Podcasts - Thing 7

So I ambled towards Thing 7 instead of hurtling towards it as I had promised myself. Thing 7 was all about podcasts.  It was useful that Rudai23 included the information re how to produce, edit and host your own podcast but I'm not brave enough to do that so I opted for the second (and potentially easier) option.

• Listen to some of the podcasts in this article.

So I did listen to the all of the podcasts mentioned in the Thing 7 post. Ok, so I didn't listen to them all in their entirety but at least I listened to the start to see if it was something that interested me. Actually listening to the podcast was very straightforward. I'm not sure how I would do this on a phone or I-pod; perhaps use the SoundHound channel but it was good to be able to listen to the podcast on the PC while getting on with other things.

I listened to Circulating Ideas which was one that Rudai23 recommended and that I had seen on other sites. I have to say that I wasn't taken with it. It lasted nearly an hour and although it is related to librarians, professional issues etc; it primarily deals with libraries and projects in America. I know that ideas, projects and skills can apply anywhere and can be transferred based on how others found the experience, but all in all, I'm not that interested to hear what's going on in libraries in America (potentially short-sighted of me, but sorry!).

I also listened to Longform but again I wasn't taken with this one.

However, Serial had me gripped.  I had seen some tweets coming through about it so was interested to hear what it was all about, and I wasn't disappointed. Shame it didn't seem to be anything related to libraries unless there is some sort of plot twist halfway through. This is definitely one that I'll be coming back to.

I also listened to T is for training but thought the sound quality wasn't that great. Having to strain to hear what was being discussed put me off from continuing with the podcast. Isn't it funny how first impressions can make or break something like this?

I also stumbled on the Happier podcast by Gretchen Rubin on Bookriot (tweeted by Rudai23). I had read The Happiness Project by Gretchen and thought it to be quite inspiring (and I don't say that often). I was interested to hear what she had to say on her podcast. She didn't sound anything like I thought she would! It is one that I will probably come back to and explore a bit further - the only negative thing was having to listen to information about her sponsors - slightly irritating.

I'm not sure how I go about searching for other podcasts - I tried a simple search on the internet but the results coming back weren't that inspiring. I'm not actually sure that podcasts are that relevant to the my daily work. It would be hard to set aside an hour in my day to solely listen to the recording so it would have to be on in the background while I got on with other tasks - I wouldn't be giving it my full attention then so could easily miss something. We don't currently use it in the library I work in, but I wonder how it would work for library tours?  Something kind of along the lines of the recorded tour you get at national attractions like Stonehenge. Different tracks could be recorded to be played at different points in the library, and given that the university I work in has a fair number of international students, it could be recorded in different languages. Is this a podcast or just a series of recordings?

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