Tricia Bohanon, MLIS – Alumni Spotlight

Tricia Bohanon

iSchool Graduation Date

1999

Professional Organizations/Affiliations

Former ALA/PLA/OLC 

Current responsibilities/How are you using your information skills?

My current responsibilities are twofold.  I started a library consulting business this year to leverage my experience, especially in the area of sensory/inclusive programming training, which is my passion in library service.  I’m also working in publishing as an Author Manager.  This is a fascinating switch of perspective to the other side of the books.  In this role, I support the authors I work with throughout their self-publishing process.        

What is the best professional advice you can give?

Let the path unfold before you by being open to opportunities.  A great example of this would be how I became involved in sensory programming in 2008 — totally by accident when I had a conversation with a parent about the absence of programming options for their child with autism.  That one conversation initiated years of research, programming, and training that evolves to this day and has benefited many families beyond Charlotte, NC where it originated.   

How do you encourage innovative ideas?

Innovation comes from a place of safety to expand through trial and error.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library was incredibly supportive because serving the customer is at the forefront of their focus, allowing for innovation in Sensory Storytime Programming at a time when it wasn’t yet a library program option.

Do you have a mentor? How have they influenced you?

While I’ve not had one mentor throughout my career, I’ve had some amazing managers to learn from over the years.  I recall one manager I worked with who could step out of the library doors and leave work behind with such ease that you could physically see her body language shifting to “home mode” as she walked across the parking lot to her car!  Her ability to do this was something I admired.  

What do you wish you had done earlier or more often?

I wish I became a library consultant sooner to share my passion for inclusive library services more broadly.  

How and where do you find inspiration?

I find my inspiration in nature and music.  For me the best way to recharge is a hike with Mahler on my headphones.  That’s when I get my best ideas. 

To what values are you committed?

I’m committed to community, service and honesty. 

How do you balance your work and home life?

I’m not the best at balancing work/home life, which is why I admired my former manager’s ability to do this!  I aspire to do this!  Yet I tend to throw myself into my work and working from home blurs the lines even blurrier!  When I do set boundaries, I make time to practice yoga, meditate, journal, hike, and spend time with my kids.

What are some challenges that today’s information professionals will face? And tomorrow’s?

Obviously, the pandemic is changing library service as never before, limiting our ability to program and interact with our customers and communities.  I think this will also be tomorrow’s challenge–to keep evolving to the environment around us to stay vibrant and valued.  

How can the library remain important to the community?

The library is wise to adjust in response to our current state of the world – and we are doing this!  It is apparent from the services that are happening during this time — virtual programming, personal shopping, curbside delivery. It’s exciting to see the innovation, even if the impetus isn’t ideal. 

What websites, apps, podcasts, or other resources would you recommend to explore?

As much as I love music and have it on pretty much nonstop, sometimes I need a break and lean on podcasts.  Lately I’ve been catching up on Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast and Curiosity Junkie.  

What is a book you like that you have to defend liking and what is a book you dislike that you have to defend disliking?

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli has been and will forever be my favorite teen book.  It’s not that I feel like I have to defend liking it, but it’s an older teen book so it tends to be overlooked.  I honestly can’t think of a book that I have defended disliking.  I’m not one to argue about books. 😉


Special thanks to the Kent State University iSchool Alumni Network for coordinating these profiles. Learn more about the Alumni Network on their Facebook page and group. Students are welcome to join and participate.

John Antill – Student Spotlight

What degree are you pursuing at the KSU iSchool?

Master of Science in Knowledge Management

Tell us a little bit about your academic and/or professional background and area(s) of focus.

Joined the military in 1998 as a Marine Firefighter. Learned a lot about the way different groups of people shared their ideas to allow firefighters to better and more safely complete their jobs. People worked with industries to identify areas that would be safe for firefighters to cut, bend, and work on. I got out of the Marine Corps in 2002 and started working contracts in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Knowledge there was shared for contracts, but nothing else. I returned to the States as I was completing my Bachelor of Science in Public Safety Administration. I graduated with honors as being part of the national honor society Alpha Chi with Summa Cum Laude distinction. I joined the National Guard as an Officer and it wasn’t until I went to FT Gordon and met Keith Davis that I realized what the fire departments were doing was knowledge management and I wanted to do more, as it enabled people to work faster and better. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, where I developed a way to do training online for the Information Management Course, which allowed soldiers to have elevated rights on computes. 

