In this thesis I present a collaborative annotation strategy to improve the usability of audio/visual meeting recordings. Meeting records are inherently difficult to navigate without structure, and even full transcripts do not always address this problem. Through the use of collaborative annotations some structure can be provided. The current study examines the use of a scalable classroom response system to allow groups to conveniently and easily provide these annotations during a class or meeting and presents a web-based video browser that uses these annotations to greatly improve the efficiency and satisfaction in a later information retrieval task. The applicability of this annotation strategy is discussed in a range of situations across formal meetings, classroom situations, and online audio and video.