Week 7: Podcasting

My experience with podcasting has been pretty limited to this point. I haven't done much beyond downloading a few library 2.0 related podcasts from iTunes and listening to them. I know my library has done some work with podcasts, creating a few podcasts for educating patrons on library resources. My experience with streaming video has been purely on a user level. I watch videos on YouTube a lot.

I browsed the 'Health' section at podcastalley.com. It seemed like a broad category, with more consumer health related podcasts. There were podcasts on exercise and alternative health in addition to some podcasts recorded by health professionals. I didn't see anything at first glance that looked helpful to me in my library setting, but these podcasts may be useful to someone working in a public library.

I had never heard of Odeo before, so it was interesting to poke around the resource and learn about it. After I signed up, I did a quick search for 'medical library'. The results I got were pretty scattered, it doesn't look like the podcasts are tagged or cataloged, so the search just looked in the podcast description for any time 'medical' or 'library' was written. I had a little trouble browsing the site: a lot of the links loaded extremely slowly or not at all. I subscribed to a podcast called 'KidneyNotes', which is a podcast on "medicine, science and technology from a nephrologist in NYC".

The potential for using YouTube in the library is enormous. Libraries can create videos with programs like 'Camtasia' to screencast instructional videos for using their catalogs or databases. Libraries can videocast library events such as book clubs and lectures, allowing distance learners and outside parties tune into the library. The library could also use YouTube to introduce patrons to their staff and services, conducting Q & A sessions with librarians about library services. These videocasts increase the library's visibility, which is always important.

For example, Eastern Michigan University has an account on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/emulibrary). This account has videos touring the library, teaching users how to search databases such as Google Scholar, and how to use library resources (ex: requesting books via ILL, locating books in the stacks, accessing course reserves, etc.).