Just about every iPhone application also works on an iPod Touch, but with sometimes significant limitations. For instance, all of that cool location-based functionality that iPhone users get to have isn’t available for the iPod Touch since it is wifi only. When I’m at work, for example, there is no wifi access that I can use. Well, there is wifi access but I’m prohibited from using it. (Oh how I wish for ubiquitous, free wifi wherever I go!)

I’ve tried quite a few of the free apps in the Apple App store and like most of them, but I was particularly excited to read this a.m. of the availability of a WordPress app. This app is free and it works quite well from what I can tell so far. If you are an iPhone or iPod Touch owner and also manage a WordPress blog then this software is a must-have.

Other apps that I particularly like so far include the Facebook app, Twitterific, WeatherBug, and Stanza (a free ebook reader that I think is quite functional). Another free app that I think is really cool but is more of a geeky showpiece than something practical and useful at this point, is PangeaVR.

Some other library bloggers have pointed out the lack of library-oriented applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. I agree that this is unfortunate and I look forward to reading about new developments in this space soon. I wish I was smart enough to develop something myself, but I’m not.

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*Stop Copying*

Yesterday I found the complete manual, nicely scanned and FREE for downloading as a PDF file because someone helpfully posted it on an Internet forum.  I was thrilled!  I immediately printed it out and put it in a binder to keep.  Having the manual makes a big difference because although bread machines are pretty easy to use, each one has its quirks and recommended ways of doing things such as what order to use when adding ingredients.  Last night I made a nice, basic rustic loaf and it turned out great.

Today I decided to make challah bread, one of my favorites.  I used the recipe that came in the manual of our bread machine.  I noticed at the end of the instructions that it calls for six, not three, braids.  I’ve never done six braids before.  I sat there trying to figure out what to do for a few minutes and then decided, forget that, I’ll make two loafs with three braids each.  That’s pretty easy to do!  But then I thought afterward, I wonder if there is any information on the Internet that might help me figure out how to do the more complicated braid?  A quick Google search on “how to braid six” brought me to the Chai Time blog replete with a nice video demonstrating exactly how to do it.  Very cool!

In all of this, I was reminded once again that the Internet can be a wonderful resource at times.  I would never, ever have been able to learn and do these things, to find the needed information so quickly, if there was no Internet available.

Today in the Chronicle of Higher Education there is an article (it’s freely available, you don’t need a subscription to access it) about a proposal made by the creators of Zotero to put it on steroids.  Put simply, they intend to make Zotero the tool of choice for researchers, scientists, professors, and others to load their research works into a shared database hosted by the Internet Archive.  The article notes the general failure (oh wait, I mean, lack of success) that libraries have had with doing this on an institution-by-institution basis using tools such as DSpace.  There is a scathing review about so-called institutional repositories and their use by libraries by one of the people I’d deem to be a foremost expert on utilizing DSpace, Dorothea Salo. It is well worth reading.

Anyway, I think this whole idea — actually, it’s more than that because the Mellon Foundation just dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars to make it a reality — has many beneficial implications and I hope Dan Cohen and his team at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University have all the success they hope for with it.  (Thanks to Wally Grotophorst for the mention.)

I agree with her on this.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  When I look back on the past sixteen years of being a professional librarian and on what events or involvements I am most proud of, they all involved taking a risk.  I well remember how nervous I was when taking on a fairly major management position after only about three years of being a serials cataloger (which was my first full-time job, ever).  I literally lay awake at night worrying myself sick, wondering, what on earth had I gotten myself into?!  It was definitely a trial by fire.  There were significant conflicts and problems needing to be effectively dealt with literally from day one.  One of the mandates I was given was to completely revamp workflow so that my unit would not only be able to keep up with current receipts (i.e. no adding to backlogs), but to also reduce and get rid of longstanding backlogs, and do all of this with fewer staff than my predecessor.  Because of the quality of the people with whom I worked, these goals were met and a lot of progress was made.  But there was not one day that went by that I didn’t feel nervous or worried about my responsibilities.  It was all worth it, though.  I grew personally and professionally by leaps and bounds.

Then there was the opportunity to lead a major professional library organization, which I’ve talked about a bit in the past.  I had never dreamed it would be possible to be nominated, let alone elected.  Yet I went ahead and agreed to be put on the ballot, anyway, in spite of others whom I respect telling me that I shouldn’t expect to get elected given the caliber of the person I was running against.  I thought, why not?  If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, well, it would be good experience either way.  To my delight and shock, I won.  I was the youngest elected president in NASIG’s history (I think I still hold that particular record); I had no prior Board experience; everyone else with whom I would be working was deeply experienced and significantly older than I was at the time.  I think the Board member (Carol Diedrichs, now Dean of Libraries at Kentucky) who was nearest to me in age was ten years my senior.  This is not a bragging session but rather a way to make clear just how big of a risk this was for me.  I was delighted, yes, but completely, utterly terrified as well.  It was one of those situations where you need to be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

A third milestone event involving a big risk on my part was agreeing to teach a class in the distance education curriculum at my alma mater, UIUC GSLIS.  This class had been taught before but I basically had to start from scratch to create the course.  Again (and honestly, this is no exaggeration) I was terrified.  I can’t tell you how many times I mentally kicked myself, saying to myself, “Why oh why did you ever agree to do this!”  The fear of failure was so all-consuming.  I lost countless hours of sleep.  I couldn’t eat sometimes, I felt so nervous.  And that was just before the class started.  When I had to do the class every week, each time was like the first time and I was nervous, self-doubting, and upset every time.  I would get home from work and after Michele and the children were in bed, I’d go and work on the class until two or three a.m.  I managed to survive for about five weeks of this, and then I became really, really sick with meningitis and ended up in the hospital, twice.  Because of the love and kindness of others who stepped in and helped me out, I was able to get better and finish the course.  I felt that I had done a terrible job but at least I had done it.  I went on to teach that course two more times.  It got a little easier with time but it still felt like a huge risk.

I have to say that there were other risks I took where there was significant failure on my part.  For example, one of my best library friends asked me to co-author a book with her, and I agreed.  Yet instead of fulfilling my responsibilities, I largely left her in the lurch.  I’m still trying to get over the guilt of that experience and it happened years ago.  Sadly, that isn’t the only example of failure.

Aside from this blog, I have largely withdrawn from direct, active participation in the profession.  My choice.  But I want to point out that risk-taking didn’t end there.

A tumultuous and highly risky decision I made in the early 90s was to leave the Christian fellowship in which I had been raised since I was a baby.  Repercussions of this decision exist even today and probably will bother me all of my life.  I completely left the society and “comfort zone” that I had known and functioned within all of my life.

There was more change to come a few years later.  Probably the riskiest thing I ever did in my whole life was to ask Michele if she’d go out on a date with me and then, within a short time after that first date, I asked her to marry me.  Incredibly, Michele (and Keegan, whose permission I asked for) said Yes.  As a result, in one fell swoop I took on the role of husband AND father, two things I had never done before.  These roles have dominated my life since, and I have no regrets at all.  Each additional child we were blessed with was yet another step into the unknown in so many ways.  Moving several times, taking new and different jobs, were all involved in the risks I’ve taken in recent years.

How grateful I am to have even had these opportunities!  Many of them were presented to me, but also, many of them were opportunities I actively pursued.

It’s not all been successful.  I have failed miserably more times than I can count.  But I have also enjoyed success (although I’d define “success” in a much more well-rounded way than some).  I have experienced things I would never experience if I hadn’t stepped out in faith and told myself, Give it a try!