Mashable specializes in social networking news. A recent post covers 12 screencasting tools that one can use to create video tutorials. Most of us are probably familiar with Camtasia, which is relatively expensive, and currently works only on Windows. It’s also overkill for a lot of things we want to do. Take a look at the Mashable posting and see some other tools that are available. Many are free. I’m partial to Jing, which is free, works on Macs and Windows, and can also record audio. It takes seconds to record a video, then create a url that can be sent for viewing. The video is instantly uploaded (also free), and the url can be sent via e-mail, IM, or a blog. I can imagine this being very useful at the reference desk. Rather than trying to explain to someone on the phone on how to change a computer setting or use a feature of some software, just create a quick video and send the url. Static screenshots can also be done, and annotated as well.

Got any favorite tools you’d like to share?