Today, we take our first flight with the boy, but first two items worth noting.

Courtesy of Podcasting News, I learned that the staff at the Victoria & Albert Museum is recording audio segments on the works in their collection, as part of their Every Object Tells a Story project. Of course, there's a podcast feed. In effect, they are providing a ongoing serial audio tour that leaves the choices of when and what portions to listen to up to the enduser. Am I the only one who sees potential library applications here?

Along similar lines, I don't think I've taken the time to mention the Dowling College Library Omnibus. It's an interesting mix of content, but what I specifically wanted to bring to your attention was their "Primary Source Theater." This is a segment in which the staff weaves together a narrative through readings from primary source material. The first two installments looked at the history of the campus' Idle Hour mansion. It's incredible in conception and execution. I heartily recommend subscribing to their podcast feed.

In order to help keep track of the Carnival calendar, I set up a simple pbwiki with the schedule, along with the submission and hosting guidelines. Suggestions for other useful areas of content are welcome.

Carnival of the Infosciences #16 is now available, courtesy of Library Stuff's Steven Cohen. Thank you Steven!

The Carnival will be shut down next week to let all the Americans recover from the calorie consumption party that we call Thanksgiving. After that, the Carnival returns to Tinfoil + Raccoon. Expect the window for submissions to open next Monday.

Oh yes, I still need hosts, so get your volunteer hat on and drop me a line.

Kelli Staley has gone podcast crazy. Not only is she providing a cluster of podcast feeds from her place of work, she's also recorded and distributed a large number of programs from the recent CODI Conference. The effort to get permissions and do the recordings must have been considerable and, given the circumstances, the results are laudable. Let's hope for official conference podcast feeds by this time next year.

Another great stop for the Carnival of the Infosciences awaits you, courtesy of Xtine at Ask Nettie Day.

I'm looking forward to next week as we welcome Library Stuff's Steven Cohen as Carnival host. Send submissions to stevenmcohen [at] gmail [dot] com with something useful like "Carnival #16" in the subject line.

Update: Dang! I just realized I never published this post. Aargh!!!!!! My apologies to Xtine and Steven.

Hey y'all, submissions have been darned near non-existent this week for the Carnival, yet I've seen some pretty interesting stuff out there. So this is just a little post to goad you into submission (so to speak). Send your brilliant content to asknettieday at gmail dot com.

Earlier this evening, I was playing around with Loomia, which is a newish podcast search engine. My normal protocol when looking over new sites is to do some standard searches for "Open Stacks" and "library" or "librarian" and variations thereof.

Loomia led me to the Legislative Reference Bureau of the Wisconsin State Legislature website. Sure enough, this reference agency has a series of podcasts that covers aspects of Wisconsin law along as well as services the agency provides. You'll also find discussions of the library's new holdings and guidance on using the OPAC. Very nice! Here's the feed.

As for Loomia, it's OK, but not great. This is how I feel about pretty much all of these audio search tools at this point. Audio search has proven to be a real bear. And what they are calling podcast search isn't what I envision it to be. I want truly indexed audio content, not just indexed metadata about the podcast. I don't just want podcasts that use the word "library" in the show notes. (Well, actually sometimes I do, but work with me here.) I want to know what shows are using the word library in the context of the audio program itself.

Blinkx claims to do just that, but no search that I've done has provided any proof. Podscope does it just about right, even providing playable clips that include your search term. On the down side, they seem to be able to handle only so much speech-to-text processing, which leaves their database severely limited in terms of coverage of the podosphere. I have high hopes for their ability to provide true podcast search given better processing power. If Blinkx actually does what they claim, they will be providing a nice combination of metadata indexing and true audio indexing that will be extremely powerful.

That all said, Loomia does have potential. They are focused on personalized recommendations via tagging, ratings and a "similar users" engine akin to Audioscrobbler's musical neighbors. I do genuinely enjoy that aspect of the Audioscrobbler experience, but will I be providing enough about my podcasting experience to generate useful comparisons with other users? Somewhat difficult for me to picture.

Anyway, stay tuned as I hope to provide more evaluations of various tools for listening to, searching and producing podcasts.

All you Web/Library 2.0 fans should leave this site, go to the Talking with Talis site, and subscribe to the podcast feed immediately. Latest conversation is with Cliff Lynch. Among the topics discussed: "the importance of libraries actively embracing community participation in their work."

I'm pleased to see another librarian stepping up to the podcasting podium. Jim Milles from the University of Buffalo Law Library is now offering Check This Out! Here's the podcast feed. He's three episodes in and, although I haven't listened yet, his show notes suggest an interesting mix of music, news and miscellany.

Incidentally, I found Jim's podcast thanks to the new Feedster Podcast Search beta.

Chad at Library Voice points to an excellent article in the newest Educause Review entitled There's Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education by Gardner Campbell. It's rather lengthy, but if you read nothing else, check out the introduction, which offers a highly evocative vision for the integration of podcasting into the life of a student.

Kudos to Jill O'Neill for a great job on Carnival of the Infosciences #14. I enjoyed the thematic breakdown and pointers about podcasting.

Next week, we welcome another new host as the Carnival moves to Ask Nettie Day. Here is her floor-opening post. Send your submissions to asknettieday at gmail dot com with "Carnival #15" in the subject line.

How come I didn't know that Thomas Ford Memorial Library has started a Click-A-Story service, offering audio recordings of stories read by the library's Youth Services department? Of course, there's a podcast feed, although at present the content seems to be a copy of the feed for their YA Reviews series.

Update: Aaron let me know that the Click-A-Story is in early alpha mode, which explains the feed issues described above.

Also wanted to steer you toward David Free's wonderful, lively interview with Tina McElroy Ansa, which forms the majority of Listen Up! #10. Ms. Ansa was already on campus for another program and David seized the opportunity to bring the author's voice to more members of his service community and beyond. Are you looking at ways to extend the mileage/value of the programs that you work so hard to organize at your library?

Since Lori Bell already posted it on the LJ Tech Blog, I guess it's safe to announce that I will be doing a webinar on the increasingly familiar topic of podcasting. The session will be offered via the wonderful Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) website on Thursday, December 8 at 2 PM Eastern time.

As the blurb reads: "Podcasting, an exciting new model for distributing audio content, is generating buzz across the Internet. But what is it exactly? And why should librarians care? We'll discuss the hows and whys of podcasting, including how to tune in, how to find interesting content and how your organization can take advantage of this powerful technology to reach more people in your community."

The event is free and open to all. To tune in live in the OPAL auditorium, you go to http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=67955673&p=0 and type in your name. Live participation requires a small plug-in downloaded at the time of login. The presentation will also be recorded, archived and podcasted for your future listening pleasure.

Thanks to Tom Peters, Lori Bell and the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center for making this happen and inviting me to participate. Tell your friends and colleagues. It's free for goodness sake!

Here's the next few weeks' worth of Carnival hosts:

And remember that I do maintain a complete list of past, present and future Carnival engagements.

Who else can I compel to rock the Carnival mic?