I first visited Scotland in April, 2012 for a couple days on Spring Break, while on a whirlwind tour of the British Isles with my roommate, Carolyn. We went full Highlander and took an overnight train from London to Inverness – the largest city in the Scottish Highlands – because we thought, “If you’re going … More What is it about Scotland?
Fresh from completing my Master’s (or is it Masters?) degree in Art History I had some pretty Hot Takes on the whole process, as you can read in my August 2015 essay, Grad School: One of Life’s Terrible Jokes. In the winter of that same year, I polished off my follow-up Masters in Library and Information … More What I Learned in Graduate School
Today, I want to help elucidate what it is we Librarians actually do. Public libraries are different from academic university libraries, school libraries, private libraries, museum libraries, and none of these are archives. I work at a standalone – we have no branches – Public Library in Ohio. Our community is landlocked by the larger … More What Even Is A Librarian?
Over the last few weeks at least a quintillion wonderful, creative, intelligent women got engaged in the United States. I have the privilege of being Social Media Friends with at least three of them. This morning at 5:00 AM, I was struck with inspiration to write to those recently engaged women who I admire and … More So, You’re Engaged!
In 2015, the year I moved to Columbus on New Year’s Eve, I made the resolution to keep a jar and write down things I accomplished or felt good about or moments I wanted to remember. This was especially great because after moving to a new city without a job, almost every day there was … More I Resolve
You can’t tell by looking at me that I have a master’s degree in art history. I concentrated in museum studies when I got my Master of Library and Information Science; I didn’t care about the Dewey Decimal or MARC. I wrote a sixty page thesis titled Capturing Otherness on Canvas: Sixteenth through Seventeenth Century European … More You Can’t Tell by Looking at Me
Defining Art has baffled philosophers, scholars, artists, politicians, and the public since the first red-ocher bead. An idea, a tangible object, a feeling: Art is as complex and mysterious as Love. Art has imbued me with critical skills, empathy, and passion. Art is part of my identity. … More Art Is
If you work in the service industry, it’s likely that you’ve come across various archetypes in the people you serve. While the average visitor is considerate and polite, or simply doesn’t require comment, occasionally, a member of The Public will send you into murmured fits of cursing, make your skin crawl, or induce fits of hysterical laughter. … More The Public
Baby Boomers, Gen-X, Millennials – we’ve all felt the sting of being lumped into an increasingly bleak portrait of our generation, without consent. Guided by hubris, we’ll click on a link with our respective label to see what we can learn about ourselves. We know these labels are oversimplified generalizations, but that doesn’t stop us from drawing … More My Life as a Thinkpiece
Every fall Hogwarts students around the world prepare for their return to the school of witchcraft and wizardry. When the leaves turn, I get nostalgic for the days when my next-door neighbor and I would fly around on our broomsticks in the backyard, curse Snape for his outrageous potions homework, and giggle about having crushes … More A Love Letter to Harry Potter
