Perceptions and usage of library instructional podcasts

At the recent LIANZA conference Angela Jowitt presented her research into Perceptions and usage of library instructional podcasts by staff and students at Universal College of Learning (UCOL). From the full report:

"As podcasting is such a new phenomenon, little is known about its usage and perceived benefits especially in New Zealand. In addition to gathering statistics on the demographics of who uses library instructional podcasts and the technologies used, this research also offers an opportunity to fill a gap in the knowledge on the usage and perceptions of podcasting and its potential as a medium for library instruction in the future."

The study included producing the following podcasts:

• Orientation of the Palmerston North library
• Orientation of the Wanganui library
• Welcome from the Associate Library Manager
• How to raise a request online
• Accessing the library catalogue
• Searching the library catalogue
• The My Account section of the library catalogue

Listeners don't always use an MP3 player

Several points interested me. The first was the proportion of respondents who listened to podcasts using a media player on their computer, not on an MP3 player. This perhaps makes sense given that the time when instruction would be most helpful might be when users are actually using library services.


Podcasts in te reo Māori and Chinese?

The report also notes that further research is required to "determine the perceptions of the podcasts by Māori/Pacific Island people and whether native language podcasts would be seen as a benefit". Even though the number of responses from the Māori/Pacific Island ethnicity was low (9%), 17.5% of respondents thought that podcasts should be available in Māori. Likewise 17.6% of respondents thought podcasts should be in Chinese, even though only 11% identified themselves as being of Asian background.

Common problems

Lastly I found the identification of common problems with podcasts quite helpful, and definitely of interest to others who are considering developing them.


Few NZ library podcasts

A quick Internet search suggests that there are few libraries using podcasts in New Zealand right now. It would be great to hear of any other NZ libraries who have developed, or are developing podcasts. The following podcasts were easily found:

Unitech Library, Auckland

UCOL Library, Palmerston North

University of Otago Library, Dunedin