Thing 19 Podcasts

Podcasting live to you from Versailles. . . I wish. The day at Versailles was the coldest and worst weather day of the trip. All the same, there were folks crewing in the long pond beyond this fountain in the garden of Versailles. Snow and sleet greeted us as we walked the grounds (after staying a long time inside that magnificent space and making our way, slowly, through all the rooms). It was also the day of the heaviest crowds, with folks from all around the world. At the time, I wanted to know what was happening with the Gopher football team and, conveniently, we bumped into a couple of Yanks who had spent the previous evening in sports bar in Paris watching another Big Ten game (I think it was Michigan vs Ohio State). Tantalizingly, they told us that the Gophers were ahead (or close) during the first half, but they didn't remember the final score. Later on, I think when I arrived home, I found out they had lost (to Wisconsin, 41-34). What does this have to do with podcasting you say. . .

I'm not sure, but I've enjoyed podcasts for quite some time. I've got a number of subscriptions going. The biggest frustration is finding the time to listen to them all. If I had an iPod I could listen to them on the bus when I'm coming and going from work. Maybe that's what I'll spend part of my tax rebate on. Or maybe I can figure out if I can download some podcasts on my cell phone. I've already got music on that (which I do listen to on the bus), so it shouldn't be a big deal (or maybe so, since its mp3 and Verizon works with wma files). Just something else to explore.

I started out using iPodder (now Juice) for podcasts and then switched over to iTunes since I had so much of the rest of my stuff there, both at work and at home. Much of the stuff I've subscribed to comes from NPR or the New York Times, but I have some other subscriptions to things like a podcast produced for the Baker Street Irregulars. All of this helps me connected in other ways.

On the flip side, its nice to be able to point some of our patrons to both online video and audio for things that have happened to us in the news. Recent examples for me include a podcast of an interview I did on the Don Shelby radio show (an audio file) and two video clips from the Minnesota Daily and WCCO TV's "Finding Minnesota" segment on the news.