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Useful Podcasts in an Archival Setting

mciocia's picture
Submitted by mciocia on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 7:57pm

Podcasts can be used to make archival content more transparent, to orient them towards their users while attracting new prospective users, as well as to contextualize documents. Some interesting applications can also include:

• Providing concise and engaging information on the strength of the collections within each finding aid. It could be interesting to add an audio dimension to the digitized materials allowing for a “story” to be shared through the content.

• Providing informational episodes on the new acquisitions and their availability. It could be interesting to combine a discussion between a narrator and a guest. Guests can include donors, the head of the archives department, archivists, or faculty who can reveal the value of the new materials or striking characteristics. Interviewing students on the use of the collections and how beneficial these records are to their academic purposes.

• Using faculty lectures and presentations as related materials.

• Offering summaries of the archive polices and services.

Great ideas! I think what

meredithfarkas's picture
Submitted by meredithfarkas on Sun, 11/02/2008 - 5:16pm.

Great ideas! I think what people like most about archives are the stories the collections tell. I think it would be interesting to have a podcast that tells a story using artifacts from the collection. You could use records, letters, etc. to tell an interesting story and then tell the patrons about the artifacts that made the story possible. Lots of people think of archives as old, dusty and boring, but perhaps something like that would make the history come alive.

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