Howdy everyone. I'm stunned by how many people still subscribe to this feed. I guess RSS makes that fairly painless. In fact, it's probably less annoying to stay subscribed to people with no content than people who send out empty, content-deficient updates every once in a while, eh?

And so let this not be content-deficient. As I think most of you know, I've been running a weekly live interactive internet audio program called Uncontrolled Vocabulary. Every Wednesday night at 10 PM Eastern time, an ever-changing group of librarians, info pros and the occasional outlier get together using TalkShoe to chat about news and hot topics of the week in libraryland. Anyone is invited to participate in the live conversation. I'll come back to how in a bit.

So far, we've done 29 episodes. Typically, somewhere between 5-10 people are on the call from a pool of 30+ people who've participated at one time or another. It's usually a lively conversation that meanders through a variety of topics in an hour's time.

In Episode 29, recorded two days ago, we talked about Amazon's purchase of Audible, the DRM protest at Boston Public Library, the Microsoft-Yahoo!-AOL-News Corp activity, and the intersection of personal ethics and professional research. And that's only half of it.

It's really, really good stuff and I encourage you to check it out, if you haven't already (or haven't since the early days). Better yet, I encourage you to join in the fun. Over time, TalkShoe has made this easier and easier to do. Here's how:

1. Dial 1-724-444-7444

2. Enter the show ID: 38665

3. Dial 1#

Dialing 1# will bring you into the call as a guest. If you want a username of your own, you can go to TalkShoe and sign up for an account. You'll create a 10-digit PIN that you would use in place of 1# to come into the call under your username.

There's also a chat interface that lets you listen live without calling in, as well as see who else is on the call (which is where the guest/username thing comes into play). TalkShoe has released a web version of this interface, so that a download is no longer necessary. Just go to our TalkShoe page at show time (anytime after 9:45 PM) and the link to jump into the chat will be available.

Of course, not everyone is available to participate in the live conversation, so recorded episodes are available for download. Our show page at TalkShoe has the most convenient list of mp3 links for download, but you'll need to visit the blog for the accompanying show notes.

And of course, you can subscribe to the show's Feedburner feed. It will work as both a blog feed (mostly show notes and reminders of upcoming shows) and as a podcast feed (for the mp3s, of course).

Those of you who don't do the RSS thing can also subscribe and get blog updates sent via email. You'll need to visit the sidebar of the show blog to find the email subscription service.

OK, enough already. If you haven't checked out the show yet, I implore you to do so. It's a consistent highlight of my week. If you have any questions about the show, drop me a line. And seriously, all are welcome to join in the fun.

Just wanted to invite everyone who hasn't already to come over to the Uncontrolled Vocabulary blog and take a listen to the show. It's a weekly live roundtable discussion of various events, articles and topics of interest in the library field. We just wrapped up our eleventh episode and I'm really, really happy with what we're doing.

Check it out and, if the feeling moves you, join us next Thursday at 10 PM Eastern for the live show. See the blog for details on how to join in the fun.

The second episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary tapes tonight at 10 PM EDT. I do hope you'll consider joining us. See this post for instructions on how to participate live.

Earlier tonight, I taped the first episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary. It's already available for download; here's the mp3. Details about the episode can be found at this post.

It was an unqualified success. Had about 7 people in the voice chat, a bunch more in the text chat and another group just listening to the audio stream. I found it fascinating that Twitter provided something of a backchannel for the streamers, but I had enough people on the call who were paying attention to the Twitter activity. Their comments became part of the main conversation.

I've added a TalkShoe player into the sidebar here for your convenient listening pleasure. Feedback is welcome via the contact form or by email (try greg and then try schwartz and then add at gmail and then dot com). Please visit the show blog for more information, including how to listen live and join the conversation.

The adventure begins tomorrow night. Uncontrolled Vocabulary will be recording live at 10 EDT. More details are available over at the blog, as well as on the TalkShoe site.

I encourage anyone and everyone to join in the conversation. The barrier to participation is a little higher than I'd like, but I know the TalkShoe folks are actively working on improving it and I'm putting my eggs in their basket for now. Read this post for details on how to join in the voice or text chat and/or this post for details on calling in using a SIP-capable VoIP client.

Should be fun, particularly if I succeed in managing the technical aspects while also holding together a discussion. We'll find out, won't we?

I'll have info about getting the recordings and subscribing to the podcast feed after the first episode is online, but seriously, if you're available at the scheduled time, please do stop consider dropping by, even if it's just to listen to the live stream (no TalkShoe registration or account required).

