• Digital Collections and Metadata Services
• Sept. 2006
• Issue: 205

Williams College Announces Podcasting Tool for CONTENTdm

Williams has recently been looking at podcasting a variety of materials, such as commencement addresses, football games, and classroom lectures, to a local audience of students, as well as to alumni and prospective students as a communication tool. Once it became clear that in many cases it was desirable to keep the podcast objects for future use and to make them available over the Web, Williams decided to use CONTENTdm as the repository and to script a podcasting source as an add-on.

Called PC Pod, Jonathan Leamon, Instructional Technologist at Williams College is happy to make it available to others, if there’s interest. PC Pod provides a modified version of the standard CONTENTdm custom queries and reports tool that allows a podcast owner to build a link that defines the content of the podcast. There’s also an RSS feed generator and the start of a reporting tool. The downloads and full manuals are only available by request. Although Williams is currently using it in production to deliver audio versions of reading assignments to students with visual disabilities, in reality it should still be considered to be in beta. For more information, see the Williams College CONTENTdm web site at: http://drm.williams. edu/cdm4/pcpod or contact Jonathan Leamon, Instructional Technologist, Williams College. Phone: 413-597-4468.

Leamon, Jonathan ‹Jonathan.B.Morgan-Leamon@williams.edu›, “Podcasting and CONTENTdm,” June 23, 2006, ‹CONTENTdm-L@OCLC.org›.

Digital Collection and Metadata Services Contact Information

For more information about CONTENTdm, please contact Donna Dixon, Nylink’s OCLC Services Librarian (dixond@ nylink.org) or Joyce Rambo, Nylink’s Reference & Digital Collections Librarian (ramboj@nylink.org).