Podcasts in Libraries in the USA

Abstract

The article aims at analyzing the current podcasts usage practice in American libraries and identifying its goals, objectives, and the types of podcasts applied. In US libraries, podcasting is used for distance learning, servicing remote users, describing databases and new services, reviewing new books, broadcasting librarians’ interviews, guest lectures, readers’ conferences, etc.In the digital age, with its information dissemination capabilities, the rapid development of podcasting, as a new library service, is motivated by its convenience, mass access, lack of spatial restrictions, time savings, etc. The active spread of the podcast format, as a kind of Internet radio, indicates a certain “screen fatigue” that has formed among the mass user, as well as the further qualitative and quantitative growth of the library services mediatization carried out with the help of complex integrated technologies. The widespread usage of the service-oriented library model in the United States over the past two decades has popularized the use of online applications related to the accessible electronic environment.The complex nature of podcasts usage in libraries of various types, their genre and thematic diversity, autonomy in space and time, makes them a promising library service that is destined for a great future.