By posting here after an extremely long hiatus, I'm committing to something that I've wanted to do for a long time and whose time has come.

I am pleased, excited and nervous to announce the impending arrival of the audio program I've always wanted to do: Uncontrolled Vocabulary, a live interactive discussion of current events and topics in librarianship. I won't say anymore about it here, rather inviting you to check out this post, read more and consider joining me for the pilot (tentatively scheduled for Thursday, the 28th at 10 PM Eastern).

It looks like I'm really doing it!

The normally reasonable Dave of School of Podcasting offers the terrible guerrilla marketing idea of advertising your podcast by placing bookmark adverts (or even bonus CDs?!?!?) into library books of interest to your target audience. Go check it out for yourself. I left my comments over at Dave's site.

Kenton County Public Library produces a series of video clips for the local public access station called Off the Shelf. For us syndication fans, they have made this series available as a video podcast, RSS feed and all.*

* At the time of writing this post, there seems to be some issues with their website, so I can't confirm that everything with the feed is working as it's supposed to be.

It looks like the whole "independent librarian podcasting" thing is finally starting to take off. Last week, we had the introduction of Marv's LibVibe news program. Now, courtesy of Sarah Houghton, we have news of another foray into librarian-friendly audio content namely Library Geeks featuring Daniel Chudnov. In the first episode, Mr. Chudnov speaks with Ross Singer about OpenURL. Looking forward to checking this out.

Marv of the Mr. Nice Guy Show has a new library news podcast called LibVibe. Much like his other program, the format is short, briskly-paced news reports. Here's a link to the feed.

Some interesting things to share:

Steven reports on Westerville Public Library's new castr service, billed as a "podcast delivery system." The current content consists of three videos, all available via the handy podcast feed.

ResourceShelf reports that AOL has finally launched their AOL Search Podcast Beta, using the same technology that powers Podscope.

iTunes has changed their podcast categories, so if you have submitted a podcast to their directory, you may want to look into this. Jason Van Orden tells more about the changes.

Thanks to a screenshot courtesy of Michael Stephens, I see that LISRadio is now available via RSS. At long last!

And don't forget to check out the California Library Association's too cute Summer Reading Pawedcasts (with according feed).

Christine Brown attended both of the SirsiDynix presentations that I recently gave and posted fairly comprehensive summaries of both. So if you're interested, the links follow:

Part 1 - The Listener's Guide

Part 2 - The Creator's Guide

Travelin' Librarian reports that the Colorado Talking Book Library has adopted RSS, providing feeds for their quarterly newsletters, including a podcast feed for the audio version. I've talked about using podcasting to extend services to your visually impaired community, but haven't had a great example to point to before now.

From the current AALL Spectrum: Podcasting, Vodcasting and Law. Nice to see that the Rutgers Law Library is doing some experimenting with podcasting. [Note: I have a few points of contention with the content of this article, but neither the time nor energy to pick it apart point-by-point. I can only recommend checking out my SirsiDynix Institute session for my take on podcasting and podcast production.]

Stephanie Librarian posts about a new podcasting project over at Alternative Teen Services. It's a project involving teens at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and, being that it's hosted at Ourmedia, should have a proper podcast feed. Alas, it doesn't work presently.

Either way, I must step back on my soapbox to point out the provided definition of podcasting in Stephanie's post: "A podcast is a digital audio file in mp3 format that can be downloaded onto a computer for listening, or saved to an mp3 player such as an I-pod." Not in and of itself untrue, but largely missing the point. I hate to be such a curmudgeon about this stuff, but folks, podcasting equals syndication. No syndication? Then it's just slapping some mp3s on a server and linking to them. Neat (and of course, the teens are understandably interested in the recording, not in geeky distribution technologies), but it's not new and not podcasting. But you've been reading this blog. You know all this already. And it seems that I'm fighting a losing battle anyway, so I'll shut up now.

Just a quick note to mention that the second part of my two-part session for the SirsiDynix Institute is now available online, linked here in mp3 format. Those of you subscribed to my podcast feed should receive it automatically. And don't forget that the SirsiDynix Institute podcast feed is now available as well.

This one is a little rougher than the first part, primarily due to a throat tickle that I developed about two-thirds of the way through. It's painful for me to listen as I struggle to maintain my voice along with my train of thought. My apologies in advance.

You can also view the slides and audio together in the recorded LiveMeeting.

There were a number of good questions that were posed in the chat log that I was unable to answer in the given time. At some point in the near future, I'll post some answers to those questions here.

