Casting Pods Before Swine

In theory, I am very interested in podcasts, and could definitely see them having a place in the library, either as resources in the collection to which patrons can be directed for information, or as information resources produced by the library itself.

It will probably not be every library that has much use for producing podcasts, but if there are frequent information updates, events, etc., there's no reason those couldn't be publicized and offered to users for subscriptions. The library used to promote events on the Community News update on our local public radio affiliate when I was a kid, and podcasting is essentially an extension of radio, so why couldn't someone read the library's news and post it?

In much the same way that blogs might, podcasts could provide a means of getting the news out. And, again in the way that blogs do, a librarian's personal podcast might provide a means for thoughts and observations that could serve to highlight aspects of the library's functions.

And, of course, subscribing to health/library/science/technology (or whatever one's subject interest) podcasts could be a good way for librarians to keep up with what's going on in these fields. Since they're audio files, they can be listened to during a commute or while doing other things, rather than requiring the focused visual attention of reading, and I know many people appreciate being able to catch up on a topic by listening.

In practice, I have limited experience with podcasts, mostly because I have limited time. Podcasts aren't on my assigned coursework, so they aren't high on my priority list right now! I am, however, interested in learning more about them and using them more in the future. It's really on my list of things to know more about, once I'm done with school. (Because once I'm done with school, I'll only have a job, and that won't keep me busy at all, right? No, don't disillusion me.)

One of these days, I'm really going to get an iPod, the way I've been thinking about for months (I know, you don't need an iPod, any mp3 player will do, but I've still got credit on an Apple gift card, so I'm leaning Podwards).

I'm interested in Odeo, and look forward to listening to some of the things I found to subscribe to. It seems like a convenient organizing site to keep your podcasts in one place---I saw that there's also an option to subscribe via iTunes and have new podcasts downloaded to your computer, but the cool thing about Odeo is that you can collect the things you're interested in online, and then get to them from any computer (as Google Docs and other online office applications offer for documents). I like it!

Hmm...this was only one week's assignment, but this is already getting a little long, so I'm going to put the youTube reflections in another post.