Minutes after I came across an article in LLRX called Are You Ready for Podcasting?, I saw it had been selected as the Library Link of the Day. Ah, great minds...
Anyway, as I would have suspected, the author talks to Jim Milles of Check This Out! fame. As a podcasting law librarian, he is a logical choice. It's worth noting that Ms. Crosby also records a regular segment for Mr. Milles on his show, so it wasn't much of a stretch for her to interview him for this article.
One part that bears comment: "He quickly learned from his first few episodes that compiling notes and then talking for half an hour or even a full hour was not enough to hold an audience. Now each show is a number of segments strung together."
Now Mr. Milles, to my memory, has always had segments in his show, even in the first episodes (unless he started podcasting elsewhere first). Things like "Librarians in Film" and the "Canadian Minute." In fact, I would say that his show is somewhat less structured now than it was when he started, since those segments are gone and many shows consist of a single interview and Ms. Crosby's segment. In some ways, I think this is a good thing, because segments can come off on the gimmicky side.
However, at many levels, I found the earlier shows more interesting. Then again, I am not the target audience: "He told me his primary audience is law librarians, but also includes others from the legal academic community, such as other law professors and the law students."
But I have to disagree with the premise that talking for 30 minutes will not hold an audience. Completely depends on who's talking and what they're saying. There are a number of people who I will give 30 minutes of my time without reservation, but admittedly, you have to earn that with consistently quality content. I'm not sure I've earned that from my audience, but upwards of 300 people download each show within a week of publication, so that's telling. My point is that content always comes first.
Mr. Milles mentions that "I would love to see other librarians doing this." [Errr, ummm, cough, cough?]
"I tried to make my podcasts interesting to a wide variety of people, at least within the library community; but, I don’t try to speak for everybody. This is my own voice. I am trying to set an example or a model to show people it’s not that hard."
Lest I come off as critical, Mr. Milles does an excellent job with his podcast and clearly has reach in the circles he is targeting. And I have listened to every show religiously, for that very reason.
Incidentally, you can listen to Ms. Crosby's interview with Jim Milles as part of Check This Out! Episode 17.
Do you wish to be branded an official Carnival carny? Kelli Staley has your solution:
Kelli recommends stealing it from her site at http://www.kellistaley.com/images/carnival.jpg
She also recommends linking it to the Blog Carnival page. That's a reasonable choice, but I might recommend the Carnival wiki page as an alternative. Quite frankly, I think I update it in a more timely fashion. But y'all do with your badge whatever makes y'all happy.
Thanks to Kelli for making the badge!
Michael Stephens (who I can't wait to call Dr. Stephens) points to a David Warlick post on Conference 2.0.
Michael adds an idea of his own: A podcast booth or quiet area where podcasters could stage a discussion, conference debrief, or just get some recording done.
Yes, yes, yes. I can't begin to tell you how handy that would be for my (intended) efforts. It's nearly impossible to find somewhere quiet enough to do any group recording.
As for Conference 2.0, I once listened to Steve Dembo talk about a conference in which all of the presentations are pre-recorded and disseminated prior to the actual conference. The conference sessions themselves are then reserved for group discussion, questions, etc. Knowing that, under the current model, all the best stuff happens in the discussions that take place outside of the traditional sessions, this seems like a brilliant reconsideration of the old school conference mode.
Incidentally, if you are not familiar with David Warlick, take a minute to check out his stuff. He's a real education visionary.
The Rock and Roll Librarian, who I mentioned a few weeks back, offers his list of podcasting tips. I'm surprised that he is so quick to offer advice after only a few forays into audio recording (at least, there are only a few on the website). But since he has, I can't help but add my two cents to his list.
1. Be comfortable with the sound of your voice.
Yup, it's not easy to change it (in a positive fashion), so deal with it.
2. Podcasts can be too short or too long.
True enough. He suggests greater than 5 and less than 25 minutes. That's reasonable. For me, it depends on how often you are doing it. If you are doing it more than once a week, then absolutely no more than 30 minutes or I won't have the time to devote to listening to you. Some people have more listening hours to fill and therefore their mileage may vary.
3. Keep the podcasts semi-focused.
I could probably use to take this advice.
