I don't know why I hadn't thought about me actually doing a podcast-- I guess I thought it would be too complicated. I listened to some of Nancy Keane's book talks-- she's very expressive and has a wonderful reading voice, and I listened to some of the high school library podcasts-- the students did a great job, and the results looked simple enough to add a podcast. Nancy's podcast simply had the little progress line on a blank screen. The high school students had pictures posted with theirs, which gave me a face or picture to focus on while I'm listening.
I checked out the Library Live Web site and listened to Patrick Heath's and Kathryn Sturtz's podcasts, both of whom I knew some years back when the library I used to managed was a member of the Alamo Area Library System, so I had a mental picture of who was talking. They had some good information for supporting the library by determining its value to the community and tools provided by AALS to put a dollar figure or return on investment library services provide. Great when meeting with those funding sources.
Podcasts are another inexpensive, simple way to share what you know in the library world, which ultimately benefits everyone.
I listened to a song by Lucinda Williams on the Texas Music Matters. Good sound. For the Discovery Exercise I visited The Educational Podcast Directory and looked at the listings, and from there I hit a link to OPAL and took a look at the listings for Information Literacy, and listened to the blog on the Picturing America selections. It threw me for a moment because at first, it seems like it's live-- it even posted a few entries on a text live chat box. And I could hear everything as well as watch the slides of the pictures in the grant that the speaker is talking about and describing, and I had control over the slides. We did get the Picturing America grant so I am familiar with the art work she's referring to. She also shared some ideas on how to use and promote the art with the Picturing America grant, for example, having a mother-daughter tea party in reference to the silver tea service, sending students out with digital cameras to take pictures of architecture comparing and contrasting the architectural images in the collection, or having children make Native American crafts.
As for ways I gleaned that our library could use podcasts, I enjoyed listening to the students' book reviews and the librarian's book talks. I can see our students doing that, and I can imagine me doing a book talk on a podcast when my voice changes to something sultry and expressive instead of sounding like the country hick that I do. I wouldn't want to torture my listeners. : ) I would love for TLA to provide free podcasts of the speakers at the annual convention that we didn't get to hear. That would be great, especially in these days of limited budgets.
At home I'm able to have iTunes on my computer so I practiced subscribing to three different podcasts there.
Illustration by Vanessa Roeder @ http://www.nessadeeart.blogspot.com/ and http://www.etsy.com/shop/nessadee Used with permission.
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