12/06/2011
12/01/2011
Broadcasting now to Pods around the world................
Friends our time together has almost come to an end. This is officially my last school assigned topic blog that I have to to write. Soon I will be able to write about anything my little heart desires, from what nail polish color I am wearing to how I feel about Occupy Wall Street. The choice of topics is endless. Maybe I will even do a vegetarian Julie and Julia type adventure in the new year. Who knows?
But for now we have one more exciting multimedia topic to discuss. Today we get into our spaceships and talk about pod-casting. What exactly is a podcast? Well a podcast is a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar type of program, which is made available on the internet to download to any personal audio player, such as an iPod. In simple terms it is an audio file that is created with the express purpose of being shared and heard. There are two main methods of how podcasts are presented. The first is audio and the second is video. My experiences with podcasts as with most of my blog topics is quite limited. I had never really experienced video podcasts, but I do actually have some experience listening to audio podcasts.I have followed a few different audio podcasts and all were quite different from each other. I really like podcasts and use them myself. Unfortunately all the podcasts that I have really liked and followed have from one reason or another have ended. Despite this I still really enjoy podcasts and would love recommendations for a new one to listen to!
The first podcast that I ever really followed was the Russell Brand show on BBC2. (It unfortunately ended in 2008 due to scandal!) This podcast was a mixture of talk and music. To be more accurate actually the Russell Brand podcast was an audio version of a radio show that was made available on the internet through BBC's website, Russell's website and on Itunes. When they turned the show into a podcast they cut out all the music. So when you listened to the podcast Russell and his co-host Matt would make reference to the song your about to hear, or did just hear, but the podcast listener never actually heard the music played. What I enjoyed most about following this podcast is identical to what I enjoy about every podcast that I have ever listened to, which is the convenience factor.When I found the podcast on Itunes I clicked on the subscribe free button. After that every time there was a new podcast it automatically downloaded into my itunes upon my next use. After that I could listen to it on my computer, burn it onto a cd or as I did put it onto my iPod. Since I am a frequent bus user I enjoy being able to take my entertainment on the road with me. At times I am sure people must have thought I was a nutjob because Russell Brand tends be very colourful and I ended up laughing out loud to a lot of what was said on his show. I never really cared though what people thought of the crazy girl on the bus. I was't as crazy as the women fighting with her imaginary friends, or the guy yelling profanities. I have to say I was pretty disappointed when he put his foot in his mouth which resulted in him having to resign from the BBC, thus ending my favorite podcast. My second favorite podcast was specifically about a television show that I was watching. Once the show ended in 2009 the podcast inevitably ended as well. But my favorite television show in the world The Mighty Boosh does have a 2010 podcast, (screen shot below) which I listen to to dry my tears. (And P.S if you don't watch the Mighty Boosh yet........... your missing out. Buy the dvds immediately!)
As with a lot of modern multimedia Apple is the leader in providing podcasts to the world. All you need to get started is a free download of the newest version of Itunes, if you don't have one already. Once you are on Itunes it could not get more simple. Below you will see a screen shot Itunes. On left hand side you will that the highlighted line says Itunes store. If you click on this you are brought to the entire store. Once you are in the store if you look to the left (top
on the newer versions) there is a link to podcasts. Once you click this link you are brought to all the podcasts available to you. From here you can search if you are looking for one specific podcast or you can browse by genre or most popular. A vast majority of the podcasts are available to you for free, but there are some that Itunes charges you to download. It is really that simple! Of course you don't have to go through Itunes. That just seems to be the most popular. Many websites will also contain links to their own podcasts if they have any. For example when doing a little research for this blog I listened to a few different library podcasts, which I didn't find through Itunes, but on their sites. I wanted to see how they varied. I found out that differences are vast.