I moved to Augusta,GA in 2013 and worked at the Cyber CoE for a year. I picked up a contract working at Joint Force Headquarters Cyber (Army) in Nov 2014 and have been with them since. I wanted to better myself in knowledge management so I started on my degree in 2018. I went to the Army qualifier School for KM, Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, and took the certificate courses at KM Institute for the Certified Knowledge Manager (CKM), Certified Knowledge Specialist in Knowledge Transfer and Information Architecture, and finally i did a project to receive the Master of CKM.

Professional affiliations:

VFW,  American Legion, Signal Corps and the Signal Regimental Association, Cyber Regiment

Describe recent project(s) or research that you’ve been working on.

I am working on two projects to finish my degree. One is a research paper about a process to better classification and data transfer in the army. It will create a cost avoidance of $20,572,774 in manning hours with an average salary of $100,355 annually.

The second project I am working on is Crisis Management Calendar deconfliction. It goes over the different products and processes to align meetings with the business objectives to avoid wasteful meetings.

What iSchool class(es) have you enjoyed the most?

I’ve enjoyed the UX courses the most so far. The understanding of why a universal design is better than accessibility options. A well designed item will vastly outperform one that is designed around a specific needs group.

What issues related to information interest you most?

Shareability. It is one thing to find something you are looking for, but not to be able to access frustrates me.

Are there any websites, apps, podcasts or other resources you’d recommend other students explore?

Specifically no. What I would say is for every 2 podcasts, websites, apps, or resources you spend your time on, do 1 for fun. Life is a balance and too much of something you do not do for fun will set the precedence for your life. Find the balance of fun, work, and life to succeed.

If you had one superpower:

Time stop.

How do you like to spend time outside of work?

I like to ride motorcycles, swim, hunt, fish, and watch Sci Fi such as Dr Who.

How do you balance school with work and/or home life?

Since a true balance is never achieved, I try to make quality time with family since work is a straight amount of time. 

What career paths are you considering?

I am pursuing a way to increase Knowledge Management.

Do you have any other advice for other students?

Try to get all your homework and discussion areas done as early as possible, since you do not know what will come up for the weekend. Too many students wait until the weekend to do those and rush to get them done in time. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Say hi, thank you, and help out any chance you get. You never know if that is the next person to change your life.

Ash Faulkner, MLIS, MBA – Alumni Spotlight

Ash Faulkner

iSchool Graduation Date

2013

Professional Organizations/Affiliations

ALA, RUSA, ACRL, BRASS (Business and Reference Services Section), IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations)

Current responsibilities/How are you using your information skills?

I currently work as the Business Librarian at The Ohio State University Libraries.  It’s a subject librarian and liaison role so I basically serve as the contact point for anybody in the business college, visit classes for instruction sessions, and help researchers hunt down data.  I often joke about how funny it is that I got into librarianship because I love books but as a business librarian I work almost exclusively with databases, occasionally articles, and lots and lots of financial data.  Books?  Not so much.  (Don’t worry, I have lots at home.)

What is the best professional advice you can give?

Honestly?  I think networking is key, at least in academic librarianship.  Not that ‘who’ you know will necessarily get you places – the ‘what’ is still more important – but I think making connections within your specific field means you always have in mind someone who can help you crowdsource a particularly difficult reference question, and knowing people both in and outside the library on your campus means you might know someone else to connect the patron with, who might be able to help with the question better than you can.  Be friendly, be helpful without expecting anything in return, and keep in touch.  It’s really that simple.

How do you encourage innovative ideas?

I think the only way to really encourage innovative ideas is for there to be little negative consequence for failure; otherwise the risk is too high.  I’ve always been really lucky to work for institutions where I did feel comfortable to try to offer new services and when some of them did fail (as is inevitable) there was no downside to me.  Afterward, I would discuss with my supervisors what I learned from the experiment and whether it was worth iterating on the theme to try to improve success, or if it was an idea to scrap entirely.  And that’s okay too.

Do you have a mentor? How have they influenced you?

I have lots of informal mentors.  Back to my point on networking.  I love talking to people who have been in librarianship longer than I have, or have a deeper pool of knowledge in one area or another.  Mostly, I really just enjoy spending time with my mentors when I get a chance and getting their perspectives on things.  

For me, I never went out of my way to cultivate any sort of official ‘mentor’ outside of people that I just legitimately enjoy as friends also. Just these particular friends know more than me about this, that, or the other thing.  And I learn from them.  I guess the main ways I ‘use’ my mentors is mostly in helping me develop and fine tune outreach ideas or track down really obscure reference leads.  I suppose they’ve influenced me to think about where I’ll grow in librarianship as I get deeper into my career also.  I have consulted with one particular mentor, for instance, when I was considering each of my two job changes to date.  They helped me think through the pros and cons of moving into a new role.  Someone with twenty or thirty years in librarianship really has a different perspective to offer on something like that.

What do you wish you had done earlier or more often?

I wish I had learned a lot more about instruction and teaching theory before I started my first job because as a subject liaison in an academic library, you are actually expected to do a lot of one-shot class instruction sessions.  You can certainly just get up and lecture, but knowing how to provide really interactive and enjoyable instruction sessions is a huge plus.  Also, I so wish I had learned some basic statistics and coding.  I’m actually working on addressing that gap right now.  I took a stats class to get my MBA, but I need a serious refresher for my own research purposes and sometimes to help students understand what kind of data they need.  Coding?  Python, R, SAS, SPSS…  Any/all of those are gold in the job market right now.  Data librarianship is where it’s at.

How and where do you find inspiration?

As far as librarianship is concerned, I guess I’m inspired every time I work with a student to hunt down data and they come back to me and tell me how helpful I was and/or how they didn’t realize the library could do that for them.  I actually really enjoy super obscure data hunts; the hard to find, the better. 

To what values are you committed?

That’s kinda a big question.  If I had to choose one, I guess I go for ‘integrity’, as in my actions always match up to my words.  I say what I do and I do what I say.  I was always taught to consider with every single thing I do: Would I be happy if it was on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow?  (For more modern readers, maybe I should say, ‘gone viral online’ tomorrow.)  If the answer is ‘no’, maybe rethink that.

How do you balance your work and home life?

I’ve actually been really blessed to have only ever worked at institutions wherein work-life balance was valued.  (You can totally ask about this in your interviews!  And don’t just let them say ‘Oh, we value it.’  Ask how they support it.  I dropped out of the running for one job when they wouldn’t give me a concrete ‘how’.)  I’ve never had to struggle for this.  

I do also think you manage some of these expectations yourself.  Generally, I don’t answer work emails outside of my regular working hours. Mainly, I will email you back when I get to it in the queue tomorrow.  If you start answering emails at all hours of the day and night, it’s a lot harder to take your time back later.  Begin as you mean to continue.  If you’re salaried, you’ve agreed that you aren’t necessarily off clock as soon as your eight hours are up (most of us aren’t), but you are always entitled to enough time to eat, sleep, see your family and maintain your sanity.  There might be a few weeks out of the year when things are extra special crazy, but that shouldn’t be the norm.  Don’t let it be the norm. 

What are some challenges that today’s information professionals will face? And tomorrow’s?

If you’re in academic librarianship, I think you’re going to have to know some coding at some point.  Not just the data-heavy areas like mine, but text mining etc. if you’re in the humanities.  Overall in librarianship, I think there’s a lot of uncertainty about what libraries are and what they should be able to do moving forward.  Continuous professional development is probably not a bad idea.  

How can the library remain important to the community?

I think libraries are important to communities.  People overwhelmingly say they support their local libraries.  It’s just that their support doesn’t always translate into monetary support.  When competing priorities are school, police, and fire, the library just doesn’t always reach the cutoff.  I also think we’re not always particularly good at marketing ourselves.  (Also, also, I might not be the best person to answer this question.  I went into academic librarianship partially because I thought there was better job security.  I had a hard time imagining a big university arguing they didn’t need a library.  It’s kinda, you know, part of the vibe.)

What websites, apps, podcasts, or other resources would you recommend to explore?

I recommend getting on the listserv for whatever professional organization is most relevant to you.  Those are the conversations you want to make sure you’re keeping up with.

What is a book you like that you have to defend liking and what is a book you dislike that you have to defend disliking?

