Yes, it was a bootcamp, but at no time did David Lee King or Dave W. Free say the words, “drop and give me twenty”, for that and all the great information, I say thank you.
What’s a podcast? According to Aaron, it’s easy RSS plus MP3 equals podcast. Need more specifics check out Podcasting in Plain English.
Many resources on podcasting are available on David Free’s wiki.
Ways to find podcasts
- Websites like NPR and oh so many others
- Search tools
- PodcastPickle fun to say, and functional.
- Podcast 411
- iTunes
To consume podcasts: basic requirements
NEEDS
- computer
- broadband internet
- media player(s)
AGGREGATORS
DEVICES
- iPod or others
- PSP
- Treo–smart phones
Examples of podcast sites
: A weekly live interactive roundtable discussion of all things library, Wednesdays 10 PM Eastern.
When you add a podcast think about your listeners, make it easy to find on your site, embed a player for a clean look-either the server based version of WordPress or WordPress.com seem to be the best right now. Be sure to add your podcast to iTunes, which is where most people will find you. You’ll need a credit card to create an iTunes account for your library, but no worries your credit card info is safe.
Some things that make good podcasts for libraries
Author visits–be sure to discuss up front with your speaker that you’d like to podcast their talk, get a signed release–most speakers will be fine with this.
Storytimes
Internal training–ie Sno-Isle’s CPI collection maintenance videos (videocasting)
Some featured library podcasts.
- Los Angeles Central Library ALOUD Podcasts
- Sunnyvale Public Library
- Pritzker Military Library
- Princeton (NJ) Public Library Poetry Podcasts
- Orange County (FL) Library System
- Moraine Valley Community College
- Ohio University Alden Library Audio Tour
- Fairfield University Library
- WPI Audio To Go
- Pierce County (WA) Library System
Notable
Cheshire Public Library has a teen driven podcast–this would be great for our local Teen Project libraries.
Ohio University–library tours in other languages–this would be a great project for the Monroe Library to create a library tour in Spanish.
Pierce Cty–podcast of volunteer opportunities at the library–great idea. (share w/Nancy Patton)
Podcast Tips
Be entertaining and passionate.
Do a couple takes to hear your voice, and become aware of your tics– do you say ummm more than you’re aware of, try to work on breaking this habit. You can edit out the ummms, but it’s tedious and ultimately easier to work on dropping this verbal tic.
3 to 4 minutes is best, and never go longer than 10 minutes–you’ll lose your audience.
TOOLS
Use a USB microphone–doesn’t have to cost a fortune–entry level USB mics run about $25.00. There are of course cool ones that cost more but most important is to go with USB rather than with jack style.
You can also use your iPod as a voice recorder by plugging in a Belkin tunetalk into your iPod. Has good sound, just place on podium and then later add the podcast to your iTunes.
Audacity–this is free and mega-easy software to use–”if you can use MS Word, you can use Audacity. Looks a bit intimidating at first, but it’s easy and works in either Mac or Windows environments–you can even use Windows at work and then edit it more on your Mac at home. Cool.
Levelator this tool will level the volume of different speakers voices so that listening is pleasurable. If you have one person who is loud and another who is soft spoken, then levelator is the tool to use, so that your listeners aren’t constantly fussing with the volume on their device.
Hosting free online tools like bliptv will host your podcasts–easy to cross post your podcasts to your blog. WordPress works better than blogger for podcasting.
Promote your podcast just like any other service. Be smart and use iTunes, and other podcast directories, don’t think that just putting it up on your site is enough.
Evaluate your podcasts–are they right for your community? Do patrons enjoy them? Ask. Use the feedback to improve-don’t take it personally. Finally, don’t start podcasting just because everyone else is, or because you got excited about it after a workshop–make sure it’s right for your library.
More on Videocasting later, for now I’m off to the Gaming and Gadgets Petting Zoo.
