of our most popular student guide promotions. The theme was carried throughout a campaign, including digital signage and online advertising, inspiring other units requests to borrow “the Barbie car” for their own promotions! We had so much fun making it! 🙂

The purpose of the film “Background Research with AI Tools” is to help students understand how AI can assist in the early stages of the research and writing process. It introduces AI as a tool for gathering general information, brainstorming ideas, and refining topics, while emphasizing the need for critical thinking, fact-checking, and further research. The film is part of the AI Literacy Tutorial and supports students in using AI responsibly and effectively within academic work. The AI Literacy Tutorial was developed by the UD Library, Museums & Press as a resource for students and faculty to start a conversation about appropriate use of artificial intelligence in classes.

Additionally, the tutorial supports faculty in fostering discussions with their students about AI tools in education. It helps faculty and students collaboratively develop policies on the appropriate and inappropriate use of AI tools within a specific course. The tutorial also introduces key topics such as bias and ethics in AI.

Audience: Current students at UD.

Measure of impact: How many views? The video has garnered 431 views since its upload on May 27, 2024, with a completion rate of 78.5%.

Placement on Institution’s Main Site: The video is featured on several key university websites, providing easy access to AI literacy resources:

Library, Museums & Press Website: The video is prominently displayed on the library’s main site and within its teaching and learning resources section, ensuring that students and faculty can easily find and engage with the AI Literacy Tutorial (News page: https://library.udel.edu/news/ai-literacy-tutorial/, Tutorials page: https://library.udel.edu/teaching-and-learning/tutorials/).

Campus Institution’s Artificial Intelligence for Teaching and Learning at UD Website: Positioned on the homepage of this site, which serves as a central hub for AI-related teaching and learning resources at the University of Delaware (UD), the video is easily accessible to those interested in AI topics (https://www.udel.edu/home/artificial-intelligence/).

Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning Website: The video is featured on the “Considerations for Using and Addressing Advanced Automated Tools in Coursework and Assignments” page, assisting faculty in navigating AI use in their courses. It is introduced alongside additional resources, including the AI literacy tutorial.

These placements ensure that both faculty and students can easily access important guidance on AI use in education across prominent university platforms.

Publicity Generated: The tutorial the video is part of was highlighted in the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) article titled “How to Dance with the AI Devil,” which lists the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press’s AI Literacy Tutorial as a valuable resource. Link: https://www.njea.org/how-to-dance-with-the-ai-devil/.

University of Delaware. (2023, December). Artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. UDaily. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/december/artificial-intelligence-ai-teaching-learning/. The article highlights the University of Delaware’s initiatives to lead discussions on artificial intelligence (AI) in education. The article discusses the original AI Literacy Tutorial, which can be found here.

We hear over and over from our library staff that today’s Duke students don’t know how to read a call number and track down a book in the stacks. This is basic library 101 stuff, but it’s a persistent issue, and it’s one of the most frequently asked questions at our public service desks. So we made a little 2-minute video trying to explain it.

A little background on how this came together…

We started by looking for other videos out there that do an effective job of explaining how to read LOC call numbers. Much of what we found was too long, boring, or detailed to work for an undergraduate audience today. Luckily, however, we stumbled on a video produced by the Odyssey Learning Project at Virginia Tech Library that followed along a therapy dog named Moose as he tracked down a book in their library. We loved the cute approach, and we appreciated that they intentionally put the video under a Creative Commons license. So we took some poetic license and adapted the idea and script to our own purposes, except we used a stuffed Blue Devil toy instead of a therapy dog. We gave credit for the inspiration to Virginia Tech in the video description, and we also made our own video CC, so that anyone else can adapt and improve on it the same way. If you want to see their original video and how it compares to ours, here’s the link: https://youtu.be/YSErTgdzStQ?si=vkTD3LOtjQnXk_Aa

This video cost no money to make. We used an iPhone to record the video, Canva for animations and editing, and a digital voice recorder that we checked out from our own library for the audio. The Blue Devil stuffy belonged to my 5-year-old son, and we turned him into a puppet using some chopsticks and duct tape.