The first genre of library audio podcast I listened to was a storyteller. I actually listened to two so I could compare and contrast. I first heard the Clayton Public Library reading of the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. I am a big Poe fan. (I know that it is no surprise, he is dark and brooding like me.) I was greatly disappointed by this reading though. The person who did the reading had the most boring voice I have ever listened to. Okay that is not entirely true, I have heard more boring voices, but his was in the top 20. The first thing that I noticed about this was there was zero introduction. You pressed play and right away the reader started the first line. I would have liked to know who was reading this or why but I guess this library did not find this information necessary. The reader used zero inflection in his voice. Though the poem can conjure a lot of feeling and suspense, I felt zilch from this reader. I almost felt like he was doing a presentation for Tabitha were he only had ten minutes and someone was going to cut him off. He sounded like he was rushing through it a bit and forgot to actually put some effort in. The quality of the podcast was good, but based solely on the reader I wouldn't listen to another of their podcasts. Unfortunately in this world we don't get many second chances, so keep that in mind if you ever decide to make your own podcast. The second reading was of the Giving Tree. Although the quality of this podcast was not as good I enjoyed the reading much more. Even thought it was a very loud podcast with a lot of background noise and a lot of lulls but overall I felt this one was a podcast I would be more likely to listen to again.
Some other genres I listened to were author readings, and an information podcast. The first was the reading of Hopkinton's book entitled Scrawl. I found it to be professional sounding, catchy and more interesting. There were some music cues at the beginning to welcome you and some added sound effects. There as just enough of an excerpt to keep you interested without giving away too much. The informational library podcast was intended for a university telling students about Google Scholar. This was the one I liked least. The entire thing was so contrived and trying way to hard to be funny. It came off sounding like a (bad) joke. The horrible clichéd surfer and the simplified tone made me cringe. I would certainly never listen any podcast from them again!
So who can use a podcast? Everyone and anyone. There is a podcast for every interest, every age group and every topic you can think off. It is basically a digitized version of your radio or tv except you have an even wider range of options to what you can watch or listen to. As the Russell Brand example shows, if it wasn't for the podcast I wouldn't have had access to a British radio show as readily as I did. You don't have to have any tech saavy to listen to a podcast. As from creating them, there is all kinds of software specifically designed to help you create the best podcast you can.
As with all the multimedia topics we have discussed previously podcasting is great for libraries. Audio podcasts can be used to give walking tours of the library. They could be preloaded onto an mp3 player or made available for free download. These tours could direct patrons to what they are looking for while highlighting areas of the library that are of interest or even giving history facts. When I went to Versailles they had this exact set up. I thought it was great. The audio was available in a number of languages and you had the convenience of exploring the building at your leisure. Libraries could use this technology to make available readings, including children's readings, authors readings and interviews, as well as general library talk. If you have an even coming up why not podcast about it to peak your patrons interest? Having the access to this type of technology makes your library seem more approachable and less frightening to navigate to people who are intimidated by the library. Libraries could even combine the technology of rss feeds with their podcasts to double the chances of patrons finding the information. Why not encourage patrons to create their own book review podcasts to help start a dialogue about books? Maybe book clubs could use podcasts within the library to discuss books and to give recommendations. The ideas are endless for what we can do with this technology if only we would use it to the full advantage.
Well my friends that is about all she wrote. I hope you enjoyed reading about multimedia in the library as much as I enjoyed learning about them. One final note on podcasting. Do you know where the name podcast came from? It is actually a combination of the words iPod and broadcasting. So you see Apple is taking over the world, and I for one am okay with that!
Have a great holiday season friends, see you in 2012!
Always your favorite nerdy librarian.
Amanda!
Librarian currently reading:
Library Recommendations:
DVD:
Holiday Music: (which is playing on a constant loop in my house!)
But for now we have one more exciting multimedia topic to discuss. Today we get into our spaceships and talk about pod-casting. What exactly is a podcast? Well a podcast is a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar type of program, which is made available on the internet to download to any personal audio player, such as an iPod. In simple terms it is an audio file that is created with the express purpose of being shared and heard. There are two main methods of how podcasts are presented. The first is audio and the second is video. My experiences with podcasts as with most of my blog topics is quite limited. I had never really experienced video podcasts, but I do actually have some experience listening to audio podcasts.I have followed a few different audio podcasts and all were quite different from each other. I really like podcasts and use them myself. Unfortunately all the podcasts that I have really liked and followed have from one reason or another have ended. Despite this I still really enjoy podcasts and would love recommendations for a new one to listen to! 
