Twilight Librarian is not my journal–nor is it my 60GB iPod
July 29, 2006 11:00 am blogs and bloggingLet me share a tale of two iPods. For about a year and a half I have had an iPod mini. I loaded music CDs into iTunes on the home computer, created some playlists, and learned to like and use this handy device despite iTunes' quirks. The labels iTunes applies to some music are often amusing, sometimes incomprehensible. Clearly, Apple won't be a voice in the debate over the future of LCSH and authority work.
From time to time I had to adjust the list of items to download to the iPod because the full “library” (in iTunespeak) exceeded the mini's capacity. Recently I became curious about podcasts and video podcasts and explored the iTunes stock of these, especially for libraryland continuing education. I could, if I wanted to make the time, listen to or view them through my laptop. However I wanted to have them handy when in the car as a positive alternative to another story about intractable conflict in the middle east or repetitive name calling between Democrats and Republicans. (I don't fault NPR for reporting the news that happens. It's just that some news is anything but new.)
Rather than frequent adjustments to the iTunes list of items to download to the mini and unwilling to allow the iTunes software to make such decisions for me, I purchased a new 60GB iPod. I am a long way from filling it with music, photos, podcasts, and video podcasts. I installed iTunes on my employer-owned laptop and use it to subscribe to podcasts. Alas, recent events have given me numerous opportunities to switch from NPR to the iPod mini.
There is no music on my iPod mini. Even if it could accommodate them it would have no photographs. It does, however, have those podcasts. They include several from the SirsiDynix Institute and many of the ALA Library 2.0 podcasts released between March and June 2006. They also include some for my amusement, e.g., some of NPR's driveway moments, an Animal Planet program about cats and humans, and Travel Channel vignettes.
For the most part, the division between these two iPods is a separation of the personal and the professional. I intermittently keep a journal. It is very rare that I share any of those personal reflections with anyone else. I'll continue to use my journal for introspection and the very, very personal. In Twilight Librarian I will share thoughts and ideas about professional issues and concerns. Some personal things will creep in, just as some personal podcasts have crept into the iPod mini. So you won't learn what I have eaten on a given day; our three children almost certainly don't want their lives discussed no matter how proud we may be of them; my wife is a very private person and likes it that way; and you won't read about what kept me awake during a recent night unless it relates somehow to my professional concerns. That is not to say, however, that my personal voice wont come through. If it doesn't, what's the point of a blog?
