When I first recieved my letters of acceptance to join the Information School at the University of Washington, I was a K12 librarian in a rural school.  I dreamed of managing a special collection. It is an amazing dream come true for me that I am responsible for a very special collection housed in a public library. A collection rich in history, including my specialty, Irish history and literature. I am currently the Director of the Butte Silver Bow Public Library. I am a Montana State Library PEEL scholar.  I have been active in learning about the Open Source community during my time at UW’s I School.  I have been mentored by an amazing faculty that encouraged my curiosity and gave direction to my inquiry. Now I am working on a way to digitize the special collection of photographs, journals, diaries, and rare monographs.  The Montana Memory Project is one way to accomplish this goal. You will notice on the link they are using CONTENTdm  a OCLC program and Dublin Core metadata. It is an exciting challenge and one I am ready to meet. My time at the Information School has prepared me. The past two years I have studied hard, worked hard and never doubted for a minute that I was on the right Information track.  

In the excellent tradition of the Information School, I will RE-PURPOSE this weblog to provide information about open source options to the Montana library community. After all, repurposing what I have studied is proof of the effectiveness of my instructors and mentors.

 At times, I admit, it was like trying to drink from a firehose! 

Check out the blog “Haacked” on the Blogroll. It is illustrative of the “firehose” concept.  You will have to use the back key here because the blog links do not open in their own window. All other links will open in their own windows.

Please take a minute and watch Laura Cohen’s YouTube mash up titled the Librarian’s Manifesto on the left side of this page. It represents the new age of librarianship and for me-  It is motivational!

The next page titled “ELEMENTS” will introduce the elements of my educational experiences at the Information School.