It is hard to know where to begin in a mini biography! At the beginning, I guess. I am originally from the beautiful state of Oregon, but at age six moved to the equally lovely state of New York. My Mom was an English teacher and an insatiable reader, so she named me after the protagonist in one of her favorite books ("Jody" from The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings). Although growing up I swore I would never be a teacher, I guess I never stood a chance after being named after a literary character! After two colleges and four majors, I finally graduated with an art history degree from Geneseo and then continued in the Library Science program there for my Masters degree. Yes, there really used to be a Library School at Geneseo and I fortunately made it into their last graduating class (1983).

My first job (obtained while still working on my Masters) was at the small local public library in Pavilion (where I still live). I was the first librarian of the library which was created the year before by the historical society, mostly as an excuse to preserve an historic building. The library began with a collection of about a thousand donated second hand books. During my four years there, we managed to get the library permanently charted as a public library and had a resolution voted in by the townspeople that gave the library a budget and me a salary!  I had a one and a half year old daughter when I started my library career and she literally spent her preschool years growing up at the library as I was able to take her to work with me. She is now working on her dissertation for a doctorate in Renaissance literature, so I guess the literary gene is still being passed on! After my second child, a boy, was born, I decided it was time to make the move to becoming a SLMS. I worked for six years in a K-12 school of 300 students in Wyoming, NY, and loved the diversity of working with all ages of students. Then, when that school became K-8, I began in Livonia where I have been for 17 years, first in 7-12 (two libraries), then 7-8, one year in 4-8 (two libraries again) and back to 7-8.

I love working with middle school kids, and since I have worked with all age groups I can honestly say this is my favorite. Librarianship has changed so much in the past 25 years, but I love teaching new technologies. I am very fortunate that the Livonia district has been very supportive and that we have such dedicated and motivated librarians and library assistants in all our schools who are truly a joy to work with. Reading is still a priority at our library and we have an active young adult book club, the Page Sages.

Some of the things I do when not at school, on the computer or reading, are hiking (I hiked 80 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail this past summer and hiked in Yosemite last spring), horseback riding, and organic vegetable gardening. I try to eat locally produced foods as much as possible (one of my favorite books this year was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver) and spend time in the summer frequenting the farmer’s markets. My husband and I also like to visit flea markets during the summer to enhance our various “collections.”

I look forward to sharing with everyone during the next few weeks and am excited about all that I will be able to bring back to my school and my students.