The other week a colleague pointed me towards a website called MURALS, which appears to be a collection of library-related screencasts you can buy for your library. I have a few problems with the site.
- There's no information about who's putting these together. Not a huge deal, but it would be nice to know.
- It's not clear whether these screencasts can be embedded on your own site.
- The audio quality really varies from poor to good. Normally I wouldn't nit-pick, but I'd expect a lot better if I'm paying…
- I suspect it's not cool with the vendors of these products, or the library that has purchased them, that these screencasts are being sold – that really seems to be crossing the line between work and outside remuneration. :-/
- Have I mentioned the ANTS project lately? You know, pretty much the same thing, except you can download and modify the screencasts for your own institution, for free.
I applaud the initiative of the anonymous librarian (?) behind MURALS; I'd love to figure out how to make more money on the side, but I don't think this is the way…
Just my $0.02
Comments
2 Responses to “MURALS – closed-source screencasting?”
I agree with your thoughts. I was sceptical and also found the tutorials of poor quality (for something you pay for). Especially problematic is the lack of text or captioning in any of the tuorials (along with the poor audio quality you point out). It’s an interesting concept and somewhat surprising that this hasn’t been done before.
I agree as well. I haven’t requested a free trial but the quality of the site and the information available (or not available) do not motivate me to do so. The nature of librarianship and the future of providing this kind of collection suggests something more open, flexible and free (like the ANTS project mentioned).