The dog days of summer are on us, and one way to feel productive with little effort is learning from a podcast. Supplement your summer reading with an audio option and check out Press, Play, Connect, the official podcast of the Medical Library Association. Sally Gore and Emily Hurst interview librarians and discuss ideas from the medical library world. Sally Gore is the manager of research and scholarly communication services at the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Medical School. Emily Hurst is director and associate dean of the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. The podcast sound editor is Jon Goodell, AHIP, who is the director of the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.
Press, Play, Connect originated with the MLA Board of Directors in 2019 and was delegated to MLAConnect to lead. The goal is to complement the weekly email communication with occasional in-depth audio interviews. Under the direction of Sally, Emily, and Jon, the podcast has formed and developed into what we have today. Press, Play, Connect has been available for nearly a year, and the interviews continue to address pertinent issues in medical librarianship today.
Podcasts in general have grown in popularity, and we want you to get on board with ours.
“As of April 2021, there are 2,118,515 podcasts and a few thousand new podcasts added each day. Roughly 64% of these are active podcasts (defined as having published at least one episode in the last 90 days). In the early 2000s, only 22% of the adult population in the United States was aware of podcasting. In 2021, 78% (222 million) of Americans are familiar with the medium—up 3% from 2020—and more than one-third of Americans (104 million) regularly consume podcasts.” 1
Listening to podcasts also boomed during the pandemic. “About 1 in 3 Americans (32 percent) said they now listen to podcasts at least once a week. When asked to reflect on their pre-pandemic listening habits, 26 percent said they streamed podcasts at least weekly.”2
In case you haven’t subscribed to Press, Play, Connect via your favorite podcast app, you can listen to the episodes on the website here. We are appreciative to those who have participated in interviews so far and have learned a great deal from what you have shared.
Available episodes include:
MLA Podcast 001: Sally Gore Interviews Elizabeth Suelzer, AHIP, about scientific article retractions.
MLA Podcast 002: Emily J. Hurst Interviews Amy Blevins and Hannah J. Craven about COVID-19.
MLA Podcast 003: Sally Gore Interviews Kimberly MacKenzie about starting a new job in a pandemic.
MLA Podcast 004: Data Services with the National Library of Medicine’s Lisa Federer, AHIP.
MLA Podcast 005: The Impact of COVID-19 on Caregiving and Children.
MLA Podcast 006: Career and Leadership Development for Librarians.
Get Involved
If you have an idea that we should explore or are willing to be interviewed, reach out to Jon Goodell.
