Podcasts

From the British Library I listened to a talk by Karen Armstrong. Truthfully I chose it because it was only 31 minutes long (I am at work you know, and sure, I am multi-tasking, but still, I do only have 1 hour a week to do this:))but the talk was related to the exhibition "Sacred" held at the British Library last year. I was happy to listen to this as I actually went to that exhibition while I was in London last year. And by the by, the website was lying - the podcast is much longer than 31 minutes.
And from the plethora of gold at the ABC how could I resist listening to Roy and HG and a podcast of "This Sporting Life".
Some of the podcasts I listened to from Denver Public Library were from storytimes. The reader of the stories had a lovely expressive voice, but I feel that podcasting storytimes is really a waste of time. The joy of storytime is children gathering together to be READ TO, the interaction between the reader and the children. And the books themselves! The kids get to look at the pictures. What is the point of being read a picture book without getting to look at the pictures? And another aspect of storytime is the parents and carers getting together in a social setting. Not going to happen at a download.
Author talks would be a better use of podcasting, as the content is not as reliant on the visual aspect. Thanks to chillipepper for pointing out that podcasts would be useful in training for rural workers (library or otherwise). Libraries with branches could also use podcasts so that all staff get the same information (also useful for those staff who are manning the desk during a meeting.) I'm not sure that my library is large enough to warrant a library tour download, but it would be useful in larger libraries such as academic libraries. I also liked the podcasts a university library had describing some services that their clients may not have realised were available (such as ILLS and different types of resources). Clients in my library may prefer podcasts to a printed brochure.

Answers and questions

Thanks to Taste I now have several recipes for chicken risotto. Because obviously I am far too lazy to walk downstairs to the 640s - I have only been meaning to do that for months but have never gotten around to it. Well now I don't have to. (I'm not convinced that is entirely a good thing. If one is going to cook risotto, one should probably climb a few stairs.)
"Slamming the boards" is a good idea, seeing as answering questions is what we do, and we know how to find authoritative sources. (Well, I don't know how to get tickets to the American Idol final, but if I left the Entertainment & Music/Television section of Yahoo Answers I might find some questions I could answer. Then again, I COULD answer "What is the song from the last scene of "The Office?" by going to DVD 791.457/OFF, pulling the episode off the shelf and using the public DVD player to watch it.)
I guess like so many things we would need to have time to do it, or be willing to commit time to having staff go on to answer boards. Or have staff who are so committed to being library professionals that they do it in their own time.

yummy del.icio.us

"What are you up to?" a friend asked. "Delicious," I replied. "What's that?" "A website where you store all your websites." "I just add them to favourites." "Yeah, me too." I was dubious about the benefits of this week, but tragically had fun adding websites to my new del.icio.us account. And, as a person who doesn't actually own their own computer, grudgingly admit how useful it could be. (I'm in a grumpy mood this week, so everything will be dubious, tragic, and grudging.)
Useful in a library setting? Yes (she muttered through clenched teeth), adding useful reference sites as we staff come across them so we(and our lovely colleagues) don't have to start from scratch the next time we have a similar enquiry, adding all the sites we use constantly and tagging appropriately....I admit, it would work (mutter mutter). No more complaining when someone deletes all of the "Favourites" I think should be there. No problems with upgrades. Fine! (she throws down her pen in disgust). It is useful.
PS It is good to see bookmobiles are well represented. And my favourite book has a average rating of 4 stars on LibraryThing.