Presented at LILAC 2024.

1. Libraries Facilitating Creativity
and Knowledge Among Students
Through Podcasting
ANNETTE BOCHENEK, SARAH HUBER, & RENUSREE VARMA MUDDULURU
PURDUE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES & SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES

2. Podcasting & Literature Review Findings
• All across campus, Purdue University students are making tangible works that are creative and
innovative. Behind every creation lies a story.
• Podcasting and other forms of digital content creation are experiencing a resurgence in
education, offering flexible learning opportunities anytime, anywhere. Student-created
podcasts enhance reading, writing, and listening skills while promoting collaboration (Besser
et al., 2022; Okuonghae, 2021).
• Podcasts offer potential for engaging students, facilitating concept review, and fostering
lifelong learning (Prince, 2020).
• The dissemination of information is further broadened by podcasting as a popular medium of
information consumption (Moorefield-Lang, 2017).
• Librarians, too, play a crucial role in information dissemination as knowledge catalysts (Okike,
2020; Sewell, 2023).

3. MakeYourStory Podcast
• Created by two academic librarians, Purdue
University’s MakeYourStory podcast is currently in its
third season, highlighting student stories of making.
• Students’ stories include making physical objects, e-
content, entrepreneurial endeavors, among other
interesting and original works.
• Season 1: The Elements of a Podcast
• Seasons 2-3: Student stories of Making
• MakeYourStory Website:
https://www.lib.purdue.edu/makerpodcast

4. The Knowledge Lab
• The Knowledge Lab, located on Purdue University’s West Lafayette, Indiana,
campus is a rapid prototyping space where the Purdue community can use a
variety of materials, equipment, and software to experiment with the exploration
and presentation of their ideas. Celebrating Purdue’s spirit of imagination and
innovation, the space offers low-stakes resources such as a vinyl cutter, sewing
machines, Riso printer, a podcast booth, heat press, yarns, cardboard, fabrics,
and more. It serves as a first stop in a pipeline of opportunities on campus to
fully actualize an idea.
• Knowledge Lab Wesbite: https://www.lib.purdue.edu/KnowledgeLab

5. Focus: The Podcasting Booth

6. Our Study
• To better understand how libraries not only support access to information and
knowledge but can better support the creation of new information and knowledge, this
project hosted focus groups with students who have used the Libraries’ makerspace
podcast booth.
• The research team explored the idea of how libraries offering technology resources and
instruction can support the creative process that leads to new ideas and innovation. In
this case, the focus was on how podcast resources have supported original student
content.
• This study highlights the value of considering non-traditional forms of scholarship that
students can be creating—such as a podcast episode—instead of an essay or
PowerPoint presentation.
• This presentation shares the initial findings of these focus groups.

7. Research Questions
• Why are students creating podcasts?
• What elements need to be included in a podcast for students to consider it a
legitimate classroom assignment?
• What elements need to be included in a podcast for students to consider it a
legitimate form of knowledge or scholarship to be shared across academia?
• How can libraries support students creating podcasts?

8. Methodology
• We contacted users of the Knowledge Lab’s podcasting booth to consider
participating in a focus group in order to share information about their use of the
facility, podcast output, and consideration of podcasting as a form of
nontraditional scholarship.
• Two Focus Groups (4 participants; 3 participants)
• Two Solo Interviews (2 students total)

9. Icebreaker Focus Group Questions
• Individually: Please share your name and program and your favorite podcast (or
maybe ask if there is a podcast in their field they listen to).
• Open discussion: What elements make a great podcast?
• Open discussion: What is the key component that changes something being done
for fun into something being done for an assignment. Is there another key
component that changes an assignment into something that can be shared across
academia as a legitimate form of knowledge or scholarship?

10. Focus Group Research Questions
• What is your podcast about?
• Why did you create a podcast?
• Who are you trying to reach?
• Do you see your podcast as creating new knowledge—or do you see it purely as entertainment?
• What gap or niche are you trying to fill within the current information landscape (whether as
information or entertainment)?
• If this were an assignment, what elements would be most important to grade?
• If this were a form of scholarship (knowledge that can be shared across the university and
beyond), what elements would be most important to assess for authority?
• If libraries could support the creation of your podcast, for either an assignment or scholarship,
what would you most like to see them make available?

11. Emerging Themes
• Students place an emphasis on the quality of the content that they create and not
necessarily the technical side of their podcast.
• On the other hand, students express that production value can occasionally speak
to the credibility/authority behind a podcast.
• Students do view their podcasts as the creation of knowledge and that the
entertainment side of their work is more subjective or a biproduct to the creation of
knowledge.
• Students express an element of self-preservation, capturing their engagement with
others on the podcast at a specific point in time, thereby creating a primary source.

12. Emerging Themes (Continued)
• Students believe they have something important to share, that they are filling
an information gap in the current information landscape. This supports the idea
that students not only want to consume information but want to contribute
information.
• Students clearly saw (except in the case of the student that made a podcast as an
assignment) what they did as fun; there was intrinsic motivation. When asked
about what would turn it into an assignment, it seemed that organic “fun” was
the main ingredient versus the requirement of doing something.

13. Areas for Further Research
• How can libraries further support students in their podcasting endeavors and
with nontraditional scholarship as a whole?
• Creating workshops for students regarding technical aspects of production;
• Planning networking opportunities among student podcasters to build community
and share resources;
• Offering instructional support for nontraditional scholarship; etc.

14. Contact Information
Annette Bochenek, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor & Business
Information Specialist
ahbochen@purdue.edu
Sarah Huber
Associate Professor &
Director of the Knowledge Lab
huber47@purdue.edu
Renusree Varma Mudduluru
Graduate Assistant
huber47@purdue.edu