The Krafty Librarian (have I mentioned that I really dislike talking about people with cutesy little handles? This is real life, use a real name) is tearing her(?) hair out because no one is attempting to index the mass wave of podcasts on the net.
The Chronicle of Higher Education article Lectures on the Go states, "For years, students at Purdue who missed an important class headed off to the campus library, where up to date cassette recordings of more than 90 courses sat waiting to be checked out. But this fall, Purdue's podcasting project, called BoilerCast, is letting students skip the library." Ok am I the only one that read this line and heard the sound of nails down the blackboard?! Don't get me wrong I am not one of those librarians who thinks students need to be physically in the library to be using its resources, but are libraries losing out by not organizing or creating podcast repositories?!
It's even worse than "losing out" in my opinion. I only go to the library to use the free wifi or to get a coffee from the cafe inside. I can't remember the last time I looked at a book in the library.
The Internet has replaced the library as an information repository. I can find absolutely anything I want on the Internet in a fraction of the time it would take me to get to my local library. The information on the Internet is more up to date and easier to access than a building downtown somewhere.
Podcasts are just the next form of media that wasn't designed for, and therefore not suitable for, a brick and mortar library. In short, the reason why podcasts aren't being catalogued in libraries is because the people that use libraries have no idea what a podcast is. And vice versa.
My thoughts.
