A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.
Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
I am in love with the power of the written word. It can evoke so many emotions, ideas, and memories. It has the power to divide. It has the power to bring change. It has the power to heal. The written word can be a placeholder for memories. Or the starting point for new adventures. We simply take the same words that everyone uses and arrange them differently, and the results can be profound… or funny… or factual… or sad. Has man created anything else that has so much power? I think not. But maybe one day your words will change my mind.
Some would say that I have lived a life of adventure. I have been the student, the teacher, the boss, the employee, and the entrepreneur. I have traveled the world and experienced life through different lenses. I have been in a constant state of learning through it all. And in all of my adventures, the written word has been a central character in each story.
Reading and writing have been my passion since I can remember. At the wisened age of nine, I knew that I wanted to be a television journalist. In elementary school, I helped start a school newspaper. My best friend and I also wrote a monthly newsletter for our neighborhood with tantalizing stories about suffocating on peanut butter and the mystery of who was doing donuts on the Penland’s well-manicured lawn. In high school, I was on the debate team, the school newspaper, and on the yearbook staff… any activity that would let me put pen to paper. I wrote poetry constantly and my collection circulated in the school halls. I was published in an anthology. One of my poems was even read at a graduation ceremony (not mine). In college, I was the co-editor of the community college newspaper. My favorite article was an essay on the right to vote; my earth science professor read it to the entire class. The Reflector allowed me to write about the university rugby team while I majored in broadcast journalism. My goals and dreams were right on track. Then I got a job working at a local television… and discovered another passion. Live television production.
Live tv is the ultimate adrenaline rush. Everything you do is instant and visible to whoever is watching. The instant gratification for a job well done was unbeatable. I loved working in tv production and I was very good at it. After almost eleven years, I left tv news production and began life as a freelance graphics operator. I traveled the world with HBO Boxing, Showtime, and other networks as a graphics operator and graphics producer. It was fantastic! But I never forgot about my love for the written word. And I found new ways to express that love… teaching adult literacy classes, mentoring elementary students in reading, and teaching computer basics and digital literacy to underprivileged young women. And while I was doing all of this, I found time to own and operate a social media business for seven years. Anything to keep utilizing the power of the written word.
It made sense to leave television when the pandemic struck. And I found a new love… librarianship at my local public library. This new love quickly drove me back to college to finish an undergraduate degree… in Library and Information Science. I then graduated with a master’s in Library and Information Science and a certificate in Archives and Special Collections. Now I am currently pursuing a Doctor of Technology from Purdue. I am working in an academic library and it feels like the culmination of everything I have done in this life. It has all been leading me to this new adventure… the clarity is palpable. I almost have no words…
Now I can only hope the passions that drive me… the love for the written word, the burden for digital literacy and education, the curiosity for research, and the desire to never stop learning… allow me to live a life full of service to my fellow co-workers and my community.
PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS
| View | BoodleBox AI Leadership Council a volunteer community dedicated to improving higher education through the responsible integration of collaborative AI |
| View | The Future of AI in Media presented at the Southern Spark: Mississippi’s AI Conference, July 2024 |
| Tune in to tomorrow: AI-driven podcasting and its possibilities published article that looks at several AI tools used in podcasting. Let me know if you need access. | |
| Video | Clay’s Council featuring Lara Taylor a podcast interview discussing the article Tune in tomorrow: AI-driven podcasting and its possibilities |
DOCTOR OF TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
PURDUE UNIVERSITY, POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
| Team Knowledge Primer a group project that dissect the multifaceted impacts of technological advancements on societal norms and structures | |
| Digital Notebook a digital notebook created for Emerging Technologies class |
MSU PROJECTS
We discovered a rare book in our collection, A portfolio of Carnegie libraries : being a separate issue of the illustrations from “a book of Carnegie libraries,” and I was given the opportunity to digitize it in our Digital Access unit. Digital Access uses the CopiBook system to scan books. The images are scanned into a .tif format. The images can be cropped and adjusted as scanned, I was given a tutorial and spent several hours scanning each page of the book. There were 120 pages so each one was scanned individually. Then the book was added to our school repository so current and future architecture students could access it. This was a great opportunity to learn about the scanning and digitization process, as well as learning how to use our repository.
