Week 9 - Podcasts

I had a look at the Podcastalley.com and did a search for book reviews. I chose the podcast called Books on the Nightstand and added their RSS feeds to my bloglines account (go to the folder called #21 - Podcasts, and the RSS feeds for Books on the Nightstand will be found there) .Each podcast for Books on the Nightstand would start off with a thought provoking question e.g. is there a difference between murder and suspense novels?, do you judge a book by it's cover?, or what do you look for in a book?. This type of discussion really hooks you into their podcast and makes you want to listen to what they have to say about the books they are reviewing. I must say I loved the content of their discussion on the plot, characters and underlying themes of the books - boy after their discussion on the book "The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson" I really wanted to read this book (access their podcast,10: Books with Buzz and you will see what I mean). This is definitely a tool that Manukau Libraries should include in it's Readers Advisory Service. By providing RSS feeds to podcasts like Books on the Nightstand customers are able to access book reviews 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer, ipod and cellphone as long as there is an internet connection, I like to think of this as "Book Reviews on the Run".

Locating a few useful library related blogs and/or news feeds

My thoughts on using the search tools Topix.net, Syndic8.com and Technorati to find RSS feeds of interest.

Topix.net was totally confusing and the only thing I found useful on it was the Kids and Teens Directory, where approriate web sites for kids and teens could be found. I was amazed to find that Lakewood Library in the US had put step by step instructions on how to do book reports and book reviews on it's site, maybe Manukau Libraries can look at doing something similar as homework help for kids/teens on their website. Another site worth looking at under this directory was the Hersey's Kitchen, for all those chocolate lovers out there the recipes are mouth watering and the accompanying pictures are great however I digress.

Syndic8.com took a long time to load which was fairly frustrating, however once the site was loaded it didn't look very inviting/attractive and getting it to do a search was pain staking to say the least another long wait. With bated breath the result screen came up and you guessed it I didn't like this either. I would definitely be giving Syndic8.com the big thumbs down.

Technorati was very easy to use and I was able to find blogs about subjects I was interested in quite quickly either by doing a search, or clicking onto the related tags. The loading time was fast which impressed me the most, no waiting around so for me Technorati gets my vote.