Okay.  Legit this question is really hard for me to answer.  I read such an insane mix of stuff.  My kitchen table right now has: an Agatha Christie, a book on police procedure, a book on theories behind increasing dogs’ longevity, a mythology book, a book on caving, a Sylvia Brown book, a book on cadaver dogs, an Olga Broumas poetry collection, and book on detective fiction…. Would any of that cause either a need to champion or defend?

I read YA or even middle grade fiction, so I guess I feel like I have to defend liking that sometimes.  For YA, I really liked Blood Red Road by Moira Young or, for middle grade, I liked Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty.  I categorically refuse to publicly ‘boo’ any books.  (I secretly nurture a far-off dream of being a fiction author someday and my apocalypse brain is whispering to me that anything I ‘boo’ will inevitably lead to me meeting said author at a conference someday and being very shamed indeed.)


Special thanks to the Kent State University iSchool Alumni Network for coordinating these profiles. Learn more about the Alumni Network on their Facebook page and group. Students are welcome to join and participate.

Don P. Jason III, M.L.I.S. – Alumni Spotlight

iSchool Graduation Date

2013

Professional Organizations/Affiliations

Medical Library Association (MLA), African American Medical Library Alliance (AAMLA)

Current responsibilities/How are you using your information skills?

I serve as the Health Informationist for the University of Cincinnati’s Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library. In my role, I assist clinical care staff with grant writing, literature searching, systematic reviews and outcomes-based projects. I also provide library instruction on clinical data capture tools, library databases and citation management software. The Health Informationist role is filled with dynamic challenges and there is a constant need to gain new technical skills. My job responsibilities recently expanded.  I was appointed to UC Libraries’ Research & Data Services Unit (R&DS). In this unit, I work with a committed team to plan events that teach the UC research community about data science.  The two events that I frequently assist with are the Data and Computational Science Series (DCSS) and Data Day. Both events feature innovative workshops, panel discussions and lectures given by distinguished speakers. The events cover topics such as high-performance computing, cloud computing, data visualization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. R&DS also teaches skill-building workshops on Python, R, and GIS software. It also provides individual consultations with researchers and their teams. In the consultations, R&DS team members develop data management plans and help researchers deposit their data into institutional repositories.

What is the best professional advice you can give?

I have three pieces of professional advice. One, I would encourage everyone to ask questions. Asking questions allows you to learn and grow as a professional. Seeking clarification gives you a deeper understanding of why your library functions in a specific way or why a policy or protocol is in place.  Two, I would encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and take calculated risks. For example, you may attend a conference that is slightly ‘out of scope’ for your job or decide to push yourself to take on a leadership role at your library.  Three, I would encourage information professionals to collaborate with researchers outside of their field. I have been fortunate enough to do this during my career.  In 2017, my library was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) / National Library of Medicine (NLM) Informationist Supplement Grant. This grant program encourages NIH-funded researchers to add librarians to their research teams. In my case, the research team was studying manganese exposure in Appalachian communities. Three librarians were added to the team to update the study’s website with consumer health information. We also created data visualizations to illustrate the team’s research findings. Finally, we helped the research team deposit data into the UC institutional repository. This interdisciplinary experience helped me grow as an information professional.

How do you encourage innovative ideas?

I encourage innovative ideas by listening more than I speak. Whether it is in a meeting or simply while I am in the public areas of my library, my ears are always open. I believe that I can learn something from everyone I meet. I am a lifelong learner and I look at each person I interact with as my teacher. In academia we oftentimes overlook life experience and assign value based on the number of degrees attained, the number of publications written, and the number of awards accumulated. However, innovation cannot thrive in an environment where success has such as narrow definition. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone brings life experience to the table and adds value to the conversation.

Do you have a mentor? How have they influenced you?

Yes, I am a strong believer in mentors. I have mentors that work in medical libraries, government libraries, and in higher education. I would recommend that everybody has a mentoring team that they go to for support and guidance. You may include someone who serves as a life coach/ personal advisor on your mentoring team. You may have a mentor that is a midcareer librarian and another mentor that is in a senior level management role.  Overall, your mentoring team’s roster is totally up to you. However, I would recommend including diversity on your team. Including people of different genders, ages, and ethnic backgrounds broadens the perspective of your mentoring team. Finally, I would also encourage you to mentor someone else. Even someone fresh out of library school has a story to tell and knowledge to share. All it takes to serve as a mentor is a willingness to give your time, an ability to listen, and an open mind.  