The Emerging Technologies Committee for the MSU Libraries is one of my favorite activities. This committee has short-term and long-term goals to bring new technology and tools to the MSU Libraries. We are currently seeking our first grant and hope to know the results of that in April.
As the chair of this committee, I am learning invaluable leadership and team skills. We are truly a collaborative force and are looking to find ways to work with other units across the campus for the benefit of faculty, staff, and students.
SCHOLARLY PAPERS – mASTER’S dEGREE
| A Bibliometric Study of Artificial Intelligence Use in Academic Libraries a look at the available journal articles in the past 17 years | |
| Carnegie Libraries Presentation a slide show presentation of a portfolio of Carnegie Libraries | |
| Modern Editions: Kane and Abel a look at an expensive edition of the book by Jeffrey Archer | |
| Book Review a review of Burning the Books: A History of Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge by Richard Ovenden | |
| Book Review a review of Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala by Kirsten Weld | |
| University Medical Library Collection Policy my individual contribution to a collection policy written as a group project |
intro to emerging technologies – suny mooc
This section is a reflection of what I have learned in this course and how it has shaped me.
This was a project for a Certificate in “Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success” from The State University of New York.
In this section, I examine Gliffy.com, an online collaboration tool for diagramming and organization.
This was a project for a Certificate in “Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success” from The State University of New York.
Needing to design a newsletter for our student organization, I turned to Microsoft Sway to create a template.
This was a project for a Certificate in “Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success” from The State University of New York.
Communication and Collaboration
This section is a description of the online editing website, Moovly.com. There is a link to the video that I created as well as my thoughts on the resource.
This was a project for a Certificate in “Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success” from The State University of New York.
This section is a description of the graphic design website, BeFunky, and an example of a graphic created at BeFunky.com.
This was a project for a Certificate in “Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success” from The State University of New York.
mlis MEDIA PROJECTS
uNIversity OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI
Surreal in Mississippi
Jul 27, 2021
This is a YouTube video entitled Surreal in Mississippi. It was written, narrated, and edited by me. The music is provided by my brother.
This project taught me the nuances and importance of storytelling. I told a story about my transition from the Gulf Coast to North Mississippi. This project allowed me to use numerous skills – writing, narration, and editing. It has been a while since I have done something like this. I am really thankful to be reminded of how much I enjoy this medium.
This was a graduate school project in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This archive is a collection of coffee cups that I own. It includes a finding aid. This was my first archival project and was an invaluable learning tool. I learned how to categorize items, how to create a finding aid, and how to put it all together in a format that is visually appealing and easy to understand. This project has helped me greatly in my current work at MSU Libraries.
This was a graduate school project in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Dynamite – a dramatic reading
Jul 24, 2021
In this YouTube video, my puppet Terry performs a dramatic reading of the song Dynamite by BTS. I went completely outside of my comfort zone with this project. It is very goofy and fun. Terry, my puppet, is quite the performer. Me, not so much! Not only had we just learned this song, but it’s probably obvious that Terry was much more into this presentation than I was. Still, it is great practice at doing the uncomfortable things, and learning to laugh.
This was a graduate school project in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This archive is a collection of my Superman artifacts. It includes movies, tv series, figurines, notebooks, and other ephemerals. It includes a finding aid. I am a big Superman fan so this was a very personal project for me. It allowed me to work on refining my archival skills. I created another finding aid for this one. I also got to include some ephemerals in this collection, which was interesting to archive.
This was a graduate school project in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This website was created for another graduate class. It shows a few tips on how to successfully market your library on social media. It has pages that walk through using TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. It also includes thoughts on marketing with Snapchat, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Users will also find a basic guide to learning social media marketing. I’ve included a page with some of my favorite resources as well.
This was a graduate school project in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.
undergraduate MEDIA projects
University of southern mississippi
Not Your Mom’s Library is a blog that contains an older e-portfolio. Hopefully, there is a clear progression from then until now in the learning and application of Digital Humanities.
I built this Wix website as an undergraduate in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Discover Marvelous Reads is a simple website that contains picks selected just for fans of Marvel comics, movies, and tv. While this example is a typical example of undergraduate work, I offer it for comparison to my present-day skill set.
I built this Wix website as an undergraduate in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi.