invasion of the podcasts

Podcasts are something really new to me, since I didn't believe it would interest me, or that I had time to listen. Then I realised how much I love NPR, plus often I am drawing at home or doing crafts and get tired of the same old music in the background.

First, I looked around the Yahoo search and found a site called soundroots.org, which showcases a lot of music from around the world. It looks very interesting.

I also did a search on podcast.net and found a Japanese culture podcast which talks about learning the language, proverbs, people's experiences in the cities and so on. I love learning about Asia, and can read some Japanese, so I thought this might be good to further my study of the language. I added another Japanese language learning course just to compare them when I get home.

I think something like this would be great for libraries, but you'd have to make sure you had someone with a nice voice, and add a little bit of humor to keep it interesting. You could plan a course on a subject and end it with a big event at the library.

You could do, say, a 4 week program about one of the eras from American Girl, have readings from the books, talk about the time period and what children did for fun, perhaps even have music from that time period. Remind the patrons listening that they can come in and find not only American Girl books but books on that era too, and have a display in the library with the books and info on the podcast so patrons on this side can join the listeners. Then, at the end of the course, have an in library party with crafts from that time period, maybe some snacks and a prize given out to those who could answer a short quiz based on the podcast. This way you are reaching out to bring the patrons who come in and the ones who use the internet together in a fun activity.