Podcasts

I chose to search on epnweb.com under the subject: Information Skills. That led me to OPAL- Online programming for All Libraries. Here you will find many interesting and informative podcasts.

http://www.opal-online.org/Filbert20100126/Filbert20100126.mp3

This was a very interesting podcast called, “Filbert, monthly informal round table discussion on the future of libraries, books and reading” (January 26, 2010).

There were several discussion points. First he talked about the Apple announcement of the i-pad (which was coming the very next day, Jan 27, 2010)and how that might change the newspaper industry. There was some speculation that Apple might try to re-shape the newspaper industry similar to how they re-shaped the music industry with digital downloads. How much emphasis will be put on book length reading using the i-pad?

Next he talked about the e-book sales during Christmas. Evidently, on Christmas day, kindle books out sold printed books on Amazon. (Of course they were offering free downloads that day.) Kindle was definitely a hot item this Christmas, but e-book sales have a long way to go to catch up to printed books. Audio book sales are going better than e-book sales.

The annual CES (Consumer Electronic Show) trade show was held in Las Vegas in January. The device market just keeps getting bigger. There were lots of reading devices shown and some patterns are emerging. Most devices have some kind of embedded web browser and many have two screen capability. E-reading devices have embedded dictionaries, highlighting text, improved screen design and longer battery life, to name a few of the improvements. Device development is growing and it’s exciting to see.

Filbert’s last discussion point was about the recently published Kaizer Family Report. In that report, it was noted that tweens and teens use media on average of 7.5 hours per day. (This report used about 3,000 young people in their sample.) The report also said the “better” students use media less often. Interestingly, it also stated that race and ethnicity made a difference. Black and Hispanic use media 3 more hours per day than the 7.5 hour average. Libraries need to get and use more portable devices especially as we try to serve “mobile” users. Being a friend means something different now than in past years. Tweens and teens consider 50% of their friends-people they have never met. The information need of so many is now “on-the-go-need to know”! Library services need to be “mobile optimized” As devices get more powerful, multi-functional and more users use them, we can see uses for more mobile based library services.