4. Take the time to edit.
Nahhhhhhhh. I still have a day job. OK, I do some minor editing, but not of the variety that he is talking about. I used to, when the novelty was there, but the time involved is a real barrier to getting content to you more frequently, which is my current preference. Tell me if I'm wrong on this one.
5. Don’t Rant.
Well, some people have made careers of ranting, so I'm not sure this is universally good advice. But yeah, objective criticism is probably better on the whole.
6. If you interview someone, know something about them.
Yes.
7. Make sure you have a layout.
I would probably benefit from taking this piece of advice as well, but I'm trying to avoid being too "cute and clever" with segments and such. If a layout comes naturally to me, I'll go with it, but I refuse to force it.
8. Use Inflections.
I don't think this is a big problem for me, but I'd be curious if you think I'm monotone in delivery. My singing voice certainly is.
There are other pieces of good advice out there, but since I don't adhere to any of them, I best not share them here.
A few people have asked about the slides from my two presentations at Computers in Libraries. So the links follow.
Searching the New Digital Formats - Podcasting Edition
If, for whatever reason, you'd like to hear me talk about these topics, please join me for a two-part session 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).
Step right up and prepare for the mind-altering experience that is the Carnival of the Infosciences #30.
This week we celebrate the cross-scheduling of conferences and the bipolar distribution of librarian mindpower. But first, a few submissions.
Amanda Robertson writes about the eternally important theme of proving the value of library and information services. I'd be interested in further explication of the gap between "finding information" and "aiding in the finding of information."
CW reports on the real "day in the life" of a librarian in her post entitled Keeping Up.
Steven Cohen decries the limited search skills and Google reliance of too many librarians in Back to Boolean? A Call For...Goodness Sake!
But if you really dig Google, Joy Weese Moll offers up some handy Google tips.
Steve Lawson was reading my mind when he suggested Sarah Houghton's post warning readers to Beware Ego Centric Conference Sessions. I agree...I'm not as interested in the minutiae of your library as you might think.
And then some editor selections:
Christina Pikas gives props to Brittanica for standing up for itself.
Michael Casey shares how an internal blog served a unique communication need for his new library branch in Communicating With Blogs.
Dorothea Salo points out that there is a right way and a wrong way to represent your company when giving a presentation.
Extending that premise, Lorcan Dempsey discusses the way in which presenters must now consider how bloggers serve to extend the presentation's audience.
Rather than link to summaries of individual sessions, here's some links to various overall impressions of CiL:
Meredith Farkas' CIL: Impressions
Amanda Etches-Johnson's run-down, wrap-up, overall impressions
Michael Sauers' Conference Wrap-Up (as he states, he really is bad with names)
For some excellent summaries of individual sessions, I encourage you to check out the writing of Nicole Engard and Andrea Hull.
I haven't seen any noteworthy summaries of the PLA experience, although the sum total of all of the entries at the PLA blog do a nice job of conveying the good stuff. Instead, I will go back to Mr. Cohen and insist that you take a moment to read about the powerful experience of dining with Elie Wiesel at PLA.
Update: This was a late submission, but I had considered including it anyway, so go check out Madinkbeard's sketches from CiL. I'm amazed at how recognizable the people are. Why didn't the artist come to my session?!?!?
Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Tinfoil + Raccoon. Submissions should be sent via the Blog Carnival submission form.
Why does Technorati seem to hate this blog? I've had problems before, which I tried to pin on Feedburner, but I'm convinced that Technorati just hates me. It tries to tell me that Open Stacks hasn't updated in thirty days. No amount of pinging seems to change that. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Forgot to mention that Open Stacks turned three years old last week. If you would like to help commemorate this milestone, please submit something to this week's Carnival. Thank you. ;-)
Now presenting: Open Stacks #21
Also available via the podcast feed. I've added a few one-click options to the sidebar for your convenience.
This shows runs 30:54 and deals almost exclusively with my experience in D.C. at Computers in Libraries. Hope you enjoy.
Might as well take this opportunity to claim My Odeo Channel (odeo/9cd7e6b7e5620ee4).
And where are my Carnival submissions this week? Only two so far. I need your help!
[Technorati tag: cil2006]
Now inviting you to take a journey over to See Also... for a tour through the Carnival of the Infosciences #29, courtesy of Steve Lawson. A nice mix of submissions this week.
