skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Podcasts
I'm glad podcasts are overcoming the myth that you need an iPod to listen to them. They are just audio files that you can play on your computer or your portable device, either on the go or while you are doing something else at work. I think the "pod" part of the name probably confuses a lot of people.
Like blogs there are podcasts for everything imaginable so it's hard to narrow it down and find the best for your interests and needs. Some are just a few minutes in length such as President Obama's weekly address, while others are longer.
Also, like posting videos taped from conferences and meetings on You Tube, podcasts can be used to record speakers and other events and disseminate the content to those who can't attend in person.
One very interesting one I found was a podcast "episode" from the ACRL from this January,
I also found some for learning the French language:
Coffee Break French and the cleverly named French Podclass
And the NPR directory was nice because it had a "local" section where you can get podcasts from local NPR stations.
Twitter
Well I gave Twitter a try. I did like Twitter Vision. I went into it with a pretty negative attitude at first. I also don't use my cell phone for texts or anything data related (I'm a cheapo!) so those features aren't useful for me. I first learned of Twitter through some personal blogs of a few people I follow. I found the concept kind of annoying but I like the potential for posting and seeing interesting links. I'd rather just read people's status updates about what they are thinking or feeling or doing on Facebook and update my status with what I'm thinking or doing. I feel like there is more content there and little on Twitter. I can see photos, videos,cool apps, games, events etc. on Facebook. Maybe that's why people like it? Because of the simplicity?
Facebook with its redesign has turned into a bit more like Twitter and moved more into micro-blogging. With old Facebook you couldn't comment on people's statuses or every little thing they did- you could pretty much send a private message or write on their wall. Now the little things there can become topics for conversation and interaction.
I added a few of the people mentioned in the Library Journal article, a few commission people and a few personal friends who use it. By doing an Omaha search, I discovered that the general manager of Omaha Public Radio uses it. I've enjoyed so far the updates from the commission's reference questions. We don't get a lot of reference questions here since we are rather specialized so that's kind of entertaining.
As far as the library goes in terms of serving our "customers", there isn't much of an active Twitter following here. I've never heard or seen any of our students use Twitter. They're more of a Facebook crowd. I searched for references to our college or the library and got none.
A few possible uses I'd consider trying if there was a Twitter community here:
- sending out links of interest to student resources we've found on the web
- reporting glitches in our systems, outages, databases errors, etc.
- sending out reminders about changes in hours, special last minute closings such as snow related ones
I liked the mention of using it to tell students when computers labs were full or available, that'd be really helpful at a large university or with a large public library, especially for users who have updates sent to their cell phones.
I don't see us using it at work until we know our students are into it. Personally, I might check it a bit here and there and see if anything interesting comes my way and maybe post interesting links.
You can find me (or not find me) at
http://www.twitter.com/kitschqueen