The James J. Hill Reference Library describes itself as "a world-class collection of practical business information resources and is considered one of the most comprehensive business libraries in the country." It is now also a podcasting library. I can't find anything about it on the main website, but the podcast feed showed up on Podcast Alley. Enclosed programs include "The Secret to Securing Venture Capital," "Perfecting Your Pitch, Maximizing Influence," and "Why China (And why not, too)."

Thanks to a thread on the Bibliocasting listserv, I learned the Cornell University's Mann Library is now podcasting their events. The Mann Library primarily supports the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, and the Division of Nutritional Sciences, so expect the programs to have some connection therein. They offer both an audio feed and a video feed.

Just a quick note to mention that the first part of my two-part session for the SirsiDynix Institute is now available online, linked here in mp3 format. Those of you subscribed to my podcast feed should receive it automatically.

You can also view the slides and audio together in the recorded LiveMeeting.

Part two live tomorrow at 11 AM EDT.

From the PLA Blog comes word that BookExpo America will be offering a BookExpoCast for the first time this year. From the site: "With these free podcasts you will be able to hear publishing leaders discuss how new Internet tools are changing the book business. You will hear "Upfront & Unscripted" — intimate one-on-one interviews with publishing, Web and marketing gurus. You will hear from your favorite authors and speakers. And, our roving pod-reporter will find out from attendees and industry experts what’s the "Buzz at BEA" - a buzz that often sets the book-buying agenda for the year.

Sounds promising. Here's a link to the feed.

So there's this seemingly excellent bootcamp going on at ALA regarding Library 2.0. I say seemingly because I'm only observing it from the outside looking in. As part of this bootcamp, there is a site specifically devoted to Library 2.0 Podcasts.

*steps on soapbox*

What do we find on this site? A series of posts containing audio and video accessible only by using in-browser players; that is, there's no way to download the files (with one exception).

Paul Pival had this to say about it in a comment: "I'd sure like to download and listen to this at my leisure rather than be chained to my desk to hear it - would you please include a link to a downloadable mp3 file for this and future "podcasts"? :-)"

But I figured there was hope, since I could see the word "Syndicate" prominently featured at the top of the sidebar. Optimistic, I clicked on the Syndicate link at the top of the page. Guess what, folks? Not a podcast feed! Not an enclosed media file to be found. On a page purportedly about podcasts. Huh?

Now I've been following just closely enough to remember that they told everyone to head over to iTunes and search for Library 2.0 to find and subscribe to the podcast.

In fact, here's the quote: "All of the multimedia materials for the program will be delivered via podcasting. All of the podcasts will be posted to a podcast weblog where they can be viewed. But you can also access the RSS feed for these podcasts through iTunes. Just go to the music store and search for Library2.0 and you'll find the feed. If you click subscribe, each new podcast will be automatically downloaded into your desktop iTunes when it is posted. You can also paste the url into your iTunes using the "Subscribe to Podcast" under the advanced menu."

Huh? What URL? I don't see any URL and you're not going to find one simply by searching for Library2.0 at iTunes. Apple simply does not make it that easy to avoid using iTunes by making the podcast feed URL readily identifiable. They want you to click that shiny Subscribe button instead and stayed locked into their product.

Fortunately, for those of you who might actually be interested in getting automatic downloads of this content outside of iTunes, I just happen to know where to go digging for an actual podcast feed. So here it is: http://alal2.audioblog.com/rss/ala-library-2_0-podcast.xml.

But why do I have to go to iTunes to figure that out, when there is a podcast blog?! Why would you make it so darned difficult to access and use content in the ways end-users might actually prefer, when you are going out of your way to use multimedia content in the first place? That doesn't seem at all Library 2.0 to me.

*steps off soapbox*

That said, there's some interesting content, including Meredith Farkas' first foray into podcasting, which I would have to deem a success by any measure.

Update: Just want to note that there is some activity to resolve the issues I've raised here. You will now find downloadable files on the right sidebar of the Library 2.0 Podcasts page. Thanks to Michael for taking up the cause.

Update 2: A better solution has been reached. There is now a separate Blogger blog devoted to the podcasts and a Feedburner podcast feed. Kudos to Jenny and Michael for arresting control of that situation.

I know I've mentioned this a few times before, but I'm not afraid of shameless self-promotion (and you shouldn't be either). Next week, I'll be giving the first of a two-part session on podcasting for the SirsiDynix Institute.

On Wednesday, May 17th at 11 AM EDT, I'll be talking about the end-user's side of podcasting. One week later, on May 24th at 11 AM, I'll speak about it from the content creator's perspective.

