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Although I don't actually have an iPod (or any other portable listening device for that matter) I have been getting into podcasts for quite a while now. I just usually download them onto my PC and then play them from that. I've mostly used music podcasts which are from overseas radio stations or just put together by music fanatics like myself using their own PCs at home. It's amazing just how much good quality stuff there is out there. Never again do my listening needs have to be limited by Sydney's mind numbingly dire radio programming (FBI & 2SER excepted) - I can just grab one of the thousands of specialist music podcasts out there and groove away!
I would love to be able to use this technology at my workplace - it's inspiring that there are so many libraries already out there doing it. I can think of quite a few things that we could look at podcasting: - Preschool storytimes
- Author Talks
- Music performances from our cultural celebrations
- Library info - overview of services/facilities, how to join, etc.
- Book reviews by staff and library users
- Book discussion groups
- Highlights from our Book Week performances
Most of these things we are already doing, so it would just be a case of getting the technical know-how together, jumping a few red-tape hurdles and then of course finding the time!
I have used the Yahoo podcast search, but usually tend to use good old Google to find what I'm looking for by doing a keyword search (eg: "podcast" & "dub", or "podcast" and "folk", etc.). I've also found some good things using Podcast.com. There's just so much out there - that it's hard to be selective sometimes.
Here are some cool music podcasts:
Groove Therapy - funk, hiphop & disco show from 2SER FM
Sacred Dub - contemporary dub & ambient music
Electronic Explorations - dubstep, minimal, glitch, IDM, techno & advanced electronica
Druidcast - pagan folk music & interviews
I've used a few answer board type sites over the years to get answers on technical stuff that I don't know much about or to get recommendations/reviews for music, movies and books. I've generally found them to be pretty useful when I've used them and don't think I've ever come away empty handed. I think it's great that there are so many people out there who are willing (and able) to share their knowledge and expertise with others. Whether their motivation is ego driven or due to a genuine desire to help out others (or a bit of both), I think it's a great thing!
I do kind of like the idea of a squad of librarians "slammin the boards" in a coordinated campaign of information professionalism, but ultimately I'm not really sure how successful it will be in embedding the greatness of the library profession into the minds of the online masses. Certainly some of the "exemplary answers" examples on wetpaint were pretty good detailed answers, but I think there are so many other (non-librarian) people out there also giving out good detailed answers in their areas of expertise, that it will be hard to make that much of a splash!
I do like the idea of users being able to somehow rate library services or collections. I would really like to be able to enable our users to review and rate items in our collection along the lines of sites such as Amazon, etc., and also for them to recommend other similar items. Our library will be getting a new LMS within the next year, so it would be great for it to be able to provide this level of interactivity.
I found this website which specialises in music related advice. I've had a bit of a look around and it seems pretty comprehensive although I did come across a few dead links.
OK, I do read books, but I'm a bit of a slowish reader so I tend not to get through that many in a year. I know there are people who read a whole pile of books each month (like a friend of mine who often knocks over a novel in an afternoon)... but I'm not one of them. I therefore doubt that I will ever be a Library Thing "power user", although I did have fun adding titles to my LT account.
I think LT is a great readers advisory tool and I can definitely see the value of it for those "extreme book readers" like my friend. I do also think the recommendations feature is pretty cool. I tried this with my somewhat meager list of only 10 books and still found some great looking stuff in my recommended readings list. I will play around with this a bit more as I do sometimes find myself in a "what shall I read now" situation.
I've been aware of Del.icio.us for a while now but have never really been inspired enough to actually have a good look at it. After now having had a bit of a dig around the site I've got a better understanding of how it works, and can definitely see some potential for its use in libraries as a research aid. The example of how it's been used by Sutherland Library was pretty impressive. I can see how this same approach could also be used at my own library to manage all the various subject area links that we currently have.
I still don't really think it's something that I'm likely to use for my own personal use though, it just doesn't seem to be something that I really have a need for at the moment. I set up my own account as suggested in our "Explore" activity, but I have to say I'm still a bit uninspired about using it for anything outside of the work related example mentioned above. I'll continue to have a play around with it over the next few weeks and see if my opinion changes as I maybe become more familiar with it.
