Quick Summary
Dakota County Library staff members Maureen Gormley and Michael Lopez are the creators of a new podcast series, "Behind the Covers." Despite their limited experience with podcasting, they are already finding listeners.
Michael Lopez (Library Technology Specialist) and I were seeking something different and creative. We wanted a new way to reach our customers. Inspiration started by watching a workshop on library podcasting. Next, we read "Podcasting: a Practical Guide for Librarians," by Junior Tidal, which gave us the nuts and bolts we needed to get the podcast off the ground. Another great resource, on the topic of recording, was Audio 101, from NPR Training.
Library administration supported the development of our proposal, and the Dakota County Communications Department provided the final signoff. We bought the equipment we needed, and began developing our episode content. We were fortunate to connect with the spouse of a staff member with experience producing podcasts, and ran our thoughts by him. He gave us some tips before we recorded the first episode and helped us shape things up before our launch.
The name of the podcast, "Behind the Covers," came from the general idea of what we wanted the podcast to be – sharing all of the “I Didn’t Know the Library had That” stuff, as well as general library topics, especially books. I manage the library’s social media presence, so I knew our followers love to talk about all things books. I expected those people to be the audience for our podcast as well. We often find that even our most dedicated users don’t know many of the services we offer, so most episodes feature at least one thing that is “hidden” from customers. Topics we've covered include, "Why do I have to wait so long for my ebooks?" and "How do I use my library card better?" We post descriptions on the podcasting platforms along with each episode. Our format is purposely loose to allow for topical ideas. We keep the episodes short (under 30 minutes).
Going into this project, I had absolutely no experience with podcasting. I read books and did my librarian research to bring myself up to speed. Michael had podcasting experience from a prior library job, and that was enormously helpful. He's also a musician with built-in recording and editing skills. We discuss the topics we want to cover, I flesh our plans out further, and share it with Michael. Then we record the episode, and Michael does all the editing and mixing. It's a great partnership.
Our hope for this project is to reach people where they already are: listening to podcasts. We have published four episodes so far. It can take a while for a podcasts to build an audience, and not everyone listens immediately when a new podcast is published. Nonetheless, we already have over 400 downloads, and I'm happy with that. We released 2 episodes when we launched, and now publish them every 3 weeks.