SDI gave me a flyer to distribute throughtout my network and since y'all qualify, I've made the flyer available at this link: http://openstacks.net/SDIPromoFlyer.pdf (pdf). Feel free to post it prominently at your place of work. ;-)

I forgot to post about the podcasts from the New Jersey Library Association conference two weekends ago. There was a podcasting station and a proper feed. David Bigwood notes the distinct lack of metadata associated with the syndicated mp3s. It's a good point. As it is, audio is quite difficult to organize and make searchable. For information professionals to not take advantage of the few built-in access points is hard to rationalize. But NJLA must still be commended for their effort and their success in getting a wide variety of voices recorded for posterity.

Very important document released today: Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution, courtesy of Creative Commons. I haven't had the opportunity to scrutinize the contents yet, but it looks like an essential resource for those considering the recording and syndication of audio content online.

Yesterday, a few posts sprung up noting that archived SirsiDynix Institute programs were now available as mp3s, but mislabeled as podcasts. No fear. Problem solved.

Now introducing the official SirsiDynix Institute podcast feed! For those of you who use iTunes as your podcatcher, here's a 1-click button: .

Not familiar with the Institute?

"The SirsiDynix Institute is an ongoing forum for professional development in the library community. By providing free access to industry-leading speakers and events, our mission is to support librarianship and advance the work of librarians around the world.

Attend our free Web seminars as the SirsiDynix Institute presents compelling speakers selected from among leaders in librarianship and information technology."

If you've never been exposed to this series, the SirsiDynix Institute really has a great series of speakers and offering them in podcast form is a great way to get those programs to more people. The last three programs are already available via the feed.

Next up in the series? Me! And then me again!

Disclaimer: I have done some work for SirsiDynix on this project. You just might recognize the voice.

A few things I'd love to talk about in greater detail, but can't seem to find the time:

Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians

New podcasting wiki from Infopeople

A Podcasting Market Update, courtesy of Feedburner.

I'm not sure that I've ever highlighted Check It Out, described as "Library news, author chats and "Good Reads" book reviews with librarian Phil Sheridan. In association with the Board of Library Trustees and the Sausalito Public Library." Here's the podcast feed.

Why can't I find the time? New obsession.

Netsquared posted a very handy list of 7 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Podcasts. I talk about most of these notions in my presentations. The post at NetSquared gives examples of each suggestion. I don't think it's much of a stretch to see how these apply to libraries.

1. A leader at your nonprofit or NGO talks about what is going on in the organization and n your field.

2. Short, informational pieces about one issue combining voiceover by a narrator/host and interviews with the people you serve.

3. Weekly updates about what is going on in your organization followed by interviews with experts in your field.

4. Have your constituents create the podcast.

5. Be creative!

6. Use recordings from presentations.

7. Turn your radio show into a podcast.

Thanks to Podcast Alley, I received notification of The Library Channel, a podcast from the Arizona State University Libraries. Although I have not yet sampled the content, there appear to be a few interesting recordings of library events that took place on campus. Here's the podcast feed link.

I appear to have mentally misfiled my previously drafted post on the Orange County Library System's podcasts. They're offering a Children's Podstory (podcast feed), Teen Events podcast (podcast feed) and an Events videocast (there is a feed for the videocast, but the one listed videocast is not enclosed in the feed!?!?)

I am very pleased that, along with offering podcasted content, they are offering a Podcasting class for their patrons.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Thanks to my buddy Sarah Houghton for pointing me toward a great post on the clioinstitute blog that highlights the potential use of podcasting to disseminate library audio tours. The post highlights an excellent example of one academic library that is syndicating audio content and two others that should be considering it.

The big winner is the George C. Gordon Library at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They have a feature called Library Audio to Go: Podcast with the fabulous tagline "Library Wisdom for the mp3 masses." Although the first entry is indeed an Interactive Audio Tour of the library (which will come to you automatically if you are a subscriber to my podcast feed), they have also done a number of other short segments. Nothing since October though, so I hope their interest isn't totally flagging.

According to Derrick Oien, Myspace.com has quietly rolled out podcast and RSS support. I don't have a Myspace account, so I haven't been able to examine any particulars.

Depending on the actual level of integration, this could be big news. I read somewhere recently (I think it was in Rolling Stone) that Myspace.com is the fourth-most visited site on the web behind Yahoo!, eBay and MSN. The Rolling Stone article highlighted how bands are making heavy use of Myspace as a way to reach out to fans. If those bands find themselves jumping on the podcasting bandwagon, it could prove to be another watershed moment for both podcasting and the music industry. Stay tuned.

Hi everyone. Hope you had (or are still having) a nice holiday.

