What was the title of a session you attended?
Podcasting Our Way to Better Leadership, by Mary Wilkins Jordan, of the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE).
What two things are you taking away that you heard or do you think are most important?
Mary emphasized that leadership is for everyone. In leadership, we set goals. The same is true for podcasting. If we decide to run a podcasting series, we have to set goals. We have to practice. We need to know if people are learning what they need.
To have a good podcast, we should tailor the content to our audience, share experiences and information, and the format should be easily accessible. Every podcast needs: time to prepare, a mission statement, quality content, quality sound, the ideal length, and the right equipment. Her library system produces 15 podcasts “per season.” They bring in guests and do interviews to mix up the content.
The four pieces to preparing a podcast are: “chunking” the content, writing a script, recording it, and editing. Microphones can cost around $40, and mixers can cost around $300.
Were there any key websites the presenter shared or things people should check out?
She shared the names of their podcasts, Linking Our Libraries, and Reading with Libraries, and encouraged us to take a listen to some of them.
She also said that applying to get an aggregator to pick up your podcast, such as Sticher, can help “get it out there.”
What was the audience reaction to this session? What kinds of feedback was given?
The audience members enjoyed the presentation and clearly had an interest in podcasting for professional or personal reasons. I wish the presenter had given more information on the specific equipment her organization uses, as well as the specific costs. I’m not really sure how the leadership part tied in with this presentation, as the focus was more on podcasting. I do want to listen to some of the podcasts they have done and determine if these would be worthwhile for WVLS to pursue in the future.
-Submitted by Jamie Matczak