Podcasts

Topic: "Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories...Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account."


I examined the cited podcast directories. I found fewer podcasts on topics both specialized (philately) and on popular topics (Britney Spears) than I expected, but did find a podcast of interest on Chicago theater.

I found and listened to part of some podcasts on libraries: the Sirsi Dynix series. I saw that some libraries (e.g., in Michigan), made podcasts.

The age of most hits in my several podcast hits surprised and disappointed me. Virtually none of the links I examined contained podcasts within the past month or that formed part of a series with episodes at least once a month. While access to such archives has its merits, one must watch out if looking for news or ongoing feeds. I would find the podcast search engines more helpful if they had a feature to sort by age, number of episodes, or both. (If they do, I did not find it.)

I had difficulty subscribing to podcasts in bloglines. I gave up using the podcast search engines and instead surfed to a site of a content provider I know provides podcasts, NPR. I found a show that podcasts five times weekly, Fresh Air, but could not figure out how to subscribe from the NPR site since its options were links to software I don't use (e.g. itunes) or the URL to past in my podcast software (I don't think my computer has podcast software; I could be wrong).

Success came when I logged into bloglines, used its search engine to find NPR's Fresh Air, and found a link in Bloglines to subscribe. I verified my success by listening to part of a podcast.

I can see that CML might want to podcast, e.g. to promote library events, changes in policies, and other public alerts.