Podcasts: Great for Libraries and for...Family Historians?

This week for KFPL's Web 2.0 Training, we were focusing on Podcasts - what they are and how they can be of use to libraries and library staff. First of all, a Podcast is a series of media files, usually audio, which are used to share news reports, reviews etc to the general public. You can listen to them directly from your web browser or download them to your personal computer. Thanks to our wonderful Training team, I was introduced to a podcast which I did not know about before - the Western Counties Regional Library (or WCRL) Teen book review podcast.

As many of my co-workers know already, I am an avid reader of Young Adult or Teen books, so I was quite pleased to hear about this particular podcast as I am always on the lookout for a new Teen book to read! I quickly tried the first book mentioned, the podcast of "City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare. I confess that I have already read this book (I actually own it), but I was interested in hearing another Adult's(!) point of view. While I did agree with most of what the woman (Librarian?) said, I'm not quite sure if I agree that "City of Bones" was better than "Twilight", although I do find that the character of Clary is not quite as irritating at times as Bella can be.

I think this particular podcast is a great example of how KFPL could use podcasts on their (our!) website. Right now we have the blog on our website but it would be nice to not only have Books of the Week but also Book Reviews of the week linked in somehow. Also, KFPL could have podcasts reviewing our new Game collection, as well as our DVD's, and maybe seasonal or thematic book reviews during the school year. We could have a podcast on the best Science Fair books in our collection as well as the newest Adult Mysteries that have arrived at the branches. We could also have DVD reviews of a movie that was based on a book that we have in our collection to encourage patrons to read the book as well as see the movie, which would tie in nicely with our monthly "Read the Book, See the Movie" film festival at the Calvin Park Branch Library.

While I did try out the lovely podcasts that the Training team suggested, I did venture out on my own and found a podcast which suits my tastes quite nicely. "The Genealogy Guys" have a podcast on their website - http://genealogyguys.com/. They just finished their 200th podcast, which sounds pretty amazing to me. As the title of the podcast (and website) suggests, the theme of these podcasts is Genealogy - simply put, genealogy means the study of your family history.

As my family members, friends, and those "lucky" co-workers who have been so fortunate as to mention the words "Genealogy", "Ancestry", "Great-Grandpa" etc in my presence can attest too, I am VERY interested in Genealogy, not just my own but other peoples as well. In fact, I spend quite a bit of time on this hobby of mine and I like to think that I am an "expert" on using Ancestry.com - although I believe that I am alone in this thought.

Basically, the Genealogy Guys every few weeks or so, create a podcast which updates the Genealogy world at large on anything big or exciting (to us anyways) that has happened in our field. The 200th podcast discussed (among other things) the new tv series "Who Do You Think You Are?" which airs on Friday nights. The show follows 7/8 Television or Movie Stars as they trace their family histories (with the help of intrepid genealogists) as far back as they can. So far we've had ties to European Royalty, the Salem Witch Trials, and Gettysburg. I too watch this great tv show every Friday night since it first aired. I was very excited to learn, via the podcast, that it has been renewed for another season! YEA!

So in conclusion, I think that podcasts would be of great use to library users who visit our KFPL website. I also have found that podcasts can be of great use as well to library staff who have an interest in Genealogy:)