Just making a brief visit to point you in the direction of the new Authors on Tour - Live! series, courtesy of the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver (a wonderful and increasingly rare independent bookstore). The title is pretty self-explanatory, but the Tattered Cover is basically making some of its more high profile in-store author visits available via podcast feed.

"I can't possibly imagine how libraries could use this same marketing approach to get greater value out of their programming," he said facetiously.

I have an admitted uneasiness with describing the series as "live podcasts": the events are live, but the mp3 distribution method is not. Seems like a contradiction in terms, but I suppose that's me being unnecessarily literal.

Anyway, the Tattered Cover is unquestionably THE place for authors to stop when they're passing through the Rocky Mountains, so this feed is going to have some great content. Upcoming authors include Neil Gaiman, Al Franken, Carl Hiassen, Dr. Andrew Weil and Susanna Clarke, amongst many others.

Just found another library using podcasting as a means to distribute their programming to a wider audience. This time it comes from the Memorial Hall Library in Andover, MA. They podcasted their Teen Poetry Contest, including individual readings of the top poems and a single recording of the whole reception. Here's the poem that tied for second place. Nice! And of course, here's their podcast feed.

Incidentally, I came across a presentation (available online through January 2006) given by Memorial Hall Library's Dean Baumeister, in which he talks about this podcast pilot project and assesses the results. It's nice to see someone provide some concrete numbers and be realistic about their meaning.

Almost forgot to share the results of my live program for OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries).

Here's the link to the mp3. It's about 75 minutes long. Of course, if you subscribe to the podcast feed, you'll get it automatically. And if you're subscribed to OPAL's podcast feed, then you got it automatically a few days ago! I was having some issues with a dry, scratchy throat, so you'll have to excuse the occasional coughing, but otherwise I think it turned out reasonably well. The feedback has been positive, which is always nice.

I used a simple one-page wiki to run my presentation. I had originally planned on using the wiki as a jumping off point for visiting various sites, but I was having some problems making the free Google-ad-supported pbwiki behave nicely in the cobrowsing interface we were using. So in the end, I invited everyone to surf from the wiki at their own leisure. Just as well, since I talked for over an hour without ever leaving the cozy confines of my outline. Anyway, here's a link to my podcasting presentation wiki. If I'm good, I'll keep it up to date and use it as the basis of future presentations.

So how was using the wiki for presenting? OK overall. I don't think it helped or hurt the actual presentation, but I'll say this much: It was many times easier than putting together a PowerPoint for what I must admit was very much the same end result. And I'm left with a much more flexible, living resource. I wouldn't go this route for every situation, but I have to say that I enjoyed the process of putting it together and would always consider as a possible avenue for organizing my presentations.

In case you haven't seen it elsewhere, I'll be doing an online introduction to podcasting tomorrow (Thurs. Dec. 8) at 2 PM EST, hosted by Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) and sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.

It's free. No registration necessary. You just have to go to this URL: http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=67955673&p=0. You'll need to accept the installation of a small plug-in, but otherwise it's totally painless.

This is the description from the website: "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."

If you can't make the live event, the audio will be available from the OPAL archive or, better yet, subscribe to their podcast feed. Don't know what a podcast feed is? Better come to the program.

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.

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.

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.

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!

I'm trying not to reiterate most of what I read in my aggregator, so I'm only sharing new podcasts if I didn't read about them from any of my numerous trusted sources. Today. I stumbled across the library+technology smorgasbord, which led me to discover a podcast feed for the Muskingum College Library (link goes to their blog). So far, they are using podcasting technology to distribute their Author Talk Series.

Can your patrons subscribe to the programming you work so hard to make happen at your library? Maybe it's high time that they could.

So the Podcasting Cybertour that I recorded for Internet Librarian was presented on Tuesday. I haven't heard any feedback from anyone other that the program chair, Jane Dysart, so I assume that no one I know caught it. Jane says the chairs were full and it went off without a hitch, but beyond that, I have no idea if it was useful at all.

I guess I'll let you be the judge. Here's the PowerPoint that goes along with the mp3. Those of you subscribed to the podcast feed should expect the mp3 to download automatically, but not the PowerPoint (or vice versa, but I think I remember correctly that the last media file posted is the one that will get enclosed).

If you want to see the presentation that I wish I had the wherewithal to put together, check out Jenny Levine's Podcasting 101 (.pdf).

This afternoon, I had a wonderful time talking to a group of (mostly) Canadian librarians about podcasting, as part of the Education Institute's Tech Tuesday series (link to other upcoming programs).

