Another excellent blog-venture is waiting for you at the Carnival of the Infosciences #26, this week hosted over at Data Obsessed. Many thanks to Amanda for taking a turn at the helm of the Carnival mothership.

And so we return to Mr. Senior Librarian himself, Steven Cohen, for next week's Carnival over at Library Stuff. I'm sure he will remember to open the floor for submissions soon, but in the meantime, I'm sure he won't mind if you sent him a submission or two to stevenmcohen [at] gmail [dot] com. In fact, I imagine he'll thank you for it...and so will I.

I mentioned in the last show that I had an upcoming engagement that I didn't want to talk about until I saw a public manifestation of it. Well now there is, so I can safely tell you that I'll be doing a two-part series on podcasting for the SirsiDynix Institute.

I'll be talking about the consumer end of podcasting in the first week (May 17, 8 AM Pacific). During the second week, we'll talk about podcasting from the content creator angle (May 24, 8 AM Pacific). It's free so I invite all to register ere. The dates are wrong on the registration page. It's definitely May, not March. I imagine this will be corrected soon.

And, of course, as great as Senior Librarian for PubSub Concepts sounds, that's not me, but someone else entirely.

Thanks to a handy link from Library Stuff, I discovered that the Curtin University Library and Information Service is now podcasting. So far, they are offering an audio tour of the library as well as a clip about ID numbers and passwords. Here's a link to the podcast feed. Kudos to Constance for spearheading this project. Perhaps you can help with her librarian blogger survey?

Now presenting: Open Stacks #19

Also available via the podcast feed.

It's amazing what I can get done with a weekday off from work. 19 minutes and 22 seconds this time around. I've tried a few new things, but it's still just me.

Show notes:
1. Speed dating @ your library
2. SLA on the EPA
3. Pornland Security
4. I'm sorry there, Jackson. I am...for real.
5. Mace-book?

Update (Sunday, 2/26 2:02 PM): I was listening to a stream of this show and noticed that you could barely hear the music bed, if at all. So I upped the gain on the music track and exported it again. I also made the file size a bit smaller in the process. I've actually replaced the original mp3 with the new version, so if you've already downloaded it, you may want to take a brief listen to the new one to sample the difference.

Since I seem to be stuck on the Alternative Teen Services blog this evening, allow me to direct you toward a worthwhile post entitled Podcasting & Teens, which concludes "let us embrace the podcast technology." I'll drink some Kool-Aid to that.

If you only listen to one library-based podcast ever, I'd have to recommend the first episode of the Cheshire Public Library podcast that I mentioned in January, when it received some early press coverage. Sarah Morgan has gotten some great effort, energy and creativity out of her teens. The "Love-Hate Musical Debate" over Creed is freakin' hilarious.

You won't be able to find a direct podcast feed on the site (the instructions tell you to head to iTunes and subscribe there, which is just not my style at all), but your intrepid librarian has sussed out a proper podcast feed.

Under the picture of Michael Stephens that sits next to the word HOT in the Library 2.0 wiktionary is an embedded media player with this podcast blaring.

I was taking a look at the Alternative Teen Services blog, based on Brian Smith's recommendations, and discovered a handy list of Library 2.0 Services to Teens. Naturally, there were some podcasts there, including one I had never come across before, courtesy of the Teen Matrix at Manchester Public Library in Connecticut.

They actually have two feeds available:

Prime Speaks is "a podcast about books."

Prime's Box Live is a "video podcast about books."

It's been a few months since any new content has appeared on either feed, so I hope I haven't completely missed the boat on this one.

Just wanted to acknowledge WebJunction's first foray into podcasting. Their RSS 2.0 feed is now enclosure-friendly and ready for subscribing in your podcatcher. The first production is a brief discussion of a technology planning product called TechAtlas. Interesting stuff.

This broken iPod situation is just killing me.

Mark Lindner is definitely a nominee for Most Valuable Carnival Host. Check out his work at the Carnival of the Infosciences #25. Mark takes a single submission (Thank you, Steve!), rolls it in honey and makes a big ball of sticky liblog goodness out of it. I really enjoyed his admission that "I'm not even sure what Andrea is talking about at points." I laughed because I felt the same way after my first reading of her post "On Tagging People." It's a worthy read though.

