For those of you wondering if podcasting is just a hyper-geeky tech trend to which you need not pay any attention, I offer this short, yet interesting statistical breakdown of a technology in its infancy, provided by the folks at Feedburner. Thanks to Steven for sharing the linkage.

Congratulations to David Free, reference librarian at the Georgia Perimeter College’s Decatur Campus, for producing (what I believe to be) the first podcast that delivers library news. Here’s a link to the podcast feed.

David talks about current and upcoming library events, as well as recent library acquisitions. This first cast is about 12 minutes long and worth a listen if you’re interested in how syndicated audio content might be a good option for your library. Great job, David!

Updated 02/09/05: I just noticed that, by including the link to the mp3, those of you subscribed to my RSS 2.0 feed in a podcast aggregator received a download of David’s cast automatically. That was not my intent, so I’ve removed the direct link.

First of all, check out the great review of my other podcast, Preserves, Jellies and Jams, over at podcrawl. Hilary talks about her favorite audio content and I’m honored to be considered in such elite company.

Most of you have probably already sampled the initial podcasting efforts of Karen Schneider (check our her presentation from the OLA conference) and Michael Stephens, but today David King posted his first (and what he claims will be the only) audioblogger post. I’m sure I don’t have to say that I’d love to hear more. However, David, it’s not truly a podcast until you podcast it, so if you’re going to do more, perhaps grab yourself a Feedburner feed. Here’s a quick tutorial on turning a Feedburner feed into a podcast.

Looks like the fever is catching!

It looks like Emily Alling (who’s last name I sadly mangled on the last show) of Schoolhouse Rock is making the talk segments of her show (co-hosted by James Miller) available as mp3s from the blog. She’s got two shows available already, dealing with the themes of plagiarism and geography. Although the music is sorely missed (I wonder if they could get away with longer sections), the banter and commentary is definitely entertaining and worthwhile. Emily, thanks for doing this for all of us out in the blogosphere!

Bob Jordan wrote to point out that if you are subscribing to the RSS 2.0 feed in a text-based aggie such as Bloglines or FeedDemon, you are only seeing one enclosure link in any given post. If there is more than one, the aggies seem to prefer the last one, which, in the case of the last post, is the podcast gif. So here’s another post with the link you probably want. I don’t believe this will result in a duplicate download for those of you with podcast aggregators, but let me know if I’m wrong. I strongly suggest only subscribing to the RSS 1.0 feed in your text aggie, as this will give you all of the linkage properly formatted for easy digestion. RSS 2.0, not so much.

Updated 02/08/05: I just fixed the RSS 2.0 feed, so that it displays links properly. Therefore, my last suggestion no longer applies.

Now presenting Open Stacks #3

Or grab the feed:

Thanks to Paul Pival for suggesting that I encode this show at a lower bit rate, which has cut the file size in half. Yay! This show clocks in at 18 minutes.

Show notes:
Ways to contact me, including my new telephone comment line
A follow-up to the podcasting applications for libraries segment
Mentions of two LIS-related radio shows:Dan Carr’s (Marin County Free Library) radio show (webcast on KWMR) and Springfield College’s Schoolhouse Rock
Librarians in the 21st Century (particularly the Who Wants to Be a 21st Century Librarian? game)
Library Lounge and the need for new LIS virtual communites (or lack thereof)
Brewster Kahle’s talk at the Web 2.0 conference (from October 2004, not November or December as I posit on the show), courtesy of the wonderful IT Conversations
Michael McGrorty’s Endangered Libraries list
How to Get Your Patronage to Read Jenna Jameson

Thanks to everyone who has voted for Open Stacks over at Podcast Alley. Your support and positive comments are greatly appreciated.

It seems that Google no longer likes any of my sites that contain the openstacks.net domain. I could really use some help troubleshooting the problem, so if anyone has some experience with this, please contact me. Thanks. In the meantime, please choose another search engine.

I mentioned on the second show that, having reviewed the South Carolina study, I would like to see more states doing Return On Investment (ROI) analyses. Michael Pate pointed out that Florida has recently published a similar study. I haven’t looked at the final reports closely yet, but here’s what stands out right away: “Florida’s public libraries return $6.54 for every $1.00 invested.” Yeah, baby!

Updated 02/03/05: Alane Wilson sent along this bibliography of sources consulted for OCLC’s Advocacy advertising effort. The list includes the Florida study along with other interesting papers on the valuation of library services.