Podcast Tools
Podcast Tools
Podcasts can be a very powerful tool to help educate, instruct, or promote in a library. This modern tool can help educate patrons on a specific topic, or instruct patrons on how to do a specific task that maybe patrons are having trouble with. It can also help promote titles, activities and/or events for the library as well.
Currently there are a variety of podcast platforms available to use. When creating podcasts, you need to consider how often you will be planning to post podcasts, how large of an audience you will be expecting. All of this can directly impact the traffic to reach your website. Additionally, more to consider when searching for a podcast platform are: storage space, bandwidth, user friendly, analytics, and price.
Soundcloud is a free basic, simple podcast platform that allows up to file sizes of 4GB. Some disadvantages of using this platform will be limited features and being unable to reach large audiences on the free plan.
Buzzsprout is another free, basic, user-friendly all in one podcasting platform that not only allows you to create a podcast but also host it for you. This free platform allows up to two hours of content per month for free and you also get access to your analytics as well. It is a perfect place to start for a beginner at podcasting.
Lastly, is Spotify Podcasters, formerly known as Anchor. This platform was completely free and considered as an all in one platform providing all the tools needed to create, edit, and host the podcasts.
Although there are various podcast platforms to choose from, it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish and on your budget. For library purposes, I would recommend Spotify Podcasters. It proves to be user friendly, and having all the tools in one location is a winner for me. Check out the podcast below that my group and I created on the topic of book banning.
Group: Kimberly House, Jessica Thompson, and Barbara Lopez
References
Garcia, J. (2019, March 25). Best Podcast Hosting: 13 Free and Paid Platforms Tested and Compared. Tooltester. https://www.tooltester.com/en/blog/podcast-hosting/#Best_Overall_Podcast_Hosting_Platform
Hi Barb, I agree with your statement that prior to choosing a platform considerations must be made regarding audience, scheduling, storage space, etc. I absolutely love the topic you and your group chose. Book banning has always been a subject that interests me. I appreciate that your group partner mentioned the importance of having policies in place to be ready for challenges. Your partner playing the part of a librarian made a great point when she talked about the value of literature and the dangers of censorship.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts on podcasts! It was great to work with you to record our episode :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed listening to yalls thoughts about book banning.
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