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.