Thing 25 - Podcasts

I went to about four public library podcast selections and a couple of academic libraries.

Personally, I don't see any value in many types of podcasts. I wonder how many children would really listen to the storytimes, especially the podcasts without any image of a reader. The younger children would have to be on a parent's lap so the parent can control the keyboard. Books on tape and Cd's are one thing since they're more portable and the readers are usually professionals. We do a wonderful job with storytime programs in the libraries with the children in front of us.

Maybe the teens would like this, but the teen podcasts I listened to were often difficult to hear. I feel very badly writing this because its negative but I applaud their efforts. Perhaps I am missing something here ...

I also listened to some of the academic library podcasts: business related, researching journals/magazines, etc. I listened with a public library audience in mind: customers who are starting their business or students learning the databases from home, but I still don't think the effort would be worth it. Just my opinion. I could listen to the podcast but the spiraling images on the screen were too distracting.

http://www.library.jhu.edu/podcasts/index.html