By Victor Ocasio
[email protected]

Providing academic resources needed to aid students in various school projects and papers has always been a staple of any college library. But at Valencia’s West campus, the faculty found a way to inform the student body of all their available tools by hosting the first library video contest.

The parameters of the contest were that students who wished to participate were required to attend a Windows Movie Maker skill shop, one of 45 skill shops offered on campus, and use the program to create and edit the video.

“Students don’t know of and aren’t really aware of all the resources and tools we have here so we needed a way to let them know,” said Access lab manager Lisa Pablos. “The whole project came out of that need.”

The contest received two submissions, Aaron Arnold and a group submission by Melissa Cheng, Wendy Cheng and Sheng Y’Liu.

“It was a great opportunity for us since we had an interest in film,” said contestant Melissa Cheng. “Plus we learned some new information about the library.”

Through a system of online voting through the school’s website, students, faculty and staff choose Arnold as the contests winner, awarding him with several Valencia branded items including a pen, water bottle, flash drive, skill shop t-shirt and a backpack donated by Victor Collazo of Student Development.

“I think it was a great opportunity for students to get involved,” said Arnold. “It was the first contest I’ve entered since I’ve become a film student.”

The videos focus on the overall experience of utilizing the many resource tools and technology available at the library and demonstrate the usefulness of them in a more creative medium.

“We are always looking for ways to engage students here,” said Director of the West Campus library Karen Blondeau. “We are a place that if students know how to use this library they can help themselves in every area of their classwork and academics.”

Arnold, a film student at Valencia will have his video placed on the Library’s Webpage for one month in addition to the other prizes.

“We are planning on another contest possibly in the fall,” said Pablos. “This time around we are thinking about hosting a Photoshop contest focused around the skill shop that covers it.”

Both videos for this semester’s library video contest can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ZIhe8sF54.