One of the resources I'm examining in my study of Library 2.0 and the academic library setting is the format of podcasts. This format of information representation is one of the brighter lights in the sphere of Web 2.0 innovations that are impacting libraries today. (graphic from http://uk.gizmodo.com/ipod%20poster%20girl.jpg)
For those not familiar with the technology, it can be boiled down to this: audio files out there on the Internet (usually in MP3 format) that are available to download (meaning, "save to your computer or transfer to an MP3 player") or listen to in a streaming format (playing it instantaneously through your computer).
I was surprised by quantity and quality of podcast resources on this topic. I am coming late to this global discussion of Library 2.0, and there is a lot of information out there! For this post I used the Yahoo! Podcasts search engine (http://podcasts.yahoo.com/) with the terms "Library 2.0" and "academic." The combination yielded great links to pertinent material.
At least three pages of the American Library Association's web site (http://www.ala.org/) provide podcasts focusing on different interest areas. The ACRL division (Association of College and Research Libraries, the academic libraries organization) maintains a page of podcasts intended to "provide fresh dimensions on the issues and events in academic librarianship." The most recent offering there, from January 22, 2008, is entitled "Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries," and that title mirrors their newly published ACRL book of the same name. Bingo! A perfect tie-in for my study.
In short, my rationale for including this podcast on my blog is its strategic relevance to my blog topic and the currency of its information.
In the podcast College & Research Libraries News Editor-In-Chief David Free discusses Library 2.0 with Dawn Lawson of New York University and Susan Sharpless Smith of Wake Forest University. In the interview, Lawson shares her experience using FaceBook (a social networking web site) to extend her library's outreach to its patrons, and Smith shares how she and her colleagues used L2 technology to make campus Information Literacy courses more relevant and interesting to the students.
The podcast is worth listening to (click on the hyperlinked podcast title above, or go to http://blogs.ala.org/acrlpodcast.php) as it shares the specific experiences of the two librarians as well as additional resources for those interested in L2 and the academic environment.
You may be interested to know that the ALA will maintain a wiki related to the Library 2.0 Initiatives book, http://www.acrl.ala.org/L2Initiatives/index.php?title=Main_Page, which will present updates on the case studies described in the book. A gift that keeps on giving!
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