Although it hasn’t racked up as many views as some of our videos (over 1,000 views on Instagram and over 350 on YouTube), it is being used by librarians in their library orientation classes. And the staff at our public service desks refer patrons to it if anyone wants a quick crash course on call numbers. The next how-to video we’re working on (also using the Littlest Blue Devil) is about how to reserve a group study room—another frequently asked question Duke students have every year.

The purpose is to educate faculty (primary audience) and undergraduates (secondary) with an intro to using open educational resources. The video is a tool used by the UH Libraries Open Education Services team as an accompaniment to information sessions, and is particularly essential when the call for applications to the UH Open Education Incentive Program begins each year. The video has 830 views.

This video’s purpose was to give a quick overview of how to use a GoPro camera and highlight various features of the camera. It also promotes that this camera is available for lending to the Tulane community from the Media Services department at Tulane University Libraries. The video has garnered over 7,000 views on Tulane University Libraries YouTube channel.

Our Student Success team identified a number of knowledge gaps/needs that new students, particularly have…such as how to safely use the revolving doors to enter the building, how to reserve study rooms, noise etiquette on various floors, how to use the printers, misc. basic but essential resources or building use matters. So, we created a series of “how to” videos. This is one of them. On Instagram, it received high engagement and was among our postings for the month with 4,465 views, 75 likes, 4 comments, 26 shares, 7 saves. At semester’s end, we’ll be posting the full series of how-to videos to YouTube and will be able to use them again in fall 2025.

This Instagram reel was a standout success with students and the UB community, garnering over 2,400 likes, 59,000 views, 50+ comments, 1,300+ shares, and attracting 50 new followers. The reel’s purpose was to showcase some of the Library’s top services and resources in a fun, lighthearted way that resonated with the students.

The reel was created by Katelyn Kardaman, our social media manager and proud Gen Z member, who brought a fresh and relatable approach to the content.

The impact extended beyond the screen. Since the reel’s release, Evviva, our Vice Provost for University Libraries, has been recognized numerous times while walking through the Libraries. The reel was so well-received that it was voted the Best Social Media Post for All of UB in 2024.

The purpose of the video was to showcase the partnership between the Nickle Galleries at UCalgary Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) and the Department of Art and Art History (DAAH). We wanted to communicate how this partnership provides a transformative and unique experiential learning and mentorship opportunity for fine art students to exhibit in a professional gallery. This video showcased the amazing work of BFA Honours students, as well as the expertise, skill, and generosity of LCR’s curators, preparators, and gallery staff. The video was used by LCR to promote the value, depth, and impact of our learning opportunities to students (and prospective students). It also has given us a tool to improve awareness across campus of how the library supports experiential learning. The video has also been used by DAAH to promote their program, and by the students as a way to showcase their work and experience!

The video aims to raise awareness of key library collections, services, spaces, expertise, and building policies among current students at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and to enhance brand affinity among current students, prospective students, recent graduates, and other UCSB affiliates. The video is based on the popular ‘when gen-z writes the marketing script’ social media trend of fall 2024 and shows a baby boomer-generation UCSB Library employee (Bob Nieder, supervisor, Access Services Department) giving a tour of the library building. For comic effect, Nieder uses generation z slang (e.g. “slay”, “low key fire”, “ick”, and “someone cooked”) to describe key library collections, services, spaces, expertise, and building policies. The juxtaposition of the performer and the language he uses makes the video highly entertaining and relatable for target audiences.

The video was co-created by UCSB Library and the UCSB Office of Public Affairs and Communications (OPAC). The producers and directors were Emily Savage (Content Marketing Manager, OPAC), Jessie Ward O’Sullivan (Multi-Media Producer, OPAC), and Johannes Steffens (Director of Communications and External Relations, UCSB Library). Current UCSB students (Gaurav Chakravarty, Sidney Campbell, Carley Palmer, and Caz Carter), who were completing internships at OPAC at the time, scripted Nieder’s remarks together with Savage, O’Sullivan, and Steffens. The video was filmed by O’Sullivan and Palmer, and edited by O’Sullivan and Carter.

