1. Librarians' familiarity with and attitudes toward Podcast technology
Saeid Asadi
Department of Knowledge & Information Studies
Shahed University
Leila Asadi
Fanroosh Jafari
Elham Ghobadi

2. In this presentation Podcasting in libraries Problem statement
Related work
Methodology
Results & Conclusion
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

3. Introduction
Today's library audiences are mostly familiar or fluent in using communication technologies. Net Generation also Digital Natives and Y Generation are bolded definitions to describe the typical young people who are familiar with information and communication technologies and spend their lives by using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

4. Introduction
Research shows that the net generation's preferences and skills have been affected in many areas including communication, education and entertainments. For example, receiving information quickly and with fewer attempts is what people are looking for through social networks. The digital natives prefer active rather than passive learning (Prensky, 2001; Oblinger, 2003; Abdekhoda & Dibaj, 2011). As a result: librarians are also concerned about podcast products and technologies.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

5. Podcast technology Podcast lifecycle
Podcast technologies appeared in 2004 with introduction of some portable media players supporting Web-based audio and video contents. A podcast lifecycle includes creation, distribution on the Web, transfer to personal media players and use. Although not very hard to build, transfer and use, XML files known as RSS Feed play a vital role in podcasting.
Podcast lifecycle
Creation
Distribution
Transfer
Use
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

6. Research questions
Regarding the increasing applications and use of podcasts especially in relation with libraries, this research aims to investigate the Iranian librarians' skills and attitudes toward podcasting. The following questions are focused to be answered:
1. To what extent, Iranian librarians are familiar or using podcasting technologies?
2. According to the librarians' point of views, how important is podcast for public libraries?
3. To what extent podcasting is being used in Iranian public libraries.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

7. Related work
Kennedy et al. 2008
surveyed 2000 students of Melbourne University about their access to, use of and proficiency with information and communications technologies and devices. The results revealed that 96.4% of the students had access to cell phone and 68.9% to MP3 players.
Thornton & Houser, 2005
developed many innovative projects using cell phones to teach English at a Japanese university. Research focused on vocabulary instruction by SMS. They sent mini lessons to students’ phone sets three times a day to be readable on the tiny screens. Results showed SMS productivity compared to Web-based teaching.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

8. Related work
Abdekhoda, 2011
A survey on 60 medical librarians in Tehran universities showed that minority of the librarians were reasonably familiar with facilities and applications of new web generations such as podcasts and video casts and were able to use these facilities in library, 90% of respondents believed that they need to continue learning i.e. follow their career development programs (CDP) and associated education courses about web innovations.
Asadi & Jamali, 2011
A mixed method in which multimedia including podcasts is integrated in traditional library service for teaching in order to improve the quality of teaching the geography in Iranian secondary schools. The results revealed that the blended method surpasses both library-based and pure multimedia teaching approach.

9. Methodology Research population
The librarians of the public libraries of Tehran related to the Art and Cultural Organization of Tehran Municipality.
Sampling
Dividing the city in 22 municipal districts, 80 librarians were selected randomly – almost 4 in each district questionnaires for library professors.
Data collection & analysis
A questionnaire was distributed among the sample of whom 68 returned the it with valid data for further process. The questionnaire consisted of different sections asking how familiar/fluent the respondents were with podcast technology, how important this technology was for their libraries, and how was the status of using podcasts in Iranian public libraries. Using SPSS the data was analyzed in order to extract descriptive and analytical results.
Reliability and validity
Cronbach's alpha was 0.96 in general  high validity
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

10. Demography Average age of the sample.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

11. Demography Level of education
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

12. Findings Librarians’ skills in podcasting technologies.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

13. Findings importance of podcast for public libraries. N Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
tools_Use 51
20.65
8.736
1.223
importance of podcast for public libraries.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

14. Findings T-test for showing podcast importance. Test Value = 40.35 Tdf
Sig.
(2-tailed)
Mean Difference
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
Lower
Upper
Use 50
.000
-22.16
-17.25
T-test for showing podcast importance.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

15. Current situation of Podcasting in the libraries.
Findings N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
tools_impo 52
40.35
9.431
1.308
Current situation of Podcasting in the libraries.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

16. Findings Test Value = 30 T df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
Lower
Upper
Impo
7.911 51
.000
10.346
7.72
12.97
use of Podcasting for the libraries.
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

17. Conclusion Q1: librarians’ familiarity with podcasting?
Above average, satisfying
Q2: librarians’ attitudes toward the importance of podcast technologies for public libraries.
Agree to be important
Q3: librarians’ attitudes toward the current level of podcast use in Iranian libraries?
Currently very rare use or not use at all
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

18. Conclusion
Podcast technology has influenced different areas including teaching environments as well as libraries.
Libraries have shown effective in teaching and librarians have always tried to be adopted with new media and technologies.
Having potential aspects for being used in libraries, podcasting seems to be a useful area for attracting more audiences to the libraries.
Iranian libraries are not benefiting from podcasting technologies while their librarians are familiar enough with podcasts and they think this technology is important for public libraries.
A question remains:
Why podcasts are not in use in Iranian libraries?
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology

19. Thank you! Saeid Asadi s.asadi@shahed.ac.ir
Librarians’ attitude toward podcasting technology