Podcasting for NJLA

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Podcasting for NJLA

John Iliff Library Technology Development
Consultant iliff_at_palinet.org
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Podcasting Basics

• Sound/audio file
• ANY device that plays digital audio files will
  play a podcast- from iPods to Windows PCs
• Typical format for the files is MP3 or OGG Vorbis
• Usually distributed via RSS
• Really Simple Syndication
• Form of XML for syndicated distribution of files
• Requires an aggregator to grab the files

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Podcasting History

• The Creators Adam Curry and Dave Winer

• Adam Curry coined the term podcast after the
  apple iPod (his device of choice for listening to
  audio files)

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Podcatchers

• The aggregators to obtain podcasts are
  sometimes called podcatchers
• Apple iTunes, available for free for Windows and
  Mac machines, is a podcatcher (http//www.apple.co
  m/itunes/download/)
• iPodder is another podcatcher (http//www.ipodder.
  org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware)

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Finding Podcasts

• Podcast directories
• PodcastAlley.com - (http//www.podcastalley.com/)
  
• Podcast.net - (http//www.podcast.net/)
• iPodder.org - (http//ipodder.org)

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Podcatcher Demo

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Podcast Creation

• Creating a podcast requires, at a minimum
• personal computer
• microphone
• software that can create MP3 or OGG Vorbis files
  (a popular program is the freely available
  audacity (http//audacity.sourceforge.net/)
• web server to place the sound file
• ability to create an RSS feed

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Podcast Creation Demo

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Podcasting in Libraries

• PALINET has podcasts (http//www.palinet.org/rss/i
  t/)
• Librivox is a huge effort to provide sound files
  for public domain books (http//www.librivox.org/)
  
• Lansing MI public library has several podcasts of
  tech news, info teens, and also for children
  (http//www.lansing.lib.il.us/podcast.htm)

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Bottom Line Podcasts

• Negative not in common use, small audience
• Positive probably will be more common
• Positive library applications have promise