Monday 9 August 2010

Podcasts

Well we're almost at the finish line for the Cambridge 23 Things programme The experience has been an enjoyable learning curve of a ride through various emerging technologies and their application to the library environment.

I have been looking forward to podcasting's showcase as a Thing as I am such huge fan of audio-generated content. In our image obsessed culture, it is important to remember that audio is a useful way of generating content to which the consumer can multi-task. With the advent of portable listening devices, onto which it is simple to download podcasts and other audio content, listening to podcasts could not be easier.

On a personal level, I am a commuter. And as such, I have a lot of time in my day when I have to use my eyes for their primary purpose of seeing what is in front of me. I did briefly try to read whilst walking; it did not go well. Audio content is the perfect way to fill the time - podcasts of radio shows and comedy items are very easy to use.

I really like the concept of using podcasts to reach our users within the library environment. Audio help guides and general introductions to collections and services could be mounted on the library website as podcasts to enable maximum usage. Every time a new podcasts is released, Twitter and Facebook come into play as a communications channel to tell our users about our new podcasts. This is definitely an avenue worth exploring.

1 comment:

Katie Birkwood said...

The point about audio being multi-taskable (sorry about the horrid neologism) is very important I think. Watching video always feels like a luxury because there's not much else you can do at the same time.