We have updated our Spring 2007 Depository Library Council Conference page with audio recorded by FGI Volunteer James Staub. James, hard worker that he is, also contributed some rough transcripts.

As with our prior conference audio offerings, we suggest you play the sessions through headphones. Because we have to take along a portable audio recorder and can't always sit near the speakers, the audio quality suffers. But the bits I've heard are still listenable.

But we have something NEW to offer as well. For the first time anywhere, DLC recordings are being offered as a true podcast. We're not talking about posting a zipped folder of audio files weeks after Council closes. We're talking about content being automatically delivered to your iPod, other portable MP3 player, or desktop computer. All you have to do is to subscribe to the podcast feed in iTunes or your favorite podcatcher software.

So, if you are a podcast listener, plug in http://feeds.feedburner.com/FgiPodcast into that podcatcher and start listening.

How much did it cost us to set up a podcasting feed? Zero.

We set up a free blog on Blogger, plugged it into Feed Burner to create something that podcatchers could latch onto and use free storage sites like OurMedia, etc to host the files.

It's true that the audio quality of the recordings is far from perfect. But that isn't the fault of podcasting it. GPO or a third party COULD podcast their higher quality audio in the same way and bear no expenses beyond the recording they are already doing.

Since we created a feed to distribute the DLC audio that James Staub worked so hard at getting for us, you can count on seeing an FGI podcast in the relatively near future. The audio quality will be much higher because we'll control the audio equipment.

If you have suggestions for what should be in a FGI podcast, let us know either by commenting or sending a message to admin AT freegovinfo.info.