Podcasting

Libraries are podcasting! Whether supplying the equipment and/or space, running programs, or even creating their own, podcasts are a hit for libraries. Keep reading if you are looking to get started in either creating your own podcast for your library, or supplying space and equipment for your community.

Podcasting equipment can be as simple as a smartphone or tablet and a good app such as Anchor or one of these You could also go big with a recording booth and a Mac, quality microphone, headphones, and soundboard. To start off we suggest if it’s a one person podcast a simple lavalier mic will work, if you want to have multiple people on your show one of the Blue microphones are high quality like the Snowball or the Yeti, but feel to research microphones to see which would be best suited for your podcast needs.

You’ll want to have audio editing software to make the most of your podcast. You’ll edit out all of your mistakes you made while recording (we all make them), even simple um’s and ah’s can be edited out to make it sound cleaner, it’s also recommended that you add music to set the tone for your podcast. All that will be done in an editing software. You can use one of the apps mentioned above or free software like Garageband that comes preloaded on most Mac computers or Audacity. Audacity is a free open source software that can be downloaded to a Mac or PC. The learning curve on Audacity can be steep but there are many tutorials online you can watch. As you progress in your podcasting you may want to look into paid softwares such as Hindenburg. You can find free music, fair use music in the YouTube Audio Library and many other places online.

Now that you’ve recorded and edited your podcast you will want to upload it to a site so that your patrons can have easy access to it and you can also share it through all your social medias. When you start a Soundcloud account you get 180 minutes worth of uploading for free. Depending on how long your episodes are this could be several episodes which is a great start.
When you upload your file, Soundcloud recommends a lossless HD file format such as FLAC, WAV, ALAC, or AIFF, you’ll be able to title it and add any metadata you would like. Once you hit save you will get a link you can copy and share through social media or embed on your libraries website. After you 180 minutes are up you can sign up for a Pro account or you can look into websites like Podbean, Blubrry and Himalaya just to name a few. These sites are all specific to hosting podcasts and provide data and other features but they do require a paid subscription.

Whenever you’re creating content you will most likely work in three stages; pre-production, production and post production. The same goes for podcasting. Pre-production is the time you take to plan out your podcast. If you are just starting you are going to need to decide a few things to get the ball rolling but you can always tweak and change over time as you get into a flow.

The first two things you need to do is decide what kind of podcast you’d like to create and who is going to be on the podcast. One decision may influence the other and like we said before, this can change. However, before you buy any equipment or begin recording you should know this much.
Some types of podcasts are; The Interview, have guests on your shows, maybe other librarians, or patrons or even people from other libraries. The solo podcast, as the name implies it’d just be on solo podcaster, this might be something your patrons would be interested. A conversational show, you’ll have multiple contributors, you can all discuss one topic or they can each bring a topic to discuss. If this is a library podcast you can talk about what’s coming up in each department, reviews of movies, books, music, current issues in your community or the library world, the list goes on. These are only a few, there are many other types, including fictional audio storytelling, another one that may be interesting for your patrons. You can mix and match these and depending on who in your library is interested in being on the podcast you may choose one format over another.
Once you have an idea of the format you’d like to try out decide on how long you want your podcast to be and at the same time how often you want to upload your podcast. For the amount of time it takes to record and edit we suggest, for a library focused podcast, to shoot for about a twenty to twenty-five minute episode and try to upload weekly. We find the length of this podcast is good for an average commuter and we can manage to edit and upload an episode every week on top of our other responsibilities.
If you decide on a longer form type of podcast you may run longer and in that case may only want to upload bi-weekly or even monthly, depending on your topic and the amount of content in each episode. Whichever you decide, just make sure you are as consistent as possible. If you decide on 20-25 minutes episodes, weekly, released on Thursdays, try to stick to that schedule as best you can. Consistency will help you build and keep your audience.

Lastly, before you begin production, have outlines for several episodes. You don’t need a full script but know what you will discuss. Doing this ahead of time will let you know if you selected a format that will generate enough content. You may find you need to go back and adjust your format, add other hosts or book more guests. Once you get into a flow you may not need to plan as far out but in the beginning have as much prepared as possible. Depending on the time sensitivity of your content you can record several episodes in one sitting and edit them and have them ready to upload well in advance.