I should have guessed that podcasting would be my new speaking niche, but really I'm just glad to have something about which someone wants me to talk. I'll be doing a Cybertour on podcasting at Internet Librarian 2005 in a few weeks, but, sadly, I won't be in Monterey this year. Parenthood trumps all. So my presentation will be pre-recorded and therefore, that's right, available as a podcast. Coming soon to a digital media player near you...

In an earlier episode of the audio edition, I mentioned LibriVox, a distributed effort to record audiobooks of material in the public domain. My time to participate has come and I contributed a reading of Chapter 6 of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. I only ran through it once...and it shows. I'd hoped to re-record the chapter, but fatherhood calls.

Anyway, I think I'll do better with my next assignment: the first three chapters of Dostoyevsky's Notes From the Underground.

If you relish the idea of taking part, think about signing up for the next projects: Shelley's Frankenstein and Tolstoy's Boyhood.

Chad over at Hidden Peanuts posted his current podcast roll call, so I thought I'd follow suit. This probably reveals more about me than any sort of bio would.

Yes, I listen to all of these shows. The commute is a long one. There are actually about 10 subscribed feeds that I've opted not to list here, including all those librarians who dabbled briefly in the format (on the chance that they return).

Librarianship/Education
Open Stacks - Well, I have to make sure the feed works, now don't I?
Blind Chance - David Faucheux talks books, TV, music and issues related to blindness.
Listen Up! - David Free provides monthly news and information programming from the Decatur Campus Library of Georgia Perimeter College.
Teach42 - Steve Dembo muses on technology and education.
Virtual Dave's Podcast - R. David Lankes shares his presentations and other thoughts.
Teen Librarian - Miranda Doyle talks all things teen librarianship.
Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) - A varied series of sessions for librarians and library users
Daily SearchCast - Danny Sullivan and Gary Price review the previous day's search headlines.

Movies
Reel Reviews - Michael Geoghegan gives indepth 10-20 minute reviews of single films.
Cinecast - A weekly film podcast from Chicago with Adam Kempenaar and Sam Hallgren
The Movie Blog Audio Edition - John Campea and Doug Nagy shoot the cinematic breeze.
KCRW's Film Reviews - Joe Morgenstern shares his thoughts on current films.
KCRW's The Treatment - Elvis Mitchell interviews a wide range of Hollywood folk. (Not exclusively movie people, but more often than not.)
Family Reviews - A very cute family discusses the last film they saw together.
Ebert & Roeper

Music
Coverville - As the title suggests, Brian plays nothing but covers.
Tracks Up The Tree - A nice selection of indie tracks with Funtime Ben and friends.
SomeDepression - Features live shows by indie artists with buzz (think Sufjan Stevens or My Morning Jacket), broken up into digestible chunks.
The Music Never Stopped - Covering the Jam Band Scene, including the podcasted Grateful Dead Hour
Closet Deadhead - Sam Whitmore plays tasty nuggets and talks to old heads who don't fly their freak flags anymore.

Food
Erik's Diner - Erik Marcus talks news of interest to vegans/vegetarians.
EatFeed - Anne Bramley focuses on a different gastronomic topic each week.
KCRW's Good Food - Evan Kleiman provides all sorts of foodie goodness.
Pacific Palate - Don Genova talks food and beverages.

Tech
IT Conversations - A wide range of interviews, presentations, etc. related to Information Technology.
Future Tense - Daily chunks of technology issues from Jon Gordon
This Week in Tech - The TechTV guys living in the past, while looking toward the future.

Other
Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - Hard to describe. Highly entertaining.
Illinoise! - Just Pete and NASA Janet and the Arigatos.
Skinny on Sports - "The Fastest 10 Minutes on Your iPod"
How to Do Stuff - Tod Maffin gets extraordinary wisdom from ordinary people.
KCRW's Overbooked - David Kipen talks books and bookishness.
The Personal Productivity Show - Conversation about tools and approaches to improving personal efficiency.
The Cranky Middle Manager Show - Interviews with management experts and other insights.
Manager Tools - Good, practical approaches for more effective management
Open Source - Christopher Lydon's triumphant return to radio covers the usual panoply of topics
On the Money - Podcast of Steve Pomerantz' weekly radio show on finance

Test Driving
Pro Money Talk (financial)
The Ray Lucia Show (financial)
Dave Ramsey Show (financial)

Still subscribed, but on the verge of deletion
The Sports Pod Podcast
/Nerd - Tod Maffin weekly technology column for CBC radio. (Not much content lately.)
Engadget - Occasional appearances of techy goodness.
What They Sang To Me - David J breaks down lyrics, one song a day.

