Podcast has official made it into the cultural zeitgeist within the last decade and it has been fascinating to watch it change from small vantiy productions after the iPod release to geeky niche content to world shattering event podcasts like Serial and old world organizations like the times having their own podcast in the Daily. (I can remember when Podcasts were not part of iTunes and they were managed thru 3rd party directories. Now of course Apple maintains the definitive directory though anyone can host a podcast and there are 3rd-party podcast players and even services to help people make their own podcasts)

Library-land has gotten into the act with the Public Library Association,The New York Public Library, and also American Libraries magazine among others have all produced their own podcast series about libraries or parts of librarianship.

As my role involves a lot of churning out spreadsheets in a cubicle I have the opportunity to listen to a fair share of podcasts and have listened to some with interesting topics for librarians.

  • 1) Beyond the Stacks Podcast: Originally produced by a grad student at Simmons University (my alma mater) this podcast is now over though the archive has some great information on alternative librarian careers and how you can leverage your MLIS in different ways.
  • 2) I Never Metadata: This is a great podcast if you’re interested in subject analysis and metadata creation.
  • 3)Lost in the Stacks: A Librarian podcast from the librarians at Georgia Tech where they discuss music and library talk on Fridays.

In addition to librarian professional development there is a question about how podcasts are being integrated into the library. In the same vein as readers advisory, the library could produce a libguides to podcast topics or create other resources for podcast discovery. Granted, the library would be more of a directory for linking back to the content rather than hosting the information themselves though as libraries become more entrenched with ethereal content (ebooks) then it could be a good service to offer.