PODS now available

I successfully added "Uncontrolled vocabulary" to the RSS feeds on this blog. It was interesting to retrace the steps from Semester I week 3 and to be once again confused by the relationship between bloglines and blogger (and google reader for that matter). [So many similar, fuzzy concepts; so little time. For early onset baby boomers it's like keeping the Gabor sisters straight.] Yet, "uncontrolled vocabulary" is right there on the RSS side of this blogger.com blog; and it works. Though the sound was poor on on podcast; I need earphones I think. The topics, of course, are germain to the field. The number of PODcasts overwhelming.

PODcasts are ubiquitous; our libary used MP3 files to make a 4 session lecture series available to the public--wonderful idea. As with YouTube personas, for PODcasting, the sky's the limit (TSTL--to propose a text message epithet.) A carnival barker PODcast avatar comes to mind--"Step right up library folks now starring at your library!" A radio script modelled on old time radio might be clever. An assistant to library webczar would be useful to pull together the marketing strategies for PODcasting and YOUtubing, etc., etc., etc..

Space, my

The use of MySpace by WI libraries is interesting. AT LaCrosse, I found the black on green background rather difficult to read; and at first I was slightly bewildered by the boxes of formatting. The style reminded me of paste ups for newspapers or yearbooks. After viewing other library sites it became obvious that this is due to the MySpace format; similar to the layouts of blogger.
For Oshkosh, I enjoyed the photo of the Lion in Winter/holiday wreath and the listings of authors as Friends. In fact, in general, authors and books as friends is a great conceit.
Winnie Fox wins my heart, however, for the posting of Winnie Fox as mascot and as the avatar for the MySpace is quite enjoyable. Go mascot/avatar.
In sum, I enjoyed all of the sites. I wonder how regular customers of MySpace use such sites. I would guess that stumbling across a library rather than a person is at first a bit confusing; but then, one would know where to go to find events, hours, etc at the library. Not much different from going to a library web page or contacting a friend for info. Also, many libraries have friends groups, and MySpace is perfect for friends. For niches in library service singular avatars could be created. A library could create myriad MySpace personas for children, or perhaps for top new arrivals. Unless one can prove that users of MySpace are annoyed by such a presence, it's almost a necessity for libraries to create a MySpace site (or sites).