The video was published on Nov. 18, 2024, on the Library’s social media channels and on UCSB’s main social media channels. On Instagram alone, the video has received more than 112,000 views and 8,100 interactions to date, including 4,600 likes, 3,100 shares and 100 comments. Most comments were posted by current students and other UCSB affiliates, and were highly complimentary of the performer, the Library, and the video itself (e.g. “I love this!”, “This is iconic”, “I miss the lib”, and “Someone notify the Emmys”).

The video was also shown on eight digital displays, which are located in highly trafficked areas of the Library building, where it has been viewed by thousands of people. (UCSB Library averages more than 60,000 weekly visitors during the academic year.)

This year, Emory Libraries began a process of marketing channel and content differentiation to ensure we were delivering the right message to the right audience in the right way. Instagram became our primary student-facing channel, and we worked to become more video-driven and deliver more content created by students. “breathe.” was our first student-produced IG Reel, and successfully framed the value proposition of our latest gallery exhibition–a show of contemporary photography by Atlanta-based photographer Sheila Pree Bright–from a student perspective. The angle the student took was that such exhibitions create a “wellness space” for pause and reflection in the midst of busy periods of library research and study. The video generated 1012 views (“traveling” farther than most of our videos, with 63% non-follower views and 682 total accounts reached) and 64 reactions (including 49 likes and 5 very favorable comments). It was also reshared by the artist via her social networks and her website for the duration of the show.

The Iowa State University Library was excited to be opening a new space called Studio 2B in the building and needed a video to help expand awareness of all that this free space has to offer campus wide. Studio 2B is a space for faculty, staff, and students to record and livestream professional-quality videos with the click of a button. With this one-minute video, the audience is shown an overview of the space and how both stations can be used highlighting the variety of content that can be created there. This promotional video was shared campus wide on the library e-newsletter, on the library website’s Studio 2B page, on all the library’s social media platforms, and is housed on the library’s YouTube channel (369 views). The impact of the video has proven successful, as many of our target audience of faculty, staff, and students reserve and use Studio 2B frequently.

In the first week the video was shared out via our library e-newsletter, it was clicked 104 times, 85 contacts. It had 174 views on Youtube, ave. 0:42 per view, 56% of viewers watched for 1:00 (whole video).

In the first 60 days since the start of Studio 2B promotion, its total amount of bookings totaled 33 with 27 unique users. In the first six months since the start of Studio 2B promotion, its total amount of bookings totaled 107 with 46 unique users.

This video was created to be included as part of the library’s presentation during the U-M Council on Global Education meeting, a cross campus initiative but we also shared the video publicly as a way to highlight some of the language experts at our library and to point users toward our subject specialist resources.

The video is an introduction to the TLT Symposium, where participants share why they value the event. It highlights the importance of staying current with trends in teaching, learning, and technology, and emphasizes the Symposium as a space for reflection, collaboration, and innovation. Speakers stress that technology should amplify learning and foster equity, while the event itself builds a diverse, renewing community focused on student success.

Second film in a series created by the University’s marketing team to promote key resources to the campus community. The film has had 500+ views on YouTube and was shared broadly on the University’s and the Libraries’ social media channels.

This video is split up by floor (four separate videos) at our library and is shown on our large format visualization display. It is a visual guide for our patrons to better understand what our library has to offer and on what floor they can find specific amenities. Views would be hard to determine as it plays on a large screen (no one is streaming it) but we have received great feedback from our student and community members that the videos are engaging and informational.

The Libraries’ Tech Bar, which makes a wide range of electronics available for checkout to students, expanded its offerings beginning in 2023. The video was part of a communications strategy to inform students and faculty of this expansion and new opportunities it provided for students.

The video earned approximately double the amount of typical social media engagement for a Texas A&M University Libraries post.