I realized back in March at Computers in Libraries that Gary Price was a radio man hiding in a librarian's body. So I was very pleased to read that he and Danny Sullivan, both of Search Engine Watch fame, have launched The Daily SearchCast, podcasting "a 10 to 15 minute overview of the prior day's search news." Nice!

Gary and Danny will be trading off hosting duties and they share the mic with a moderator provided by the show's producers. I'm still listening to the first episode, but I like what I hear. It would only be better if Gary and Danny were on at the same time.

Seems like an obvious candidate for inclusion at LISPodcasts.com. Here's a link to the podcast feed.

...to be giving out Podcast Awards?

Can someone help me acquire a copy of the new June issue of Searcher with the article (cover story!) on podcasting? I'd be happy to reimburse costs for anyone with a spare copy they'd be willing to send my way. Send me a comment if you can help. Many thanks.

Update: Copy procured. Thanks for all the offers.

Some of the most intelligent and thoughtful people producing audio content can be found aggregated at the newly launched Education Podcast Network. Think LISFeeds, but populated with podcasting educators, podcasted educational content and, most fun of all, classroom podcasts. The Room 208 Podcast with teacher Bob Sprankle's 3/4 classroom is just charming. And anyone thinking about instructional technology and the like would do well to listen to Steve Dembo over at Teach42.

I can't overestimate how much quality stuff is brought together at this new site. I wonder if Open Stacks could be spun into the Subject Specific grouping as an Information Skills podcast.

Thanks to the handy podcast feed, I found all of the presentations from the recent NEASIST Syndicate, Aggregate, Communicate program waiting for me in my iTunes when I got home today. This includes presentations by Jenny Levine, Megan Fox and Michael Stephens, along with a panel discussion. For those of you not yet smoking the podcasting dope, you can get direct links to the mp3s from the event blog.

While I was over at Podscope, checking to see if they've indexed my content yet (nope!?!?!), I discovered another LIS-friendly podcast feed. From the Digital Media ZONE at the U. of Missouri's School of Information Science & Learning Technologies comes the SISLT Library Science Hour feed. Unfortunately, the feed is a bit outdated and built in reverse, so the most recent episode in the feed is a) more than a month old, although there are newer shows and b) at the bottom of the feed rather than the top, which results in iPodder grabbing the oldest item rather than the newest. I gather that the end of the semester is responsible for the lack of updating, which is understandable.

This is ideal content to be distributed via podcast. The episode I'm listening to is an interview with a student who ended up on the Caldecott committee. Surprisingly interesting. I hope that, being a "Digital Media ZONE," someone will ultimately pay a little more attention to the podcasting angle, but at least they're already well on their way.

The Progressive Librarians Guild Student Chapter at the College of St. Catherine's is now providing a podcast feed. Their first chunk of audio content features a discussion of homelessness and libraries, a topic I've harped on a few times already in the show. Now if only they could make the Q&A with Sandy Berman and Chris Dodge available. (Link via Library Juice)

The podcasting article that I mentioned in the last show by Jaap Van Der Geer is now available online. Here's a pretty amusing translation of the section about Open Stacks, courtesy of freetranslation.com:

What are now the possibilities of Podcasting for libraries? The first possibility that it offers, is to be stuck something on of colleagues. It let even on self wait, but on 23 January 2005 served self the first podcast on library territory at from America. Greg Schwartz of the weblog Open Stacks (openstacks. just) tells each week over interesting subjects that at library work related are. That can go over affairs as Return On Investment within libraries, selfservice, or an interview with a library colleague. He does relax that on an and open manner. Most recent podcasts are came from the large Computer In Libraries -conference that past Marches in Washington DC held became. The American library practice closes otherwise excellent at by the our. They walk around goes well a to pieces furrow as it webloggen and application of for instance MSN for the informations work, but that makes the alone but more interesting. Already fast other librarians of Schwartz's example followed. Over the general, it concerned were here librarians (unfortunately not yet in the Netherlands) that already busy with the maintaining of weblogs.

I really do try to "relax that on an and open manner." Thanks Jaap!

On March 30, Darren Barefoot posted an piece entitled "Why I'm Not Smoking the Podcasting Dope." I took the time to leave a somewhat lengthy comment on Darren's site, but thanks to a link over at Evil Genius Chronicles, I suggest you instead read this well-reasoned counterpoint by Shel Holtz.

When I saw the announcement of the Bibliocasting listserv yesterday, I became curious about the author of the post, "Virtual Dave" Lankes. Seems like an interesting individual with credits including Executive Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS), Assistant Professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and co-founder of AskERIC.

