Podcasting: An Introduction
Brought to you by Greg Schwartz, host of Uncontrolled Vocabulary, a weekly live interactive roundtable discussion of all things library.
Podcasting: What is it?
- The word of the year!
- A means of distributing audio content using RSS technology
- Allows end-user to subscribe to a creator's audio content
- Automatic downloads of new content
- Time-shifted content - Listen to whatever, whenever, wherever!
- iPod + Broadcasting = many misconceptions
- plain old mp3s, no iPod necessary
- listen on your computer, on your smart phone, on your media player
Why listen?
- Control
- Variety
- Information/News/Keeping Current
- Entertainment
- Caveat: Real-time content consumption - it takes a minute to consume a minute
LIS-friendly Podcasts
What else is out there?
- Podcast networks (multiple shows behind each link)
- Tech
- Other good stuff
How to listen
- Two needs
- A way to find podcasts - directories/search
- A way to download podcasts - aggregators
- Some products contain both.
If you're on a site that podcasts
- Look for something like the following:
- Drag or cut-and-paste the URL into your podcatcher
Podcast aggregators (Podcatchers)
Podcast directories
Podcast search (This space has been significantly reduced at the non-enterprise level.)
- Indexes content via speech-to-text conversion
Why podcast?
- Marketing
- Web presence
- As part of your overall communications strategy
- Because your patrons are looking for local content - they'll put you in their audio newspaper!
- NOT because it's the hot thing that everyone is doing
- Only if it's right for your organization
- If you're already producing audio content, this is a no-brainer
What to podcast - a sampler
- Programming
- Bibliographic instruction
- Tours
- Book Reviews, New Materials
- Upcoming events
- Community news
- Services to the visually impaired
- Internal Communication?
Libraries that podcast
Find a longer, less selective list at the Library Success wiki.
Libraries that used to podcast well
How to produce a podcast - the old-fashioned way
You will need:
- A computer
- A microphone - start cheap!
- Recording software - use Audacity
- Server space and a file transfer client (SSH, FTP, etc.)
- Two ways to get an RSS feed
- Hand-code it
- Use blogging software and Feedburner's Smartcast feature
Podcasting made even easier
- RSS feed
- Server space and RSS feed
- Audio recording
- Audio recording, server space and RSS feed
Marketing your podcast
- Use your website
- Podcast directories
- Think about keywords, descriptions and other metadata
- Record a promo
Don't forget
- Content comes first - worry about sound quality later
- Understand the legal issues - Podcasting Legal Guide
- Not all music is created pod-safe
Helpful online resources
David Free's library podcasting resources wiki
podcasting @ the university of wisconsin-madison
There's Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education
Ten Tips for Improving Your Podcasts
Transom's Tools for Podcasting
How to Find Podsafe Music
Podcast Academy blog
Podcasting News
Where to Submit Your Podcasts
20 Ideas for a Great Podcast
The future
Screencasts Online
Thank you!
Contact info
E-mail: greg dot schwartz (at) gmail dot com
IM (AOL, Yahoo, MSN): planetneutral
Skype: planetneutral
PodcastSearchSession
SDISession1
SDISession2
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.