PODCASTS

Yeah, now this is more like it.

Big fan of podcasts. I think i discovered them about...hmmn..5 years or so ago? I was approached about being interviewed on one at the time and that led to me looking into them and finding a couple of burgeoning comic book podcasts which had just started up. I got friendly with a couple of them, provided some artwork for some of the sites and so on.

At one time i think i was subscribed to around 50 podcasts (not that I listened to them all mind you) mostly being comic book and video game related! I was working as a flatter and drawing my strip/doing comissions at night after looking after the kids during the day, so it was great to be able to listen to something while I worked.

I also..cough..used to a podcast myself with my wife. We were going through Marvel comics from the 60's, reading them in chronological order and reviewing/discussing/makingfunof them. But then she got pregnant with our third and morning sickness is not an attractive quality in an audio recording so there went that..

I would LOVE the library to get more on the podcast bandwagon and Lawley and I have taken some steps in that direction by recording a recent Genealogy talk at Coolbelup with the hope of putting that up as an audio podcast. I really think given how much we pay for these guest speakers it makes sense to provide the material to as many people as possible. If only 20 people can make it to a talk at 2pm on a Friday afternoon why stop there? If we have it available to download it can be so much more worthwhile.

I know we're also talking about recording Storytime (ye gods, i'm one of the people who do storytime) and streaming it live (with the option to download it later of course) using something like UStream i guess. That would be good too.

I really feel since all this stuff is pretty easy to setup and get going it makes sense to be able to provide as much content as we can as long as its not overly time consuming or expensive.

I know other librarys have authors read excerpts from their books. I would LOVE to start a podcast inviting local or even Australian authors to read the first chapter from their upcoming books which we could release as a podcast promoting Australian talent. I think its a great idea but I dont know, i may be missing some of the negatives.

Other libraries release podcasts where staff just discuss books and what they're reading, some release podcasts from the groups that meet at the library (i think it'd be particularly good for school aged kids to work on something like this) never mind the more practical uses such as using podcasts to update people on news, events or tutorials on how to search through the catalogue.

SOOOO many excellent options available - really keen to be involved in implementing some of them.

I'm not sure if any local libraries are doing any of the above but its a shame if they're not. As long as you have someone on staff enthusiastic to do it it really doesn't take that much time or expense to get one going and they can be quite fun once you get going.

As for podcasts I like, the main two i have followed for the last 4 years or so are;

The Player One Podcast - Great videogame podcast hosted by ex editors of EGM..and..

iFanboy - excellent comic book podcast. Expanded their weekly schedule to include video podcasts as well. Out of the thousands of comic book podcasts around (some release episodes every 2nd day!) this is the best.

If you like comics or videogames (I know of at least one other blogger on our web 2.0 journey that likes the latter) the there are MANY MANY options available to you.