Producing a Multilingual Audiotape Walking Tour of the Parks Library

Each year thousands of international students enter U.S, colleges and universities for the first time. Typically, these students will tour the library as part of their orientation. Tours, however, are almost always in English, and many of these students have not yet developed the English comprehension skills necessary to fully benefit from the tour. To address this problem the Iowa State University Library developed a multilingual audiotape tour of the Library. The 45 minute tour was first developed and tested in English, then translated into Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, and Spanish. A booklet, in English, accompanies the tour and provides maps and basic library information. While many of the problems of producing the English tape were anticipated, problems unique to the translated version were not. Keeping translations down to 45 minutes, knowing if the translations were correct, and recording and editing the tape when the sound technician doesn\u27t understand the language were among the many problems encountered. Evaluations of the English tape were consistently positive. Feedback on the non-English tapes is not yet sufficient to draw conclusions

Planning, Producing, and Implementing a Multilingual Audiotape Walking Tour of the Iowa State University Parks Library

Providing physical orientation to a library remains a standard function of a bibliographic instruction program. Librarians, faced with diminished resources and increased user demands with diverse needs, have responded in creative ways to provide orientation. One such way is the self-guided audiocassette taped library tour. To assist librarians in developing, planning, and implementing self-guided audiocassette walking tours in a variety of languages, a packet of information representing the development of the multilingual audiocassette taped tour is presented. Included here are: the grant proposal, a Parks Library tour script in English, progress and final reports, tour packet provided to library patrons, and guidelines for planning

Producing a Multilingual Audiotape Walking Tour of the Parks Library

Each year thousands of international students enter U.S, colleges and universities for the first time. Typically, these students will tour the library as part of their orientation. Tours, however, are almost always in English, and many of these students have not yet developed the English comprehension skills necessary to fully benefit from the tour. To address this problem the Iowa State University Library developed a multilingual audiotape tour of the Library. The 45 minute tour was first developed and tested in English, then translated into Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, and Spanish. A booklet, in English, accompanies the tour and provides maps and basic library information. While many of the problems of producing the English tape were anticipated, problems unique to the translated version were not. Keeping translations down to 45 minutes, knowing if the translations were correct, and recording and editing the tape when the sound technician doesn't understand the language were among the many problems encountered. Evaluations of the English tape were consistently positive. Feedback on the non-English tapes is not yet sufficient to draw conclusions.</p

Planning, Producing, and Implementing a Multilingual Audiotape Walking Tour of the Iowa State University Parks Library

Providing physical orientation to a library remains a standard function of a bibliographic instruction program. Librarians, faced with diminished resources and increased user demands with diverse needs, have responded in creative ways to provide orientation. One such way is the self-guided audiocassette taped library tour. To assist librarians in developing, planning, and implementing self-guided audiocassette walking tours in a variety of languages, a packet of information representing the development of the multilingual audiocassette taped tour is presented. Included here are: the grant proposal, a Parks Library tour script in English, progress and final reports, tour packet provided to library patrons, and guidelines for planning.</p