Next week, the Carnival welcomes Amanda Robertson as host over at Data Obsessed. Please (pretty please? I hate to beg, but we're hitting rock bottom on the submissions) send your submissions to amanda [at] renji [dot] org by Sunday at 6 PM.

As always, I'm in need of hosts. New and prior hosts are welcome to inquire within via the contact form. Need more info?

Update: I completely forgot to give a big thanks to Blake for selecting the Carnival as one of his 10 Blogs to Read in 2006. Incidentally, there are many other reasons to thank Blake, so let me offer the following unsolicited testimonial: If you are looking for a quality, librarian-friendly webhost, you can do no better than Blake and LISHost. Just trust me on this one.

I've had these two items sitting in my browser for a few days, so I can't remember exactly how I stumbled across them in the first place (most links of this nature are coming through a del.icio.us podcasting feed).

Robyn Rosenberg has a blog dedicated to Podcasting in Libraries and Higher Education. There's no RSS feed shown on the site, but I managed to dig up a feed through elementary guesswork.

Brian Ferguson, author of A Librarian's Journal, has done some experimenting with podcasting. His efforts are archived at BrainWave. Here's a podcast feed.

Should I be embarassed to only just learn that OCLC offers two podcast feeds, one for the Distinguished Seminar Series and one for other OCLC Events? The Events feed includes the incredible OCLC Symposium presentations. This is a real treat for the library community and I just can't fathom that I didn't know about it until now. How long have these bad boys been available?

Update: Just realized that this post is my 500th. Took almost three years to get there. Here's to the next 500.

This nifty podcasting mindmap (for lack of a more suitable term) would just about make a suitable replacement for my Podcasting 101 wiki-based presentation. Visually attractive and fully hypertextual. All praises to its creator: The Author-izer.

So it's time to start thinking about March madness. No, not college basketball, but conference season. Unfortunately, two important conferences have been scheduled at the same time this year: PLA and Computers in Libraries. I can't imagine that this cross-scheduling will not negatively impact both conferences. I've already talked to one vendor who is putting all its eggs in one conference's basket and skipping the other entirely. And the choice is surprising. In addition, many of the people that I look forward to running into at CiL are spending most of the week at PLA (and this includes a number of non-public librarians).

So I am bit disheartened by the conflict, although extremely excited about heading to D.C. in a few weeks. With thanks to Meredith Farkas and her foresight in starting the unofficial CiL2006 wiki, I see that I will get to meet a number of folks who I've only known virtually: Dave Hook, Nicole Engard, Chad Boeninger, Tom Peters, Lori Bell, Alane Wilson, Paul Miller and, of course, Meredith.

[This would be a nice opening for my shameless plug of pbwiki, an excellent free web-based wiki service, which is playing host to the CiL2006 wiki. I must disclaim that this positive commentary will result in extra upload space for me, but I love them nonetheless. Check out the Carnival wiki or my Podcasting101 presentation to see pbwiki in action.]

I will be speaking twice at CiL this year. On Wednesday, I'll be sharing the stage with Christina Pikas as we discuss "Searching the New Digital Formats." Christina will be covering blog search (a topic I discussed at Internet Librarian 2004), while I will be discussing the finer points of podcast search. I'll also be doing a quick podcasting cybertour on Thursday, which will be similar (yet different) to the prerecorded cybertour that I contributed to Internet Librarian 2005. I'd like to think that I've earned the right to display the following:

Can't wait to see you all in D.C.

Update: Have to add Dorothea Salo and Amanda Etches-Johnson to the list of people I look forward to finally meeting in D.C.

P1300105


Originally uploaded by planetneutral.

Big ups to my boy Michael Stephens on his reinvention.

Anali's got some nifty exhibits waiting for you over at the Carnival of the Infosciences #24. If you podcast and haven't added yourself to the Podcasting Librarians frappr map, why the heck not?.

