Thoughts on Starting a Library Podcast
For those of you who may do podcasts for your library, how do you find the experience? Is it a pain to come up with content on a regular basis? We have debated starting a library podcast but worry about how sustainable it would be long term. Any tips/tricks/thoughts, etc? Joseph Turbok- Senior Librarian for Adult Services St. Clair County Library - Main Library 210 McMorran Blvd. Port Huron, Michigan 48060
Hi Joseph, I feel particularly poised to answer this email, seeing as I am an originating, longstanding member of the Adrian District Library's *Semi-Bookish* podcast. Not to mention that I sat on a panel at Spring Institute last year on this very subject. We are in our third year, our podcast started with five (5) members and is now down to three (3) due to staff changes, and we're still running strong. What I recommend is that you determine from the outset what your format will be. How many hosts, how many guest appearances (if any), and overall theme. For example: our podcast started with five (5), so guest appearances weren't a necessity even though they were always very fun, and our name came from our overall theme. To us, Semi-Bookish means we can chat about a whole range of story-related/entertainment subjects, largely but not always focused around books. So we discuss video games, movies, graphic novels, classics, book banning, genres, etc. We've done book discussions (kind of like a mini-book club in a 50-minute episode), we've featured our mayor, an author, and one of the owners of our local comic book shop. The only real trouble we've had is scheduling. You can imagine how difficult it can be for a Class 4 library to manage an hour's worth of recording time for 5 staff members! Quite the challenge, at times. But we've pretty much stuck to our bi-weekly recording schedule for three (3) years. If there's anything else you'd like to know about podcast recording, feel free to reach out to me through email. Hope this helps! And good luck! A library podcast can be great fun, as I've discovered. *Toni Lea Isom (they/them/theirs)* Youth Services Librarian Assistant Adrian District Library 143 East Maumee Street Adrian MI 49221 tisom@adrian.lib.mi.us On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 4:28 PM Turbok, Joseph via Michlib-l < michlib-l@mcls.org> wrote:
For those of you who may do podcasts for your library, how do you find the experience? Is it a pain to come up with content on a regular basis? We have debated starting a library podcast but worry about how sustainable it would be long term. Any tips/tricks/thoughts, etc?
Joseph Turbok- Senior Librarian for Adult Services
St. Clair County Library - Main Library 210 McMorran Blvd. Port Huron, Michigan 48060
_______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org https://mail3.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
We've been producing a podcast out of Ferndale for four years. It's....not a pain to come up with content, per se. But it *is *a time commitment. Not even necessarily a huge time commitment. Honestly, I've always thought of and seen library podcasting as a unique form of social media, and/or marketing, so you basically just need to sort of turn on that part of your brain that activates during brainstorming sessions for social media content. Hmm, if that makes any sense? It's 5pm after a long day 😅 But we think it's definitely worth it. If you keep at it, you could attract the attention of publicists at major publishing companies who will then pitch you author interviews Let me know if you have any questions! On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 4:28 PM Turbok, Joseph via Michlib-l < michlib-l@mcls.org> wrote:
For those of you who may do podcasts for your library, how do you find the experience? Is it a pain to come up with content on a regular basis? We have debated starting a library podcast but worry about how sustainable it would be long term. Any tips/tricks/thoughts, etc?
Joseph Turbok- Senior Librarian for Adult Services
St. Clair County Library - Main Library 210 McMorran Blvd. Port Huron, Michigan 48060
_______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org https://mail3.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
-- jeff@fadl.org Jeff Milo Marketing Coordinator Ferndale Area District Library
participants (3)
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Jeff Milo -
Toni Lea Isom -
Turbok, Joseph