Open Collections

Barsky, Eugene; Greenwood, Aleteia; Lindstrom, Kevin

INTRODUCTION While the concept is widely defined and interpreted, all Web 2.0 tools have certain characteristics in common; they are collaborative in nature, interactive, and dynamic. The Science and Engineering librarians at the University of British Columbia are collaborating with their liaison departments to record science and engineering podcasts, host them and share them with a wider audience. OBJECTIVES In this session, we discuss the use of podcasting as an outreach tool that connects a large academic science and engineering library with its users and raises users’ awareness of additional library services. Functionality, usability and practical applications of podcasting tools are reviewed. OUTCOMES At the end of this session, we will have demonstrated: 1) Overall usability of podcasting academic science and engineering content; tips and tricks when creating and tailoring podcasts to your community needs; 2) Use of podcasting as an outreach and community engagement tool in academic libraries and as a supplement for the traditional academic information resources. DISCUSSION The strength of podcasting, to allow content to be created by the users for the users, makes it an appealing addition to the academic librarians’ toolbox. Podcasting is a service that many of our users might not expect from their library, which makes it a unique and attractive offering. It requires few resources, and the end result might exceed librarians’ expectations. We found podcasting to be a robust outreach tool and a service that raises the profile of the library and as such creates an opportunity for users to find additional library resources. Nevertheless, it is necessary for academic librarians to critically evaluate the continuous innovations of Web 2.0 technologies on an ongoing basis so that they are best prepared to put them into the appropriate context amongst other relevant and important information. Presented at the m-Libraries Conference, held at the University of British Columbia, 22 - 24 June 2009.

Co-hosting organizations: Athabasca University; The Open University; Thompson Rivers University; University of British Columbia; Electronic information resource searching -- Congresses; Mobile communication systems in education – Congresses; Podcasting; Science and Engineering Library; Web 2.0 tools; Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

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eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0077817

Library, UBC

Faculty

DSpace