As Both Sides Of The Surface quietly acknowledges its 19th anniversary, the podcast feed is given a jolt with the return of the BSOTS GONE (buck)WILD experience, delivering a mix of music ranging from the political to the satirical and just plain silly. Expect a brief observation concerning a calendar with good intentions and selections from Mega R…

Chris had the opportunity to converse with Essraa Nawar, Assistant Dean for Library DEI Initiatives and Development, recognized in Forbes Arab American Heritage, Top 40 Women of Egypt, 125 Most Influential People in OC, and Women of Influence in O.C. Top 30 Egyptian Women Abroad. Essraa delves into unconventional perspectives on diversity, equity, …

Back with another handful of Creative Commons tunes to champion, Macedonia opens with a Shad & Skratch Bastid cut that was co-produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff and closes with a Moki McFly song from an album that won the 2024 Creative Commons Community Music Award for Album Of The Year. Other featured artists in between include NIki J. Crawford, Ultimate F…

On this installment of the podcast, Chris speaks with the founder and President of Hoopla Digital, Jeff Jankowski. Jeff talks about Hoopla’s birth with Midwest Tapes, his origin story along with how Hoopla curates and optimizes their products along with digital equity and so much more!By Chris DeCristofaro

Download What an amazing time with Melissa Taylor, Manager of the Center for Innovation at the Fayetteville Public Library in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Melissa shares about her corporate sponsorships with Walmart, JB Hunt and Tyson foods. Chris and Bob learned about all of the offerings in this beautiful facility and how Melissa keeps it all running,…

Macedonia shows honor to the legacy of Bondfire Radio by revisiting an episode from 2016, a show that features some of the artists and music championed on the BSOTS on Bondfire broadcast during its first year. This show includes selections from Public Enemy, The Hot 8 Brass Band, NxWorries, Blitz The Ambassador, DJ EFN, DJ Vadim, Semi Hendrix (Ras …

In the second of two episodes celebrating 18 years of Radio BSOTS, Macedonia discusses podcast quality over quantity, finding community at Bondfire Radio, a single episode released in 2021 that led to him speaking at Afros & Audio, that time that his voice became part of an intro for a netlabel release, the potential kill date that he seriously con…

In this installment, the fellas were lucky enough to have Aaron Whitfield on the podcast. Aaron spoke about all Aaron has accomplished in his time in Libraryland along with being a BIPOC and what that is like in todays world. He also talks about the importance of “MU FA LI” in his life, his writing and music. Aaron talks about the power of positive…

Joining Chris and Bob is David Ecker from Stony Brook University. Dave is a repeat guest and its always great to speak to him. Dave spoke about being library “technologists”, time management for managers, how AI can help makerspaces and that dirty world in Libraryland “CHANGE”. Dave has a new book out entitled Leadership Takes Courage: How to Maste…

As lovers of Black music history, Jay Ray and DJ Sir Daniel have made some incredible strides over the past two years with their podcast, Queue Points. The show has quickly become a mainstay in the Camp Lo-Fi podcast queue. As a BSOTS feed bonus, I am pleased to share this special episode of Queue Points with you, one where I joined the dynamic duo…

Joining Chris and Bob on the pod is Temara Hajjat Gastroenterologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and co host of the Bowel Sounds Podcast. Temara spoke with the fellas about what its like to go to medical school, the spark that started the podcast, the targeted listenership, the formula for the pod along with talking about Harvard Medical Scho…

Macedonia celebrates 18 years of BSOTS by reflecting on the show's development and challenges in its early years. A handful of independent and Creative Commons selections provide the soundtrack, including works from Comfort Fit, Friends Or Whatever, Lovespirals, Jonny Sonic, Cosmic Analog Ensemble, and more.…

This is really cool LOCAL episode for our friends on Long Island but also a great inspirational episode for everyone. Joining the podcast is Lilly Kiel from the Cutchogue/New Suffolk Free Library, Steven Alcalde from the Rogers Memorial Library and Anthony Giansante from the John Jermain Memorial Library to talk about the tech challenges working on…

Another Creative Commons crate digging session uncovers gems from DJ Harrison, Yung Miss, niteffect, J. Lang, Close Counters, and The Polish Ambassador featuring Kool Keith.By Jason Randall Smith

In part 2 of this special episode, Chris and Bob were joined by Alice Knapp, Director of the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut, Scott Jarzombek, Director of the Fairfield Library in Fairfield, Connecticut, Kate Byroade Director of the Cragin Colchester Library in Colchester, Connecticut and Scott Brill, Director of the Derby Public Library,…

