Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Thing 19: Podcasts

I found podcasts difficult to use. I didn't want to need to subscribe to podcasts before listening to them. I found podcastalley.com needed login and downloading. Podcast.net wouldn't load. Education Podcast Directory wouldn't run the script one the first try, but I finally had better luck. I ended up listening to some new podcasts, interviews, and science information. It was interesting, but overwhelming. There is just too much information available. Versus text-based information sources, I like the control of browsing and starting and stopping that text allows me over video or audio files.


As far as providing the content of podcasts to my patrons, I don't feel prepared to give 'readers advisory" on that.
Providing this content via our website is a possibility for the future. I think this would be a good thing to come back to and try for more provision of resources thru this media. But perhaps the students at my college are already finding everything they need.

I do wonder how libraries (or indexers, etc) will provide access to this non-textual content. Is anyone "tagging" podcasts, etc for feeds that are comprised of a variety of parts and content. How will the specific information in podcasts be accessed.

This has not inspired me to podcast myself. Also, personally, I actually enjoy the small amounts of silence I am privileged to have!

2 comments:

Captain Crone said...

I like podcasts mostly as a way to listen to useful information while I work out. :-)

You are doing a nice job exploring all the Things.

Friend of Franklin said...

Thank you for your kind comment. and good suggestion!