Podcasting – iHCPL Week 9 #21

I’ll be honest here. Podcasting just isn’t my cup of tea. And I’m not quite sure why.

In the past, I tried out just about every library-related podcast that I heard about in various listservs and blogs, only to stop listening just a few minutes into the recording. I know of fellow librarians who have created podcasts and the technophile in me wants to be like them, but how can I create something that just doesn’t grab me? Is there a way I could improve and make it better?

I’ve pondered this issue quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that I’m just not much of an auditory learner. Here’s something I’m a bit embarrassed to admit: I don’t even listen to NPR because it bores me. Shh! Don’t tell anyone else! And if you happen to listen, I hope I’m not offending you when I say it bores the socks off of me (but it does not bore the pants off me, because this is a PG-rated blog and we’ll have no pants coming off here!). I *can* manage to listen to the morning talk show on the local pop station, but that’s because I only have to listen to it for about 10-15 minutes and because they’re talking about light, mindless things that don’t require much concentration. And because I’m driving and I’ve got nothing else to listen to or think about, I can pay enough attention to the radio show to actually retain some of what was discussed. Once I get in my office, however, is another thing. I turn on the radio, start checking my email, and next thing I know I’ve totally shut out all things auditory and missed the celebrity gossip segment and (*sniff!*) don’t know what horrendously poor parenting or PR decision Britney Spears has made lately.

At this point, I’m going to try a bit of self-diagnosis: I might be a bit of a visual person and this auditory-only stuff just doesn’t work for me. So for us visual people, I’d like to suggest a revolutionary new technology: the vodcast (video podcast). It’s catchy. It’s hip. It’s portable. And it’s visual.

Oh wait – that’s already been done.