Please allow me to direct your attention to Carnival of the Infosciences #22, hosted this week by Nicole over at What I Learned Today...
If you only follow one link, check out the Google translation of Javier's piece. Priceless.

Bonus points go out to Steve Lawson for his post about the Carnival. I may not have mentioned this before, but our friends over at Blog Carnival offer a lovely RSS feed to alert you to the newest carnival installation.

Next week, the Carnival travels to The Laughing Librarian, where Brian is sure to wreak havoc with the Carnival paradigm. (No pressure.) Brian has a nice list of submission suggestions and requests that you use the Blog Carnival submission form for your submissions. So get 'em in!

Don't call it a comeback. No really.

Now presenting: Open Stacks #18

Also available via the podcast feed.

Finally found the wherewithal to do a quick 12 minute recording using my new mic and mixer. I think I still have some work to do on learning how best to use them, but if you compare this recording with my last, the improvement becomes more salient.

So how did I occupy these here 12 plus minutes? Very loosely. Topics include where I've been, a very haphazard explanation of wikis with a referral to Meredith's wiki presentation (note: it's in two parts - you need both) and a muddled discussion of library podcasts inspired by a recent post, also by Meredith. So I beg your indulgence, but hope you enjoy the moderately improved sound quality.

Steve Bertrand from the Kankakee Public Library wrote me a few days ago in response to my rant about the misuse of the term podcast. Turns out KPL offers a genuine podcast feed where they are offering, amongst other content, a visit from Arlo Guthrie. Very nice.

Note: This is my first attempt at posting with the Performancing extension for Firefox.

I invite everyone to hop over to Infomancy and check out the Carnival of the Infosciences #21. Next week's Carnival will be hosted at What I Learned Today..., so get your submissions into Nicole: nengard at gmail dot com. Submissions were light last week, so let's get back in the Carnival spirit y'all!

And I'm always looking for hosts...

The Pritzker Military Library has starting syndicating the great recordings of library events that were already available on their website. Leighton Shell was at my OPAL presentation back in early December and since then, we've been in contact as he has made the transition from audio content to podcasting. They have an all events feed, as well as specific feeds for some of their unique event series. The production quality is very high, so if you have any interest in military history, this content is gold.

And if you haven't seen this already, a group of students at the University of Washington's iSchool have started a new program entitled InfoSpeak. As described on the site, ""It showcases outstanding leaders in various areas of information access and awareness, speaking from authoritative vantage points about many interesting and relevant information issues of our day." It's a pretty polished product, but dang, it should be with six people on staff. First episode is with the Internet Librarian himself, Joe Janes, who is always a treat to hear. Here's a link to the podcast feed.

I'm becoming mildly frustrated (don't have time to be more impassioned, sorry) by entities in the LIS world who slap some mp3s on their website and call it a podcast. After all, podcasting is about harnessing the power of syndication to distribute audio content, not just making audio content available.

I love that there is an mp3 of Barbara Quint's Searcher's Voice column. But sorry, folks: no feed, no podcast. What we're left with is misappropriation of a buzzword that misses the whole point of podcasting.

I just finished speaking with Chad about the new Alden Library Podcast Tour. When I see such a page, I expect there to be a feed for the audio content. Otherwise, I'm just staring at a cluster of audio files. In this case, there actually is a feed with the requisite enclosures, but it's the feed from their News Blog. We talked about some avenues for clarification and I'm confident that Chad will be fine-tuning the presentation in the forthcoming weeks. It's a laudable first effort and worth checking out.

But I can't stress enough that the magic of podcasting lies completely in the syndication. Not enough of our patrons understand this and the last thing we need to do is contribute to their misunderstanding.

Thanks to Hugh (who can now safely be described as "of LibriVox fame") for letting me know about Montreal's Atwater Library and Computer Centre, which is recording library programming and making it available via podcast feed. They even offer the audio content in Ogg Vorbis format (an open source alternative to mp3) with a separate Ogg-only podcast feed.

