The three-part Discovery Exercise directed us to:
1) Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
2) Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account.
3) Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
Done! Using each of the directories, I found many podcasts on an array of topics. I think anyone with a spark of curiosity would find hours upon hours of podcasts worth listening to.
I started my search in Podfeed.net by looking for information on book clubs, book discussions, and reading groups. One of the podcasts that I liked was Bookbabble. The description reads, "A group of friends from around the globe meet up online to chat about books, reading and anything that will be of interest to fellow booklovers. Discussions include literary news, reviews or idle chit-chat. Sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, but always a lot of fun. Visit us, leave comments, and see more book news at bookbabble.net!"
I also liked two of the featured podcasts shown on the main page:
- Business English Pod: "A great way to improve your English on the go! Listen to our free podcasts covering essential Business English. Learn useful English phrases and listen to how they can be used in real business situations."
- Storynory - "I-pod ready stories for kids. Children's stories and fairy tales beautifully read - and all for free!"
I tried searching for the same topics in PodcastAlley and found Books on the Nightstand, which included this terrific one-line description: Adding to your stack, one book at a time." I can identify! Because film is also one of my passions, I looked for movie podcasts and found Outside the Cinema. I added both of these podcasts to my bloglines account.
In general, I liked the design and search capabilities of PodcastAlley more than Podfeed. I also liked the Podcast? button near the top of the screen. I learned a lot about podcasts by clicking there and doing some reading. For example, it was fun to learn that "The term podcasting is meant to rhyme with broadcasting!"
Podcast Directory also had some good features, especially for searching. Among the ways I could search were by country, by language, by buzz, by popularity, by category, by tags, by region, or by city. When I was exploring Podcast Directory, it occured to me that podcasts would be a great tool for developing fluency with another language.
In sum, I enjoyed the process of learning about podcasts and exploring some directories. It is interesting to see how people are using podcasting and to see that now anyone can have the equivalent of their own radio show!
I think we could do a lot with podcastng in the BSC Library to help people learn how to use library resources, to entertain and entice them by reading snippets from new books, and more. The possibilities are endless.
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