An Authors Perspective

I was able to view a few podcasts of interviews with some of the authors I like to read. These interviews were both enjoyable and informative. I liked that they included information on the authors themselves and a glimpse into their writing motivations.

I think our library clientele will enjoy many of these interviews too.

I was impressed by Reading Rockets for younger readers and thought it was a useful resource. I note that young readers are able to search for information on both authors and illustrators and I imagine that younger readers would find this particuarly useful.

Exercise 19

For this exercise we looked at Podcast -- something that I have touched on briefly in exercise 17. This time though I used the podcast directory tool Podcastalley.com and explored on my own looking for book reviews. It was a this point that I had difficulty figuring out what was supposed to be the easy step of pulling the RSS feed into my Bloglines account. Lucky for me today I had the opportunity to ask a member of the Admin team for help and after a frustrating time trying to access Bloglines the mystery was solved. It seems that some podcasts are just not user friendly and you end up going around and around not going anywhere.

I did pull the RSS feed into my Bloglines account for Booklog Book Review Podcasts, YA Bookcasts, and The Great Radio Show. I have reservations regarding the first 2 podcast as they do not have any new casts for 2008. The Great Radio Show podcast was different and had a July 2008 cast on 'The Darkest Evening of the Year' by Dean Koontz.

While I think this has the potential to be another useful tool, the book review sites will only be valuable for libraries and individuals if they have regular new casts and include new publications and not just material on older titles. Also it is wise to remember that these casts are just individuals opinions and often when others read the same title they may view it differently. This is true no matter the media.