And, as I should have guessed, he's got a podcast feed. The content is primarily presentations that he's given. Not a bad use for the format.

Michael Pate points out the new Bibliocasting listserv.

Let me preface all subsequent comments by saying: this is a great thing. But I do have a question or three.

Bibliocasting, eh? Is this going to be the term of choice? Not my first choice. Or my second. Is it too late to suggest alternatives? LIScasting? LIS Mediacasting? Libraricasting? Infoscicasting? Or really anything that doesn't implicitly suggest the broadcasting of books (not that there's anything wrong with that concept).

"The bibliocasting listserv (bibliocasting@...) is
dedicated to a discussion of streaming media in the library
environment."

Is this the correct application of the term 'streaming media'? I thought of podcasting as being an alternative distribution avenue to streaming, not an example of it, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

"So what to post on the list? Examples of how libraries can build on the growing excitement of Podcasting; Questions on how libraries can use podcasting and other multimedia information they create to promote themselves and provide better service; Questions on how to podcast and other technical questions on streaming media including QuickTime Streaming, RealProducer, and others. In addition, the list will include postings of key articles, reports, and news about podcating and other streaming media in general and in the the library context."

I'm still under the impression that this is mixing terms, but OK. My question is "Are we talking about multimedia content or are we talking about syndicated multimedia content?" Since you read this blog, you probably believe that all media content should be syndicated and thus it is a pointless distinction. Here here. I just think it's good to have a clearly-defined scope for a forum.

"Bottom Line: We are looking to build a community of individuals
interested in the application of multimedia in the library
environment."

Very good. That'd be me, ready to advocate for syndicating the potential offerings.

"We have also set up a podcast for the list...that's right, you can listen to the list. Each post is transformed from text-to-speech, and syndicated using RSS. The RSS feed (podcast feed) for the list is at:

http://drew.syr.edu/iis4/pod/pod.xml"

Very, very cool. It's almost listenable too. Almost. Sorting out the actual content from all the header info is a bit confusing, but I imagine I'll get better at it with time. Actually, the best aspect is getting a little insight into the experience of someone who relies on a screenreader (of course, without all of the heinous web navigation obstacles that accompany browsing with a screenreader).

On the whole, I'm enthusiastic about joining this discussion. I'm not all that excited about the listserv approach, but I think with a narrow, clearly-defined focus, it can be effective for discussion and resource sharing. I plan on adding my two cents.

Aaron Schmidt announces the availability of the new Thomas Ford Memorial Library Teen Audio Reviews, which can be received via podcast. Nice! Could this possibly be the first example of a public library providing syndicated audio content?

When I opened up Bloglines this evening, I saw a new tip on how to listen to podcasts via the aggregator:

Using Bloglines To Track Podcasts
Podcasts are audio blogs that people create as an alternate form of online expression. Think of them as pirate radio on the web, free from the restrictions of time and geography. Some are professionally produced, like talk shows and music broadcasts, while others are less formal daily diaries and running commentary between friends.

Experienced podcast listeners like to use Bloglines to monitor for updates and get notification when new podcasts are available, so they never miss episodes of their favorites.

Well, I guess that makes me an experienced podcast listener, since I subscribe to virtually all of my feeds in both my podcatcher (I use iPodder) and in Bloglines.

I have decidedly mixed emotions about the characterizations and descriptions of podcasting that Bloglines provides. So I'll pick them apart a little.

"Podcasts are audio blogs that people create as an alternate form of online expression." Wrong. Podcasts are XML feeds that people offer as an alternate form of online syndication.

"Think of them as pirate radio on the web, free from the restrictions of time and geography." BBC's In Our Time could not possibly be further from "pirate radio." I'll give them the unrestricted time and geography part.

"Some are professionally produced, like talk shows and music broadcasts, while others are less formal daily diaries and running commentary between friends." And many of them are neither nor. I'll say it again: podcasting is a method of audio syndication, not a description of the content itself. Sorry to be such an evangelist on this point, but this is a very limiting mischaracterization, as far as I'm concerned.

Still, I'm glad to see Bloglines promote the inherent connection between RSS feeds and podcasts and discuss the access to enclosures that's already available within their product.

However, using Bloglines to actually retrieve and/or play podcasted content loses some of the interesting functionality of "specialized podcasting software." The content will not be downloaded automatically and added to your media player library, nor will it be ready to bounce onto your player the next time you synch up, which is much of the true beauty of the podcast format.

But if you are interested in picking and choosing selected content from your favorite sources, rather than automatically downloading everything those content creators have to offer, then this makes for a viable alternative.

A day or two ago, I came across a site called Podcast Tags. After my e