Seeking a thrill ride? Hop on over to TangognaT for the 20th installment of the Carnival of the Infosciences.

Next week, we welcome Chris Harris of Infomancy as the Carnival's host. He hasn't given specific instructions yet, but I imagine he'd like submissions to go to infomancy at gmail dot com.

Almost forgot to link to Joy's wonderful compilation of posts over at the 19th Carnival of the Infosciences. Nice to see a bunch of new names amongst the submissions. Next week, we welcome TangognaT to the hosting fold, so get your selections in to tangognat @ tangognat.com.

My buddy Max did some digging around the iTunes Music Store and found a podcast feed for the Western Kentucky University Libraries. Although they are currently only offering an audio version of their video tour, the description suggests that they will also feature "community outreach events and workshops." They also have a very nice blog, which is repeatedly linked to from their main page.

David King was, to my limited knowledge, the first librarian to make a foray into videocasting. It seems his interest has not waned as he offers a nice list of possible applications for video on your library's website: Integrating Video into Library Websites.

He's looking for other ideas and I will offer one here: short "Meet the Staff" clips. One of the things that sometimes gets lost in the library technology shuffle is the human element that really makes a library what it is. It can't hurt to remind your patrons that there are real people behind the OPAC, behind the calendar of events, behind the Ask-A-Librarian form, behind the downloadable audiobooks. Give 'em a glimpse of the people who make it all happen.

In trying to catch up on my feeds, I saw that the DIY Librarian listed Open Stacks as one of her Top 5 Library Blogs of 2005. I greatly appreciate the acknowledgement, but that's not why I'm writing presently. This was the part of her post that caught my attention: "I have not been reading Open Stacks as much since the focus has turned to podcasting"

Now I'm taking that statement completely out of context, but it got me wondering: Does it bug you, gentle reader, that I only blog about podcasting these days? There really is a reason for it.

When I started recording the show, I reserved any general LIS comments for that environment. Quite frankly, I found it easier to share my thoughts verbally. The blog became mostly a support mechanism for the show.

Then, a surprising thing happened. The "podcasting librarian" somehow became the "librarian with expertise in podcasting." This has meant not only numerous opportunities to share my knowledge, but an impetus to maintain the currency of my knowledge. Thus, even though life has made it near-to-impossible to get back to actually producing the show, I feel compelled to keep current in the one area I'm considered to have some level of specialized knowledge. So blogging is now the mechanism by which I maintain my expertise in the topic of podcasting. Of course, if you have no interest in the topic, the blog is of limited value. So be it. For what it's worth, I enjoy having a niche that beats a slightly different drum.

Hugs and kisses to everyone who has stuck with me through the "life trumps blogging/podcasting" stage. I am quite anxious to get back to the show. I have some new equipment to try out.

Gary Price highlights a series of interesting interviews from the Coalition of Networked Information 2005 Fall Task Force Meeting. Some serious information professionals here, including NYPL's Barbara Taranto and Purdue's James Mullins.

The interviews and descriptions are available over at Educause. All of these interviews and more are available via the Educause podcast feed.

Nifty little article in the Cheshire (CT) Herald entitled "Librarian Hopes To Attract Teens Via Radio Podcasting". In short, Sarah Morgan, freshly appointed to the new teen librarian position at Cheshire Public Library, saw an opportunity to get more teens in her library with the alluring blend of creativity and technology.

"Teens who are interested will host a 30-minute 'episode' once a month that would include 10 minutes of creative work, 10 minutes of reviews of either literature, movies or video games and a 10-minute event announcement or interviews with other teens. Those involved will have total control over their 'station' with the help of Morgan working as the 'producer'."

Wow. Pretty ambitious. I hope she pulls it off. There's already an podcast information page on the library's website. I like her description of the podcast as a "teen-driven cultural magazine." Good luck Sarah!