#21 Podcasts

I was surprised to find out that podcasts are not only audio files. but also video files - I always that that podcasts were only non-musical audio. I was watching something online the other day and they continually referred to it as a 'podcast' - I thought they were wrong, but obviously not!!!

I used the podcast.net directory and tried searching for 'libraries' but nothing i found really interested me. I like podcast.net's searching capabilities and the way I could refine the search or extend it by using a keyword search.

The subjects covered by podcast.net are quite extensive, covering sports, hobbies, business or news and many more. I tried searching for 'scrapbooking' and found 6 results. It will be something different to listen to when walking. I added "Wholly Scrap" to my Bloglines account. I'll be exploring further and looking at finding some video podcasts as well :)

I can see a definite use for podcasting in libraries, not only for the public, but also for the staff. Meetings can be podcast so those who have been unable to attend can still here it and use the podcast with the minutes to gain a better understanding of what happened. Podcasting events such as Storytime, Rhyme Time and our Wyndham Wordfest would help those who have to miss out for one reason or another. and would also encourage others who have not attended previously but then saw something on our site.

Audacity is very easy to use and we have been using it with some success for our NLS4 events. The sound signal doesn't seem to be strong though, as we need to talk directly into a microphone to get clear podcasts.

Week 5 - PLAY!!

I like to play!! Image generators are really good - talk about a time sucker though! Too easy to get caught up watching it!! I really liked this text collage one - called Linguasso (combination of lingual and Picasso), it created random art pieces based on words that it chooses. The words are in different fonts and sizes, overlapping too - the end result looks quite good. I quite like this one it created for me. It would look really good printed on a transparency for a scrapbooked page. The only (slight) hiccup is that it IS random - you can't actually choose the words you want. Still, I can see lots of potential......

Oh boy - just thought I lost my post!! luckily blogger has autosave.....