RSS Feeds

I started subscribing to RSS feeds a few years ago when I got my ipod nano.  I would download episodes of Doctor Karl to listen to, or religious debates, or radio programs and listen to them while I went running.  It was a change from listening to music.

Now, I have google reader set up on my laptop, and the blogs I follow are delivered there.  It might take me a while to catch up with everything I'm interested in, but I like to have it all in one place.

Looking through the abc link, I noticed that one of the RSS feeds is for a reading of a book.  A book!  Chapter by chapter, a whole book.  Now, this excites me.  I love to read aloud, and I love to listen to audio books, when my hands are busy doing something, and I need my eyes to concentrate, but still want my mind entertained.  And I have been the voice for chapters in a published audio book (a one off, funny little episode in my life that I really enjoyed).  I wonder how plausible it is to have a feed that publishes a chapter a week of a book.  A whole book.  Would people listen and be interested I wonder?

In the library situation, and bear in mind, I don't have a library situation as such yet, but in a library situation, I think it could kick off for book week perhaps.  And perhaps in the lead up, students could vote for which book from a list they would like to turn into an audio book.  The winner unveiled at the Book Week parade.  And then, to make it more interesting, students could audition to be readers!  How does copyright work in this situation?  And the audio book, voiced by their peers, is the hook, to get them involved in my library website, because once they are there, hopefully they will look around and find even more interesting treasures, treasures that draw them in, that give them tools, and empower them.

Now this isn't completely answering questions about meeting users information needs, it's a bit of a tangent, but it's also an idea I don't want to lose because I forget that I've had it.