Lori is the Technical Services Librarian at Carson-Newman University/Stephens-Burnett Memorial Library in Jefferson City, TN (2900 FTE). She has been a member of ACL since 1996.
Librarian Career
I began my career as a librarian…as a student worker at Mid-South Christian College and then as a student worker then secretary at Cincinnati Bible Seminary (as it was then known). After a brief period of working in a church, I ended up back in the library at Rhodes College in Memphis as a paraprofessional in the cataloging department. The seminary called me back to be a reference assistant, offering to pay for my MLS. I worked at the seminary in Cincinnati for about 10 more years before joining Carson-Newman, first as Technology & Serials Librarian and then Technical Services Librarian.
Between the Pages: Getting to Know Our Member of the Month
Describe yourself using a book title: The Case of the Crazy Cat Lady
What’s the best thing about being a librarian? Serving the information needs of others. With me that is by creating catalog records that help library users find the items they need. I often add contents fields or summaries to aid in this.
What are you currently reading? Motty Hasofer’s A Guide for Life Through the Eyes of the Book of Esther, Damien Lewis’s Agent Josephine, Holy Bible, Jeffrey Siger’s Assassins of Athens, Karen Swallow Prior’s You Have a Calling, Candice Smithman’s 365 Prophetic Revelations from the Hebrew Calendar
How do you as a librarian contribute to your campus or community? I currently serve on the Online Learning Committee; I also serve as a mentor for First Generation Students through Tri-Alpha; I have served on other committees and as committee chairs and as a student organization sponsor in the past.
Do you have any specific interests in the library world? Genealogy and Authorities (which allows me to use my genealogy skills as I create name authority records).
What are your hobbies or interests outside of work? Counted cross stitch and genealogy.
ACL Involvement
How were you introduced to ACL? The ACL Conference was held in Cedarville, Ohio, about an hour away from my home in Cincinnati, in 1990. Our director paid for all of us to go.
Describe ACL in three words: Kind, caring, community
What do you value about ACL? The conferences. Over the years, I’ve built relationships with librarians across the country at conference. I also enjoy the informal times of sharing experiences that we tend to have at conferences.
How are you or have you been involved in ACL? Over the years I’ve been involved in a lot of ways such as conference presenter, public relations, and as the Conference Host in 2015. Today I serve as Retrospective Indexing Coordinator for Christian Periodical Index.