Next week's Carnival returns to ...the thoughts are broken... This will mark the third appearance of the Carnival there, making Mark the first three-time Carnival host. A proud distinction indeed. Send your submissions to mark[dot]lindner[at]insightbb[dot]com.

I've been getting headaches at night on a regular basis lately. This is an entirely new phenomenon and one with which I am not at all pleased.

I'm testing the hypothesis that these headaches are caused by spending entirely too much time staring at a computer screen. So it's time to purify.

Step 1: Reduce the pressure to "keep up."

As of the start of this effort, I had 201 subscribed feeds. Time to make some tough weeding decisions. So goodbye slashdot (one of my very first feeds). Goodbye digg. Goodbye kottke. Goodbye various Netflix blogs. Already down to 163 and dropping. Can't quite cut the cord on Boing Boing though...yet.

Step 2: Back away from the desk.

We are painting the room where my desk is located. This will require me to shut this computer down and move furniture. It's a great opportunity to create some separation between myself and the keyboard. I plan to take full advantage.

Step 3: Read more books.

This is long overdue. Reading for me goes in phases and this would be a nice opportunity to get back into it. Maybe I should try large type.

First off, after a mere 13 months of service, my iPod died. None too pleased about that. Gonna make it tough to keep up with all the audio content. Next time, I go with the flash drive and a minimum of moving parts.

Is the world ready for Podcast User (.pdf) magazine? It's actually not bad, but I'm wondering if they will experience their own form of "podfading."

Library world is certainly ready for PALINET's Technology Conversations (podcast feed). Not having a portable media player means I have to be at my computer to check this stuff out (and there is a major backlog there), but I'll get to it eventually. Can't wait to hear J.B. Hill on SMS reference.

I'm sure there's something else I'd meant to talk about here, but it's not coming to me. Back to the tape-delayed Olympic coverage.

Update: Just noticed that the PALINET podcast feed only has the first episode of the series, although there are already three. Not sure why, but I sent them an email, so I hope the problem will be addressed.

Never one to avoid an opportunity to talk about myself, I will take on the 4 Things meme that Nicole so kindly foisted upon me.

Four jobs I've had:

1. Sales Associate
2. Kitchen Manager
3. Assistant Branch Manager
4. Supervisor of Electronic Services

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Dazed and Confused
2. This is Spinal Tap
3. Short Cuts
4. Caddyshack

Four places I've lived:

1. Burlington, VT
2. Boulder, CO
3. Eugene, OR
4. Champaign, IL (notice a theme?)

Four TV shows I love:

1. Family Guy
2. The O.C. (my guilty pleasure, but aren't they all?)
3. The Amazing Race
4. Scrubs

Four places I've vacationed:

1. Hilton Head
2. Redwoods
3. Alaska
4. Amsterdam

Four of my favorite dishes (I'm excluding desserts here):

1. Tempeh Reuben
2. Philly No-Miss-Steak Sandwich (from the defunct Herbie's Garden and Juice Bar in Eugene)
3. Veggie Fajitas
4. BBQ Ribs (a nagging vestige from my more carnivorous days)

Four sites I visit daily that might not be totally obvious (sorry Google and Bloglines):

1. listology.com
2. cbs.sportsline.com
3. netflix.com
4. pbwiki.com

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Firenze
2. Bali (in more favorable political times)
3. In bed
4. Seeing Fiona Apple in concert

Four books (or series) I love:

1. The Magus
2. Jitterbug Perfume
3. Snow Crash
4. Portnoy's Complaint

Four video games I can play over and over:

1. NHL 2002
2. Baldur's Gate I and II
3. Web Sudoku
4. JigZone puzzles

And in keeping with precedent, I'm not tagging anyone...so there.

The revelry is in full effect at the Carnival of the Infosciences #23, courtesy of Brian, the Laughing Librarian. Brian really gets around the biblioblogosphere and beyond. And if you haven't watched the StrongBad cartoon yet, do it right now (choose "technology").

Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Grumpator. Brian suggests that there are submission instructions here, but Blogger is down for maintenance, so I can't confirm at present time.

Have I mentioned that I'm always interested in new hosts?