In my Digital Audio Formats presentation I had originally intended to include a slide about podcasting but let it slip by (just as I had originally intended to talk about FLAC and OGG formats but opted for WMA instead). As Burke (2009) defines it, podcasting is the process of creating and sharing audio content with interested recipients, either through downloading MP3 files from the producer’s site or by receiving updated content through RSS feeds (p. 265). As the name would suggest, podcasting was originally tied to the iPod. Still to this day the main method of managing and syncing podcasts is through Apple’s iTunes (which Burke refers to as RSS feeds).
Some of the most popular podcasts according to the iTunes
Store’s Top Ten chart come from National Public Radio (NPR), with This American
Life, Freakonomics Radio, and Radiolab taking up the top three slots
respectively.
The number three podcast, Radiolab, actually got me thinking
about my first blog post on Siri and the future of library reference again. In
the premiere episode of season ten entitled “Talking to Machines” (available
for streaming below) the entire hour is devoted to the blurring lines between interactions
with humans and robots (or
artificial intelligence).
In the first segment entitled “Clever Bots”
discusses how modern day programming has allowed for people to carry on
conversations over the Internet with what are thought to be people but are in
fact bits of code which are so convincing to some people that they might even
trick themselves into thinking they are in relationships with the programs.
Further still the program called ELIZA, developed by MIT in the 1960s, is
discussed. ELIZA was originally programmed to give answers that mimicked the
responses of a therapist (originally intended as a joke by its creator), but as
the creator discusses on Radiolab when students and the creators secretary were
exposed to ELIZA he found that they would end up talking with the program for
hours as if they were talking to a human.
When I think even further, basic reference questions can
already be answered by technology such as Siri and Google now. Whereas you
might have in the past asked a reference librarian for directions to a destination,
now you simply have to say, “Take me to insert destination.” To make
matters worse, if someone actually calls the reference desk (at least at my
library) and asks for directions, a phone number, movies show times, etc. the
first thing that we do is go to Google for the answers.
So thinking further about Siri and Google and their
technologies taking over library reference, it isn’t a matter of when ‘will’ it
happen, in some instances it already has.
Reference:
Burke, J. (2009). Neal-Schuman
library technology companion: a basic guide for library staff (3rd ed.).
New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
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