Next week, the Carnival travels to, um, well, actually it's coming back home to Open Stacks for a special post-CiL/PLA wrapup edition. So I'll be looking for all those great conference commentaries as well as anything else you might want to throw my way. Please use the contact form for your submissions this week.
As always, I welcome volunteers for hosting.
I want to make special mention of the efforts of local (to me) librarian E.G. Yarnetsky, who has done an amazing job singlehandedly redesigning the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library website. The whole site is built around a Wordpress Textpattern (thanks Jerr) installation and includes a nifty Library Buzz blog. There's a blog feed and a separate feed for library events.
The new site is something of an event itself around these parts. It was worthy of a front page newspaper article, as well as a mention at Syndication for Higher Education. Great job, Jerr!
Now presenting: Open Stacks #20.
Also available via the podcast feed.
Thought I'd clear out the backfile of things to discuss before I head off to CiL tomorrow. I'm not altogether happy with the sound quality, but not upset enough to re-record. Running time is 24:43.
Show notes:
1. Clubb battles Royal - Everyone loses.
2. An update on Jackson (not my son, who is fine, thanks)
3. On using large libraries to generalize about all libraries - a new report
4. Oklahomophobia - that was too obvious, right?
5. Trading Walden for Walmart
I had also meant to talk briefly about the new Waterloo Public Library podcasting initiative (as reported by Michael Stephens), but the press release speaks for itself. I must say that digitized "heritage walking tours" sound like a very compelling use of resources for the community.
Just a quick note to point out that The Rock & Roll Librarian has made a tentative foray into podcasting using the podOmatic podcast service. podOmatic seems like a easy way to generate a fully-featured podcast and accompanying website with little more than a microphone. Even comes with a integrated voice comment line. If the Rock & Roll Librarian's efforts are any guide, the sound quality is very passable as well.
Kelli Staley IMed me this evening to let me know about her library's shiny new branded, preloaded version of the Juice podcatcher. So if patrons download the Lansing Public Library branded Juice, they get an aggregator with all four of LPL's podcast feeds preloaded and a shiny LPL logo staring them in the face. Talk about presence - even if you unsubscribe from the feeds, the logo remains! How completely overdue.
Now directing your attention to the Carnival of the Infosciences #28, courtesy of Rebecca Hedreen at Frequently Answered Questions. This week's edition is replete with a wonderful application of the Spell with flickr tool.
Next week, the Carnival visits new ground over at Steve Lawson's See Also... blog. Please send your submissions to slawson@coloradocollege.edu.
I also want to take this opportunity to highlight Liz Burns' post about Carnivals over at Pop Goes the Library, where she highlights the upside of looking at Carnivals outside of the LIS sphere. I second that emotion and recommend glancing at the Blog Carnival website as a solid starting point for your exploration.
Surprised to not find any mention of this year's Library Journal Movers and Shakers issue in my aggregator this morning. I guess it doesn't actually come out until tomorrow, but it's already arrived at my workplace. Anyway, big ups to Meredith Farkas, John Hubbard and John Blyberg for making this year's list. Well deserved. Congrats as well to all the others who were acknowledged.
Update: How did I forget to mention Sophie Brookover? My apologies!
It's great to have a friend like Steven Cohen. Not only is he willing to sign up for repeated Carnival hosting gigs, he's willing to tell you to do the same. Gotta love him.
Anyway, he also does a wonderful job presenting the Carnival of the Infosciences #27. Nice to see some new folks submitting entries and thus adding to our pool of potential hosts.
Next week, the Carnival returns to Frequently Answered Questions, where Rebecca Hedreen would love to see your entries on distance learning, academic libraries or anything else library-related that suits your fancy. She gives you a litany of contact options under Getting Help, but I'm sure an email to hedreenr1 [at] southernct [dot] edu will get the job done.
Andi Bartelstein contacted me today to let me know that The Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University are now offering a podcast. So far, there are two episodes: one covers the various ways students and faculty can contact and work with subject specialist librarians, while the second delves into using JHsearch, which is the Johns Hopkins' implementation of MetaLib federated search. Here's a link to the podcast feed.
And have you submitted to this week's Carnival yet? Steven is waiting for your submission at stevenmcohen [at] gmail dot com until 6 PM EST tonight.