As with a lot of modern multimedia Apple is the leader in providing podcasts to the world. All you need to get started is a free download of the newest version of Itunes, if you don't have one already. Once you are on Itunes it could not get more simple. Below you will see a screen shot Itunes. On left hand side you will that the highlighted line says Itunes store. If you click on this you are brought to the entire store. Once you are in the store if you look to the left (top
The first genre of library audio podcast I listened to was a storyteller. I actually listened to two so I could compare and contrast. I first heard the Clayton Public Library reading of the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. I am a big Poe fan. (I know that it is no surprise, he is dark and brooding like me.) I was greatly disappointed by this reading though. The person who did the reading had the most boring voice I have ever listened to. Okay that is not entirely true, I have heard more boring voices, but his was in the top 20. The first thing that I noticed about this was there was zero introduction. You pressed play and right away the reader started the first line. I would have liked to know who was reading this or why but I guess this library did not find this information necessary. The reader used zero inflection in his voice. Though the poem can conjure a lot of feeling and suspense, I felt zilch from this reader. I almost felt like he was doing a presentation for Tabitha were he only had ten minutes and someone was going to cut him off. He sounded like he was rushing through it a bit and forgot to actually put some effort in. The quality of the podcast was good, but based solely on the reader I wouldn't listen to another of their podcasts. Unfortunately in this world we don't get many second chances, so keep that in mind if you ever decide to make your own podcast. The second reading was of the Giving Tree. Although the quality of this podcast was not as good I enjoyed the reading much more. Even thought it was a very loud podcast with a lot of background noise and a lot of lulls but overall I felt this one was a podcast I would be more likely to listen to again.
Some other genres I listened to were author readings, and an information podcast. The first was the reading of Hopkinton's book entitled Scrawl. I found it to be professional sounding, catchy and more interesting. There were some music cues at the beginning to welcome you and some added sound effects. There as just enough of an excerpt to keep you interested without giving away too much. The informational library podcast was intended for a university telling students about Google Scholar. This was the one I liked least. The entire thing was so contrived and trying way to hard to be funny. It came off sounding like a (bad) joke. The horrible clichéd surfer and the simplified tone made me cringe. I would certainly never listen any podcast from them again!
So who can use a podcast? Everyone and anyone. There is a podcast for every interest, every age group and every topic you can think off. It is basically a digitized version of your radio or tv except you have an even wider range of options to what you can watch or listen to. As the Russell Brand example shows, if it wasn't for the podcast I wouldn't have had access to a British radio show as readily as I did. You don't have to have any tech saavy to listen to a podcast. As from creating them, there is all kinds of software specifically designed to help you create the best podcast you can.
As with all the multimedia topics we have discussed previously podcasting is great for libraries. Audio podcasts can be used to give walking tours of the library. They could be preloaded onto an mp3 player or made available for free download. These tours could direct patrons to what they are looking for while highlighting areas of the library that are of interest or even giving history facts. When I went to Versailles they had this exact set up. I thought it was great. The audio was available in a number of languages and you had the convenience of exploring the building at your leisure. Libraries could use this technology to make available readings, including children's readings, authors readings and interviews, as well as general library talk. If you have an even coming up why not podcast about it to peak your patrons interest? Having the access to this type of technology makes your library seem more approachable and less frightening to navigate to people who are intimidated by the library. Libraries could even combine the technology of rss feeds with their podcasts to double the chances of patrons finding the information. Why not encourage patrons to create their own book review podcasts to help start a dialogue about books? Maybe book clubs could use podcasts within the library to discuss books and to give recommendations. The ideas are endless for what we can do with this technology if only we would use it to the full advantage.
Well my friends that is about all she wrote. I hope you enjoyed reading about multimedia in the library as much as I enjoyed learning about them. One final note on podcasting. Do you know where the name podcast came from? It is actually a combination of the words iPod and broadcasting. So you see Apple is taking over the world, and I for one am okay with that!
Have a great holiday season friends, see you in 2012!
Always your favorite nerdy librarian.
Amanda!
Librarian currently reading:
Library Recommendations:
DVD:
Holiday Music: (which is playing on a constant loop in my house!)
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