In this 2 part episode, Chris and Bob travel to Groton Connecticut at the invitation of the Connecticut Library Association to speak during their conference lunch period about mental health and wellbeing in the library profession. The fellas were joined by Doug Lord, Director of the C. H. Booth Public Library in Newtown, Connecticut and President o…

Joining Chris for this episode is Meghan Volcheko, Manager, Public Library Collection Development at OverDrive, Meghan talks about how she and her team assist libraries and library systems with collection development with Overdrive. Yes, this is also the Libby App and also Kanopy and Sora for schools. Meghan talks about the relationships she has bu…

The second installment of a two-part interview with Douglas Whitfield, co-founder of the Creative Commons Community Music Awards. Doug discusses netlabels as sonic curators, what started the CC Listening Parties on YouTube, and future plans for a CC Community Music Hall of Fame. Featured music includes works from Headsnack, Revolution Void, Carsie …

The first of a two-part interview with Douglas Whitfield, co-founder of the Creative Commons Community Music Awards. Between learning Doug's CC origin story and examining the functionality of the licenses behind the music, songs are featured from Natasha Beller, Kid Data, Wiseman, and Spiedkiks (2023 CCCMA Winners of Album and Track Of The Year).…

In our 100th Episode, we have asked Alumni Carol Ann Tack from the podcast Top Shelf at the Merrick Library to return to talk about her podcast, readers advisory, her book discussions (which are the thing of legend on Long Island) and how tech can sometimes help and sometimes get in the way of getting to where you need to be in Libraryland.…

BSOTS returns with a renewed focus on Creative Commons licensed music and the joys of virtual crate digging. The featured tracks in this show represent a mix of tunes from prior BSOTS episodes alongside selections receiving their first spins, cutting across genre and released between 2009 and 2023. Artists include Public Enemy, Nikki Giovanni, Kidk…

Chris journeyed to Saratoga Springs New York for the annual New York Library Association Conference and Trade Show! This year Chris spoke to old friends Jill Hurst Wahl, Cameron Tidd and Melissa Tidd from Goshen Libraryhttps://www.floridapubliclibrary.org and Barron Angell from the Florida Public Library. Jill spoke about the conference, what it is…

The fellas were asked to podcast a the Long Island Library Resource Council’s 31st annual Conference on Libraries and the Future. There were many great speakers and the podcast had an opportunity to speak with Dr. James Neal who spoke to Chris about the nature of leadership and how it is defined along with the concept “you can’t count the apple fro…

In this installment, Chris and Bob are back together live, this time at the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library in East Setauket, New York. Emily Ostrander talks about growing up at Emma as a patron (including riding her bike there as a kid), knowing at 16 that she wanted to be a librarian, and her feelings on customer service which includes the attitud…

Macedonia revisits his own commentary from 20 years ago, written shortly after Jam Master Jay's murder. Features hip-hop cuts from the Creative Commons universe including guest verses from Chuck D of Public Enemy and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels. Artists include The Impossebulls, Tha Silent Partner, Just Plain Ant, Mute Speaker, Yashiyah, and more.…

Chris and Bob virtually travel “across the pond” to Denmark and speak with Thomas Ommen Chief Executive Officer of Princh, a collection of products to improve printing, copying and scanning services. Thomas shares his story and how his travels across the globe inspired him and his partners to develop this business model. Thomas talks about how he d…

This episode pairs Chris and Bob up with Philip Shakelford, Director of the South Arkansas Community College Library Philip is also the host of the Modern Scholar Podcast speaking to library and history professionals all over “Libraryland” about cool and interesting topics. Philip has a speciality in military history and has a particular interest i…

Macedonia reemerges from podcast hibernation to survey a pandemic-struck earth through beats, bass, rhymes, rants, and a 17 year-old blog entry. Featured artists include DJ Spooky, A.Moss, Rashad thaPoet, Talons, Phresoul, Rabbi Darkside, and more.By Jason Randall Smith

Joining the fellas this time ’round is Anna Raunik, Executive Director, Content and Client Services at State Library Queensland, Australia. Anna joined the pod to talk about ANZAC Stories. For those of you that are not familiar, ANZAC Day commemorates the landing of Australian, New Zealand and other commonwealth troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on…

In this installment, the fellas have a chat with Mike Rossetti from MYLIBRO. Mike discussed how libraries can attract those 20 somethings to the library, what libraries have to offer this group and using the “Tech Triangle” to retain not only that elusive age group, but anyone who can benefit from the library. Mike also talks about why the word PIV…

Joining the fellas for this go round is Thomas Shaw, Associate Director of the library at Lancaster University. Thomas published an article entitled “How to Strive for Success, Happiness, Fulfilment and Impact: a Personal Manifesto” which should resinate with anyone who works in Libraryland. Thomas speaks about his article and some of the common an…