Kind of Like the New OPAC...

My library's "new" OPAC (that's on-line public access catalog for the non-library-nerds) is called Aquabrowser, which is an amazing tool for finding things in the library—unless you know exactly what you want. In which case, it's usually not there. Or you're looking it up wrong. Or something.

Either way, it's pretty frustrating.

Today, in the Internet Neat-o-Stuff Training Thingummy (that's ordinary nerd speak for KCLS's "Learning 2.0: 27 Things") we were supposed to "look up" podcasts) at one of three sites Podcast Alley, Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts

Well me, unless it's a language, I hate having to learn from audio: Visual and tactical are my media. Talk radio--? Blech. So the whole wide (web) world of pod-ville is not so much terra-incognita as that swampy area behind the town dump that, yeah, I suppose you think you saw a Great Blue Heron there once, but, ah... I'm going stay here and have another cuppa', mkay?

So I decided to go looking for the one podcast out there in Teh internets that I actually find kinda nifty: James Lileks "The Diner". On the first two sites, just like the old Aquabrowser, "The Diner" was nowhere to be found. I looked for another on-line aural experience I enjoyed: John C. Wright's (BookCast interview with the Fairfax Library : no joy. But Yahoo Podcasts actually worked, and pulled them both up.

And then, I admit, I remembered what Aquabrowser is absolutely great for: serendipity. You're not sure what you want, but you have a vague idea and you plug in a few things and poke around and boy howdy!, there it is: Something cool.

And sure enough I found this killer Early Music Website.

Here's the Yahoo Podcast link

(Because, yanno, that's just what makes me such an empathetic teen services librarian: I know my musical tastes are utterly bizarre and don't expect anyone to understand them, but thanks to the magic of the internets, I can get my 11th century funk on, just the same.)

In summary: Yahoo=good. Author interviews=good. Wacky music=good. The Podcast Alley and Podcast.Net: Meh.

Just a few more lessons to go, before this blog retires into well-deserved obscurity.