Friday, April 4, 2008

Podcasting and me--no fun!

I knew this was going to be a troublesome task. I didn't know it would take me so long to get to the end of the tunnel. (I am not sure there ever was any light when I got to the end. This is an audio adventure.)

I started this adventure by reading about podcasting and listening to a few. I went on to download Audacity to my personal laptop. It is fairly easy to use. I plugged in the microphone and created some test files to see what could be done. I learned how to delete some strange background noise from my recording and also how to delete dead space within the recording. (I didn't do a lot of this, as I was pressed for time. So don't expect a polished podcast. But this was interesting and given the time, I think I could have improved the quality of the podcast--given A LOT OF TIME.)

I wrote a script based on an early experience in library school and how it affected my career as a librarian. The podcast is meant to be funny. I am a great admirer of both Dr. Allan Pratt and his mentor Jesse Shera. It was fun to see where our paths crossed, and the influence both men have had on my career. I wonder what Dr. Pratt would think of the way my career developed.

After recording and some minimal editing, I was ready to publish my podcast. That is where things got very sticky. I went to PodBean, but couldn't figure out how to upload my podcast without incurring the monthly fee of $1.99. Having some Scottish blood, I couldn't see doing that for one experimental podcast. So I moved on to the ourmedia site. They had a way to upload small podcasts via the web, but my podcast must have been too big, since I couldn't get it to work. To use the ourmedia site, you have to be a member of the Internet Archive site. Then to upload to Internet Archive, I had to add SpinXpress software to my PC. I think I set up 4 new accounts to get this podcast on the net! In the end, I think I could have skipped the ourmedia site, and just used Internet Archive with the SpinXpress software. Internet Express even created the code I needed to post this podcast to my blog!

So here it is: MSUGR - a Librarian's Motto









Internet Archive provided code to post the podcast on a website. I tried using the first block of code provided, but that didn't work. The second block, Embed an Archive item with MP3 (64kbps -- lower bitrate) music files on your site! worked for me. It puts a player in the blog with a direct link to the podcast. This is pretty cool and was the easiest part of the process. Who knew?

I am soooooooooooo glad I can say this task is completed!!!

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