Thing 21: Podcasts

I've been listening to podcasts for a couple years; mostly when I go to the gym, or when I go for a long bike ride along a well known route. I always make sure that I am quite able to hear what is going on around me, so I really don't think I'm being dangerous. I wear headphones that allow outside sounds in, and I don't keep the volume up at all.

There are two kinds of podcasts that I listen to. I have several subscriptions to knitting podcasts (was shocked to discover that there's a lot to be said about pointy sticks and string!) and I also time-shift many of my favorite NPR programs and listen to them via podcast. I particularly enjoy Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Fresh Air. Sometimes, I also download a segment of On Point, or Talk of the Nation. I get video podcasts from Apple with tips and hints about using OSX, the operating system that my Mac runs on.

Most of the podcasts that I listen to, I've found either through the blogs that they are attached to, or through iTunes, which is also how I manage my iPods, music, and movies. I've not tried iTunes on a PC, but on the Mac, it's extremely simple and intuitive to use. I have an iPhone, an older Nano, and an older Shuffle. The computer recognizes each one, and keeps track of which subscriptions I like to sync to each one. My Nano doesn't do movies, so the video podcasts don't work there. The shuffle is the simplest, but also the least flexible, so that's become mostly just a back-up device.

It's easy in iTunes, to see which podcasts are up-to-date, and once I've subscribed to a particular one, anytime I open iTunes, if there's a new one, it will automatically download. I can also go to the podcast section of my iPhone, and download podcasts from there via WiFi. I can even download whole video podcasts right onto the phone. It's amazing!

I spent some time poking around with Podcast Alley, and found a number of Library podcasts. However, after clicking on the descriptions, and then clicking on the link to download or subscribe to them, discovered that most had not been updated in more than a year. I could not see any way to sort them according to how up-to-date the listings are.

Podcast.com works a little better, because each listing shows when it was last updated. If it hasn't been updated in a year or more, it is probably not worth subscribing too. However, it might still be useful to find a podcast on a particular topic that one would like to hear. An example of this might be the very informative This American Life segments that have explained how the downturn in the economy happened, in a way that non-economists could easily understand!

If you want to try a quick, fun, and very useful podcast, I highly recommend Grammar Girl, hosted by Mignon Fogerty. Each podcast is under five minutes long, but explains language usage and writing style in an entertaining and easy to understand way.

Thing 20: You Tube & Video Sharing

My very first post contains an embedded video that I made last summer, while cycling along the Centennial Trail. I've made a variety of small videos, mostly having to do with bicycling, but also one showing a very clever cast-on method for knitting a hat from the center out. I tried to demonstrate the cast-on in a knitting shop, but developed stage fright, which caused my hands to shake so bad that I could barely do the steps. Making the little movie in the privacy of my dining room, and then sharing it via You Tube was a whole lot easier for me!

Embedding video from YouTube (or many of the other sites) is extremely easy. Usually, to the right of the video, or underneath it, is a link you can click to share the video. From that you can either e-mail a link to a friend, or you can copy some HTML to "embed" the video into your own blog. (You can do the same thing with slideshows from Flickr).

Here is one that I'm quite proud of, because it was created by my thirteen-year-old daughter:



Doesn't that make you want to go and read this book?

And that is one way that I think libraries can really use YouTube. Get teens (and other ages as well) to create little video reviews of books, and post them, then link to them through the library website. Teen film-making classes, video tutorials for using databases, or software could also be very handy.

Besides YouTube, there is one other video sharing site that I like to visit. One of the cool things about Vimeo, is that many of their videos can be downloaded. This makes it possible for me to save and play the videos on my iPhone. The filmmaker has control, so can allow download or not.
There are ways to download YouTube videos as well, but at least with the Mac platform, it requires separate software.

Here's a Vimeo video that I particularly enjoy:

Gorge Fog from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

Thing 19: Award Winning Web 2.0 Sites TWITTER

I looked at the link for the 2008 SEOmoz Web 2.0 Awards, and was rather puzzled to find that those awards were bestowed on May 9, 2007. Given how fast trends change and websites morph into other things, that seems like a really old set of awards. And why was it called the 2008 awards more than half a year ahead of time? But aside from that, I enjoyed poking around and looking at some of the websites they featured. Many were familiar: Facebook, Myspace, Delicious, and more that Learning 2.0 has explored. Others are long gone, or require a paid subscription to access.

The Tool that I have spent the most time with is Twitter. I signed up for an account back in January, and posted a couple of pretty boring updates: "I'm waiting for the bus." or "Having a cup of coffee." This may be why I have so few "followers!" On the other hand, I quickly caught on to the fact that it's fun to follow Tweeters who have something to say. I don't like to spend a lot of time with it, so I don't follow many, but I enjoy following Scott Simon and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me from NPR. I follow Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and several of my knitting sheroes. I follow Steven Fry (British voice of Harry Potter, and Jeeves, from the Jeeves and Wooster series). He's geeky and fun, and very up with all sorts of world events. He also likes to try all sorts of Web 2.0 apps, and shares them regularly via his website and tweets. Besides people, I follow Bike to Work Spokane, which keeps me up-to-date on what's happening with the local cycling scene. And, I follow the tweets of Sno-Isle Regional Library.

Sno-Isle sends out several tweets every day with reminders about upcoming programs, book recommendations and more. They post links to more information so the 140 character limit of a tweet is no problem. I subscribe to the general Sno-Isle tweets. They also have a Twitter account just for Teens, in which they promote their services just to teens.

I think it would be fun to see how we could make this service work at SCLD as well. Like Sno-Isle, it would be great to remind followers about our many programs and services, but I also wonder if it could be used to do some quick reference services. Our customers could tweet us with a quick question, and we could reply within a certain time frame, say every 1-4 hours. Since it isn't necessary to do it in real time, the way QuestionPoint is, it could be easily managed from the reference desk. Something to explore, I think.

I log in to Twitter in two ways; via my computer at home, directly on the web. I also have a program on my iPhone, called Twitterific, which allows me to check what's new, and post my own tweets. I can even post Twitpics that way. And, whenever I post anything, I have it linked into my Facebook account, so the Tweet or Twitpic shows up there as well.