Podcasting

Funny, Russ and I were just talking about creating podcasts and the next IUL2.0 topic is, you guessed it, podcasts.

I tried out the search “libraries” (original, right?) in the podcast directories Podcast.net, Podcast Alley, and Yahoo Audio Search, and found two intriguing casts, Talking with Talis and SirsiDynix Institute, both focusing on Libraries 2.0. I liked Podcast Alley better, mostly because Podcast.net was being glitchy at the time and didn’t retrieve as many relevant results.

I used to subscribe (via iTunes) to a number of podcasts but I’ve reduced that number to only 2 (CarTalk and RadioLab) because I rarely listen to them and couldn’t keep up with new episodes of 5 or more different shows. However, I do like the idea of putting the RSS feed into Bloglines so that I can keep an eye on episode titles for a interesting topic (not sure why I haven’t done this before now).

I found a surprisingly obsessive discussion (says the cataloger!) about normalizing podcast icons (much like what was done with the orange RSS icon). The one I see often is the dude-in-the-purple-haze icon but I found one that integrates the RSS icon to form a “RSS-audible” version. I suppose most people won’t glean the significance of this icon (heck, most people don’t even know what RSS is or that it even has an icon) but I like that it stresses the syndication aspect of podcasts.