To what values are you committed?

I am committed to the values of equity, inclusion, and cultural competency. I believe in approaching every situation with a growth mindset. I believe we can learn from our mistakes and use them to learn and grow as professionals and as people.  

How do you balance your work and home life?

I balance work and home life by finding hobbies that I enjoy. I have started embracing health and fitness. I work out for one hour per day. I turn my cell phone and email off and consider this to be my ‘me time.’ Workouts include lifting weights at the gym or just going for a walk in my neighborhood. I find it refreshing to be alone with my thoughts. I generate my best ideas during my workouts.  

What are some challenges that today’s information professionals will face? And tomorrow’s?

Information professionals of today and tomorrow face several challenges. The first challenge is visibility. Librarians are very good at doing behind the scenes work. They conduct literature searches for faculty. They manage citations for research teams. They catalog and index resources, etc. These tasks are vitally important to institutions’ academic missions, but the decision-makers and higher-ups do not see them.  Librarians must step into the forefront and show that they add value to their institutions. They will need to move from introverts to extroverts and become their own cheerleaders. They can do this by advocating for co-authorship on articles and grant applications. They can join high-profile committees at their universities. Librarians can also find ways to lead initiatives and serve as project managers. Second, librarians will need to learn technical skills at a rapid pace.  Professional development funds are few and far between in most libraries, so learning new skills in traditional ways may not be possible. Librarians must explore creative ways to gain skills. They may choose to attend free local training events, take Coursera classes, or watch training videos on YouTube or LinkedIn Learning.  

How can the library remain important to the community?

Libraries can remain important to the community by embracing the concept of outreach. I work in a health sciences library that does a lot of consumer health outreach. Our outreach team distributes consumer health information at local health fairs. We staff health information tables at local nursing homes and at public libraries. We even give presentations to K-12 students. We have also expanded our outreach efforts to increase regional impact. In the summer of 2019, my library teamed up with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to bring the All of Us Research Program to the UC campus and to the Cincinnati community. All of Us sent their mobile exhibit called the ‘Journey’ to visit us for two days.  As a result of this visit, we taught 120 community members about precision medicine. In 2018, my library received Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) funding to install health information kiosks and blood pressure kiosks in a community housing development and in a branch of the public library.  We also used the funding to create a consumer health website and to coordinate healthy cooking demonstrations for the community.  In conclusion, libraries must do outreach to remain relevant and visible in their communities.


Special thanks to the Kent State University iSchool Alumni Network for coordinating these profiles. Learn more about the Alumni Network on their Facebook page and group. Students are welcome to join and participate.

Shelley Blundell, Ph.D., M.L.I.S – Alumni Spotlight

iSchool Graduation Date

2009 (MLIS), 2015 (Ph.D. in Communication and Information)

Professional Organizations/Affiliations

College Media Association
College Media Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Document Academy
National Education Association
National Organization for Student Success
Ohio Education Association
Proceedings from the Document Academy Editorial Board
Society for Collegiate Journalists
Society of Ohio Archivists

Current responsibilities/How are you using your information skills?

As an assistant professor of journalism and communication at Youngstown State University, I incorporate my “information skills” into every aspect of my position – which includes teaching, scholarship and service. This includes a) incorporating ‘academic research best practices’ presentations into all of my undergraduate and graduate courses in both fields, b) collaborating on numerous teaching and scholarly projects with librarians and archivists from the university’s Maag library, and c) serving in committee roles where I can put my information and research skills to the best use of the goals of the committee (e.g. I am currently Communications Chair for the faculty union and in this role, I spend a great deal of time crafting messages based on research conducted to support the goals and needs of union membership).

What is the best professional advice you can give?

Librarianship and archival work is changing and so must you – be open to a variety of different positions and be on the lookout for ‘out of the norm’ professional development opportunities that could give you a leg up on the competition in newly created positions (such as digital content manager, social media manager, etc.). There are many exceptional and free professional development resources, and you have access to many of pay resources as an alum of the iSchool, so be sure to look into these and bolster your skills and talents whenever possible.

