If you are a member of the MSK Community who listens to podcasts to keep up with topics related to your work – or just for entertainment – I’d love to hear from you. What do you listen to? How, when and why? I’m working on a guide about podcasts for the MSK Library, and your recommendations and input would be greatly appreciated! Please contact me here. Now some of you may be thinking, entertainment sure, but for work?

Yes, that too, even for those of you who are doctors, nurses, and researchers! More and more journals, professional associations and individual practitioners are using podcasts as a way to promote their work and communicate with colleagues. A few major journals, such as Nature and Lancet Oncology  produce podcasts to highlight and discuss articles from their latest issues. Individual practitioners in various specialties also podcast, and there you can learn information that is tough to find anywhere else. So why not listen during your commute, exercise routine, or whenever you like?

If you’re still not sure what podcasts are all about, try searching iTunes or Google for one related to your specialty or interest. And while you’re at it, why not take a few minutes to listen to Sheryl Ramer Gesoff, Medical Library Director at Elmhurst Hospital Center Queens and Dr. Scott Weingart discuss why podcasts are important in a podcast by Sheryl for Medical Librarians. (Jump to 2:17 to hear why Sheryl and Dr. Weingart think podcasts are important.)