LibraryLil

Monday, October 02, 2006

Attack of the podcast people!

Podcasts. I've heard the word a lot, and have even listened to a few, though I think they've all been for this program. The speakers on my computer don't work any more (have I mentioned how much of a dinosaur my computer is?) so I can't listen to any at home. I have occasionally found ones I would like to listen to, but it's usually been associated with a hobby or TV show. I think finding podcasts through sites I routinely visit or topics I look up is more desirable than looking for podcasts for the sake of looking for podcasts, but I did a little searching on some podcast directory tools for thing #21.

I started with Yahoo Podcasts and found one about Prison Break (some of the ones I've seen at home and wanted to listen to involve the show) but after about 20 seconds of broadcast I realized it was just a recap of an episode. Then I looked for something library/book related, as suggested, and had no luck with various combinations of "teen" "ya" "books" and "literature." I did find a Harry Potter podcast that looked promising, but it wouldn't play. Then I tried podcastalley. I didn't like what I found, and it tried to have me download something I didn't understand, so I went on to Podcast.net, which I liked the best of the 3. You could choose to search by keyword or podcast name or other search criteria, and you actually got a 1-line description of different podcasts.

From the little snitches I listened to, it seems to me that the trick is to find one that you like or want to listen to, and then subscribe through RSS. The ones I heard bits of just weren't that interesting, but if I found one through hobbies as I was searching for other stuff, I may be able to find a podcast I would want to subscribe to. Of course, I'd have to have working speakers on my computer first.

1 Comments:

At 7:18 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Library Lil. I'm a middle school librarian in Knoxville, TN. Have you been to the Education Podcast Network, http://epnweb.org/ ? It's a directory of educaitonal podcasts gathered by David Warlick. I also am working on a podcast about YA Lit called The Vine Reader, http://vinereader.edublogs.org.

 

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