Podcasts

I usually find podcasts to be useful. Many of the ones I have listened to have come via iTunes. So, for this exercise, I decided to explore the online directories instead of what I was used to. To begin with, the options listed were somewhat limited. Podcast.net is no longer live and Yahoo Podcast Directory was shut down in 2007. Thus, I was only able to explore one of the sites which was podcastalley.com. The site was quite cumbersome to use. The search feature did not work well and returned no results for multiple searches. I decided to browse by genre to see if this would help. Unfortunately, it would not allow me to browse for individual podcasts.

In a library setting, I question how useful podcasts would be. If the patron subscribes via RSS feed, I could see potential of people actually listening (mainly because it would alert of the of updates automatically). However, I think this is another tool information professionals need to know about rather than use it in a library setting. I think it bears repeating that I advocate for Facebook in libraries (and possibly Twitter). You have to meet the users where they are. They WILL NOT come to you. In specific instances, I think podcasts would be plausible option. However, reality implies otherwise.