Thursday, November 8, 2007

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

This was one of my least favourite exercises. I did not enjoy exploring podcasts at all. Well, I couldn't actually get any of them to play on my computer at work, but that wasn't the worst part. I found browsing terribly difficult. I think in the case of podcasts, you really need to search for a specific podcast rather than browse the many categories, as there is so much garbage out there. I imagine you would have to listen to many to find one that is relevant or interesting.

I found Podcastalley to be the most user-friendly. I did a search for 'library news', and I like how you could click one of the results and explanation of it appeared below without taking you to another screen. I chose to add a 'Library Geeks' feed to my Bloglines account.

I can see how podcasts would be useful for libraries. Author visits and book nights could be recorded and uploaded to the website for those who couldn't attend, for example.

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