PLA Blog

Just one more post about podcasting before I post the remainder of the Service Response posts for everyone to discuss.

While I didn’t end up podcasting from PodCamp Boston, I was interviewed at PodCamp: one of those interviews is already up at Dave LaMorte’s Teaching for the Future podcast, and another should be coming to me via email from Francesca Rheannon at the Writer’s Voice podcast, for me to podcast from the PLA Blog.

The podcasters at PodCamp were an awesome group of geeks, who really believe in working together and collaborating as much as possible. The podcasters I listed above, as well as many other podcasters I met and talked to, are eager to collaborate, and were intrigued and excited with the idea of working with libraries and librarians.

Much like the rise of blogs and Wikipedia and social networking, I see podcasts, vidcasts, video blogs (vlogs), and other examples of multimedia content hold a world of possibilities for libraries. I recently made a pitch to my boss at my library about adding a podcast to our weekly newsletter, which is published using Blogger and also distributed by email. Nothing to fancy, a 5-minute clip on the upcoming book groups, or tech tips, or how to access databases from home, and more. We can even partner podcasts with quick and easy tutorials composed as sets in the library’s Flickr account, to give patrons the option of audio and visual information access.

One thing that was emphasized by all of the podcasters is that you shouldn’t be hung up on hardware, gear, sound quality. While these are all important, they shouldn’t define whether or not you try podcasting. It can be as easy as hooking up a regular old computer mic to a computer, and using an easy recording application. No mixers or equalizers, just you, your voice, and what you want to share with the world.

Not ready to jump in whole-hog on making podcasts? There are other wasy to interact with the technology, and show your patrons you’re hip. Try adding podcasts to your pathfinders and subject portals. Create recommended lists of podcasts on different subjects (they cover everything from physics to knitting) and place them near your library computers, audio books, in your newsletters, and on your site. As with other web content, librarians can help evaluate and recommend multimedia content, while becoming more familiar with the technology. You can even get in touch with podcasters, to learn from and collaborate with them. I’m sure they’d dig it.
Anyone who didn’t go to the conference can not only listen to and watch content from the conference on the PodCamp Boston Recordings page. You can also see pictures on Flickr, check out posts on Technorati, and join the Google Group.
Do you have ideas for podcasts you’d like to hear from the PLA Blog? Add a comment to this post and let us know.

Tags: PLA Blog, PodCamp Boston, podcasting, technology

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 2:02 pm and is filed under PLA Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.