Perfecting Presentations

Professional speaker Arch Lustberg, creator of Controlling the Confrontation (reviewed in our November 1989 issue), works with a group of librarians in this excellent primer on the do's and don't's of public speaking. Lustberg says that in order to be a successful speaker, you must get your audience to like you. To accomplish this, you have four tools at your disposal: mind, face, body, and voice. Using before and after examples from his workshop with librarians, he shows viewers how to use the "pause," how to tell interesting stories, how to keep an "open" face, and when to use gestures during a speech, as well as addressing some of the more technical aspects of public speaking (handling the physical paper on which the speech is written, adjusting one's voice level, etc.) The only false note in Lustberg's presentation is his oft-repeated definition of public speaking as "making intellectual love, "an absurd metaphor that would only apply to someone who defined "love" as having group sex with a roomful of total strangers. Other than that, Perfecting Presentations is as good as its title, and is very nearly general enough to be used by regular patrons as well as library staff. [Note: Lustberg's book Podium Power is included with the tape.] Highly recommended. (Available from: ALA Video/Library Video Network, 320 York Rd., Towson, MD 21204-5179; (800) 441-TAPE.)