
Podcasts and audio books for the French cultural network abroad (Handbook)
In keeping with its mission to promote audio books and podcasts in France and abroad, the Institut français provides the network with several tools to promote these ecosystems. With an emphasis on their educational dimension, the Institut français offers audio books for consultation (or listening) online via its digital library Culturethèque. IFdigital, the French digital creation website, presents the main practitioners and creations in these sectors. The Institut français also offers "turnkey" programming for the cultural network, including in some cases innovative books and podcasts.
Updated on 24/03/2023
2 min
From 2019 to 2022, the Institut français held training workshops on audio books, podcasts and innovative books, offered to some sixty beneficiaries from the French cultural network abroad. These distance learning workshops on the French language landscape of audio books, podcasts and enriched digital books were designed to be used directly as a cultural education device or for use in creative workshops in libraries. These training workshops, created online with the Festival du livre audio et du podcast by the association Plume de Paon, also gave users the possibility of registering and promoting their programme or production in the "Sons du réseau" section, which aims to map audio usage in the French cultural network abroad.
This handbook illustrating the podcast and audio book in use in the French cultural network abroad intends to pursue this mission of professionalisation by extending it to all agents of the cultural network. It first contains elements to define and contextualise the position of audio books and podcasts in a market under construction by presenting the main players in its ecosystem. It lists the methods of access to the two media, distinguishing between them, and the support for creation through grants and residencies. Secondly, the handbook offers a sharing of experiences on projects carried out in the French cultural network abroad, highlighting accumulated knowledge about these new media and the know-how already in working practice. It is an opportunity to review best practices in dissemination and production and to support professionals by offering a legal perspective, also important for all agents posted abroad. The third part of the report focuses on the training and resources made available by the Institut français, such as Culturethèque for media libraries and readers, the podcast series "Le jour où", dedicated to the collaborative community of French-speaking educational professionals, and IFdigital.
This document will gradually be enriched with new elements as these sectors are evolving rapidly, particularly as technological innovations emerge.