Podcasting

I enjoyed this unit. Again I found a vast variety of podcasts, by using podcasting directories. Some were easy to use, like the British Museum link, click and you're there. Others required downloading of software, which took longer, leastways I didn't need another log in and password.
From the Library Success wiki, I followed what public libraries in the US had on offer. I was impressed by Kankakee Public library who provided a list of Podcasts and Vodcasts. Yes, they are now being RSS feed to Bloglines. The last entry was added on 17/3/2008, one the staff recorded while actually doing another interview. This is where I could see a use for libraries in the recording of oral histories-- also it was great to see their lists of pods growing, compared to another public library, that only listed 1 from 2007. Which reinterates, what library bloggers have been saying that Web2 is only as good as what is being added to, kept up to date, and put out there for users. Check out Kankakee Library homepage.
I like the flexibility and portability of podcasts-- I could see their use for recording of guest speakers at library events, recording oral histories, recording traditional languages before they disappear, adding spoken book reviews to homepages. You never had to miss anything again! and you don't need a ipod.
Great session. Enjoyable, educational, and rewarding as I have more RSS feeds

RSS feeds

I like the idea that using RSS the information comes to you, however I find it annoying that to receive this information you have to be signed into something like Bloglines. This means if I had really good feeds I would be all the time signed in at Bloglines. Because our IT department monitor internet usage and report back to Council who are the highest monthly users, I don't like the idea of doing this. Is there a better way to receive RSS feeds, i.e direct into Outlook Express?
I also found this session frustrating with the searching. I wanted to get away from State Library suggestions and be a little more adventurous. One search term that I used was for Australian convicts, this was disappointing with the results, as it returned American results. I also used the term family history with the surname, again no luck. I decided to broaden the term to Australian genealogy, which wasn't really what I was after. However anything is worth a go when learning. An Australian genealogy blog was returned however as it was last updated in Aug 07, I thought it wasn't really up to date so it was discarded. In the end my feeds ended up being ABC news, ABS blog for Librarians (yes I forwarded the training dates to the Manager), Power House Museum picture of the day, Quotes of the day (I enjoy this one), and The shifted Librarian.
I also learned that AskNow! was actually Web2 technology, and I had used it without knowing this.
I don't know if our library will embrace Web2 technology, as it is impossible to even get a link on our Webopacs to State Library databases (even though other Libraries have managed to achieve this) Again this comes back to having our Webopacs open to Internet connections.
Again no comments have been post on this blog, so how useful are blogs anyway.