This post on Library Web Chic about using iPods in academic libraries for such things as audio reserves for music classes and pictures for art history classes reminded me of something I've thought would be very useful; attorney MCLE programs via audio MP3 files.
Sure, there are probably some attorneys in your firm that don't have a MP3 player, but that's okay, because you could purchase a couple of MP3 players as loaners. (iPods would be fun, but a much cheaper player would be more practical for this purchase.) Just think, no more lost audiotapes. We could maintain a library of MP3 programs, and copy them to the player as needed. Of course, how you'd get the loaner MP3 players back is another issue.
I assume that vendors aren't supplying programs via MP3 because they don't WANT us to be able to copy and redistribute too freely. But there must be a way to make this work for both vendor and user.
Podcasting could facilitate something like this, but you don't really need podcasting to deliver MCLE programs in MP3 format.
Speaking of podcasting and MCLE, Robert J. Ambrogi wrote an article on just that topic in the Feburary 2005 issue of Law Technology News, "Podcasting: CLE's New Wave." (Law Technology News requires registration.)
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