How do you encourage innovative ideas?

Through critical thinking and problem-based learning activities – many ‘innovative ideas’ come from a simple assessment of problems we face on a daily basis, so giving people the ability to consider these problems from an informed, research-based perspective often leads to fascinating, implementable results. For me, truly meaningful innovation comes not from thinking of something no one has ever thought about before in an area that doesn’t yet exist – it comes from considering problems we experience daily or frequently from the perspective of different people, and using our skills, knowledge, and research ability to find constructive and implementable solutions to those problems for the benefit of the whole.

Do you have a mentor? How have they influenced you?

I am fortunate enough to have ‘accumulated’ many mentors over my life (or as Patrick Wilson would call them, ‘cognitive authorities,’), and they all influence me in different ways. Those who influence me the most encourage me to keep learning, keep asking questions, and keep pushing forward on my ideals and motivations, inspiring others to do the same, while never losing the ability to be ‘open-minded’ and to admit that I am wrong and have more learning to do.

What do you wish you had done earlier or more often?

Found a way to cultivate my many passions in constructive and daily ways. Sometimes life gets so busy affording time to developing research in areas about which I am most passionate seems impossible – but I must make time. I am working on that now. As my favorite Edward Norton character “Smoochy” once said: You can’t change the world, but you can make a dent.

How and where do you find inspiration?

From the incredible work and projects of my colleagues (such as KSU iSchool Alumni Network President Greg Stall) – I love hearing about the great works of others and how they are having numerous positive impacts on different people – success is inspiring but so too, in its way, is failure – learning what doesn’t work to me is just as valuable as learning what does.

To what values are you committed?

Integrity, follow-through, and open-minded collaboration.

How do you balance your work and home life?

I’ll let you know when I figure that out. 🙂

What are some challenges that today’s information professionals will face? And tomorrow’s?

Teaching others how to be critical thinkers and curious, responsible consumers (and proliferators) of information – misinformation and ‘fake news’ have been around forever, but social media and the 24-hour news cycle have given it a power and mass dissemination ability not previously experienced and this is causing chaos and, in the case of COVID-19 misinformation, great illness and even death. We cannot approach those who continue to proliferate misinformation as ‘snobs’ or ‘arrogant know-it-alls’ – we must always endeavor to find common ground and to be willing to understand the ecological information-seeking processes of others, so that we can learn how best to engage with others in imparting the skills of responsible information stewardship and acquisition.

How can the library remain important to the community?

By being responsive to the needs of its communities – and that means the WHOLE community. Encouraging participation of those in communities who are at-risk or in the minority is just as important as serving the needs of the majority within a community, and libraries must continually seek to be places of learning, where information can be explored from multiple perspectives and with the benefit of available resources that people can use to inform their personal decision-making. However, libraries cannot ‘shirk’ their duties by saying ‘all information is equal’ and by remaining passive or neutral on critical issues influencing and shaping today’s societies (see comment: Encouraging participation of those in communities who are at-risk or in the minority) – libraries ARE political and they are not neutral. Racism and hate speech are not ‘informed positions’ – indeed, it is the lack of information that leads to ignorant perspectives and opinions. We do not have to actively change people’s minds (for such is nigh impossible) but we must take an active role in providing people with many different information resources that could lead them to change their minds on their own, in a place where their ignorance is not ‘shamed’ but rather, explored – in this, we are neutral: Our charge must be to provide people with the resources to inform themselves and as such, we cannot pass judgment on those coming to us seeking to learn.

What websites, apps, podcasts, or other resources would you recommend to explore?

From a knowledge perspective? Not quite sure – I’m a huge fan of historical and true-crime podcasts, so in the “history” category, I recommend “Lore,” “Imagined Life,” and “Disgraceland” – really compelling takes on learning more about history!

What is a book you like that you have to defend liking and what is a book you dislike that you have to defend disliking?

This may sound like a cop-out, but I don’t embarrass anyone for their reading choices (myself included) – if you are reading, you are learning, so I would rather recommend people read as often and as many different types of books and genres as they can.


Special thanks to the Kent State University iSchool Alumni Network for coordinating these profiles. Learn more about the Alumni Network on their Facebook page and group. Students are welcome to join and participate.