Source: allanet.org

Thanks for visiting my website. Feel free to look around; you might find the “Blog Categories” section of the right sidebar a good place to start.

As a companion to my ALLA/AACRL Best Practices Mini-Session, I’ve compiled Access to Electronic Resources for Patrons with Disabilities, a collection of resources for those who would like to learn more about library services and people with disabilities. The list is hardly exhaustive, but I hope it will provide interested persons with a good start. The links are also available via the Delicious social bookmarking service: mbfortson’s alla_access Bookmarks on Delicious.

Those seeking additional information on library services and people with disabilities may also be interested in this Crash Course in Library Access & People with Disabilities.

Feel free to contact me via the “contact” link or the comments below, and thanks for visiting.

As the Lifestream plugin and the RSS feed for my Delicious bookmarks aren’t playing nicely, I’m jettisoning the weekly link roundup in favor of a Links page. Previous Link Roundup posts have been removed, but the links shared remain accessible via Delicious and this blog’s Links page.

Why bother with the link roundup posts in the first place? I began publishing them after discovering Nicole Engard’s What I Learned Today, specifically her link sharing posts. I liked the idea of using shared bookmarks to not only organize and share information but also to convey learning, knowledge, interests, and even personality.

I originally compiled and published links in individual posts, but decided to give the Lifestream plugin a try after seeing it in use on Jenny Levine’s The Shifted Librarian. I’m not sure if or when I’ll start using it again- I’m doing a lot of my sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader- but, until I stop using shared bookmarks for the reasons mentioned above, I’ll probably continue to share them here.

Library Day in the Life is an event in which library workers share the details of their work via blogs, Twitter, Flickr and/or YouTube. Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

You may also be interested in my (and other Twitter users’) tweets tagged #libday4.

In order to avert a total #libday4 fail, I would like to share a final thought. In June 2009, I found and bookmarked Bell & Shank’s definition of the blended librarian, which has become a professional philosophy of sorts:

An academic librarian who combines the traditional skill set of librarianship with the information technologist’s hardware/software skills, and the instructional or educational designer’s ability to apply technology appropriately in the teaching-learning process.

What does being blended mean to me? It means that, regardless of the setting- library, information center, school, university, private, non-profit, and beyond- I think I will be satisfied and effective in my work if I am facilitating access to information, using emerging technologies, and supporting teaching and learning.

Library Day in the Life is an event in which library workers share the details of their work via blogs, Twitter, Flickr and/or YouTube. Read other Library Day in the Life meLISsa blog posts or, for more information about the project, visit the Library Day in the Life wiki.

You may also be interested in my (and other Twitter users’) tweets tagged #libday4.

Why, then, participate in an blog event designed for “any one who works in a library”? I’m contributing to this Library Day in the Life Round 4 because:

a. I liked participating in Round 3.
b. I enjoy the sense of professional community that comes with participating in online events like this one, the Louisville Free Public Library Blogathon, the Young Librarian Series, and the 1st Annual Holiday Online Secret Santa Extravaganza.
c. I’m a librarian*, damn it.

*Or, as my website tagline states, an information professional.

How can one be a librarian without working in a library? I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Occupational Outlook Handbook says it well:

More and more, librarians apply their information management and research skills to arenas outside of libraries—for example, database development, reference tool development, information systems, publishing, Internet coordination, marketing, Web content management and design, and training of database users.

Jobs for librarians outside traditional settings will grow the fastest over the decade. Nontraditional librarian jobs include working as information brokers and working for private corporations, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms. Many companies are turning to librarians because of their research and organizational skills and their knowledge of computer databases and library automation systems. Librarians can review vast amounts of information and analyze, evaluate, and organize it according to a company’s specific needs.

In my current role as an Academic Coordinator for the online division of a private, for-profit career college, I oversee virtual classroom operations. This isn’t a role I anticipated when I decided to pursue a career in librarianship, but my MLIS coursework led me to work with learning management systems and instructional design. This, combined with my education and professional experience, enables me to analyze, evaluate, and organize information to meet the needs of the institution’s faculty, staff, and students. To me, this facilitation of access to information is the essence of library work.

I’m looking forward to hearing about your Library Day(s) in the Life, both in and outside library walls.

“…My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation…”
Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

Mission accomplished.