Podcasts & audio

The beauty of podcasts is that anyone who has access to a computer, mp3 or mobile phone can make use of them. Podcasts would be of particular value to our library service in the area of local history. We have a large collection of local history collections available. A podcast presentation about these collections would be of assistance to locals and visitors alike, who are searching for information and where to go to get it.

Browsing through the podcasts, the Meditation Podcasts available on meditation.org.au caught my eye. This is presented by the Meditation Assn of Australia and has a huge selection of free podcasts ranging in duration from 6 minutes to 30 minutes. There are even podcasts for children. We can choose to either download the file, usually mp3 or there is a 'listen now' option.

Mashups

Mashups appear to be useful when specific information needs to be combined eg. addresses, maps, photographs etc. Mashups can be created in Flickr, YouTube, eBay and many more. I went to Mashupwards.com - filtered by category, I chose 'Art" and checked out 'Gimme Shiny' which is a JavaScript slideshow of today's popular images from sources such as Flickr, deviantART and FFFFound. While I'm not sure I would make use of these images right now, I can see how useful and time saving having a mashup site like this would be when you can search by category and see what's available.

Gogole Docs

Google Docs is a very impressive online application which improves collaboration with others to allow access to a central point. This would be a wonderful tool which will save time and energy however I still believe there needs to be human contact and one-to-one contact between participants. This seems to create a personal bond and understanding. However, in the case of meeting agenda for example, Google Docs and Zoho both provide a simple, quick forum 'prior' to the actual meeting. In the case where distance is a factor, this tool would be invaluable.