PODCASTING: Library Shuffles Its Collection

I have been pretty skeptical of the podcasting hype wildfire. Thinking it's more people running around shouting "fire" and not a lot of actual flame. The biggest obstacle I've read to the idea of podcasting has to do with the listening behavior of the typical iPod user. Over 70% of users listen to their iPod on shuffle. 50 Cent, the Clash, Adam Curry, Sleater-Kinney, Democratic Leader, ... It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But, maybe the iPod Shuffle and smaller storage mp3 players are the immediate future of podcasting.

Library Shuffles Its Collection
Checking out a new iPod now applies to more than shopping trips or web browsing. This week the South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, became one of the first public libraries in the country to loan out iPod shuffles.

For the past three weeks, the library ran a pilot program using the portable MP3 devices to store audio books downloaded from the Apple iTunes Music Store. They started with six shuffles, and now are up to a total of 10. Each device holds a single audio book.

This week the South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, became one of the first public libraries in the country to loan out iPod shuffles.

The few library patrons that have checked them out seem to have had positive experiences.

Lee Jacknow, 61, a retired professor of engineering who currently has one iPod shuffle checked out with the new John Grisham novel on it, said that having the iPod has changed the way he listens to audio books. [ Wired ]

Some more thoughts on podcasting...
Once the Wi-Fi iPod or mp3 player enabled wireless PDA hits the market people will be able to download music, casts or books straight to their players and avoid the whole desktop middleman. If the hardware interface allows me to flag downloading content as music, casts or books and allows me to file it and retrieve it independently there could be something to this podcasting once the hardware technology catches up.

However, people are very ritualistic when it comes to collecting music and books -- every music fan has a record, cd, or digital file collection and every reader has a bookcase full of books -- but I’m not so sure folks will want to collect speeches or other kinds of casts...so, maybe podcasts should have a predetermined shelf life and disappear after a couple of days or weeks and free up my hard drive...but, why wouldn’t I just stream the cast and not have to deal with download time or making room on my hard drive? Okay, I’m very high on the concept of blogged audio, but still skeptical of mp3s as the dominate delivery media.