Thing 20 - Podcasting

I have had no real exposure to podcasting prior to working on 23 Things. As part of this exercise, I took the opportunity to explore several podcasts, and definitely feel more well versed in what they are and what's out there and/or possible. I used the link to go to the Library Success podcasts, and found a wide variety of podcasts available. Some of the libraries have podcasts that teach something, such as how to use an electronic source. Other libraries have podcasts with story times or chapter- a-week podcasts. My personal favorite of those I reviewed was the St. Tammany Parish Library. Coincidentally, I grew up about an hour away from that library system, however this is not why I liked their podcasts the best. I was impressed with their podcasts for a number of reasons: the person who hosted the podcasts had a cheerful and engaging voice and attitude. While it may not seem like a huge deal, when something is strictly audio, voice and tone do matter. Some of the other podcasts I listened to had hosts with boring and droning voices that did not make me interested in what they were saying. Another thing that I liked about the podcasts from this library was that they were promoting their libraries, did it in an interesting way, and had a variety of information included. There was an introduction to their upcoming storytimes with recommended books for children to read. There was a clip from a teen, encouraging other teens to come to the exciting upcoming teen programs at the library, and then there was a guest speaker, who gave about a five minute talk about some local area history. Overall, I was very impressed with these podcasts and felt that other library systems could do well to do similar things. I did not subscribe to this podcast or any of the podcasts that I listened to, not because they weren't interesting, just because it's not really something that interests me. I prefer to seek out information when I want it. But I do think that podcasts can have a place in libraries, and think that many of the things that I heard could be tried by our library - such as advertising for story time and upcoming programming, as well as how-to modules on using many of our e-branch services, and even stroytime or chapter-a-week podcasts. I'd be interested to see how successful these are if tried.