My Life and Hard Times (Not Really!)

When you look at my vita and see how many jobs I've had, you're probably going to say: "What was she thinking!" But I don't regret any of it, and that's the most important thing. Many years ago, while I was still in my early 20's, I read a study which concluded that regret over paths not taken was a primary source of depression in the elderly... the "what if?" feeling... and I made up my mind then, that this would never happen to me.

I grew up near Springville NY, went to high school at Griffith Institute and college at the State University of NY at Buffalo. I finished my BA in English in 1969 and received an MLS degree from the Library School at SUNY Buffalo in 1972. Soon afterward I moved to St. Louis; while living there I married and divorced, and also spent 7 years working on the restoration of a row house built in 1876, which was on the National Register and located in Lafayette Square. I moved to Georgia in 1980, mainly to be closer to my parents, who'd relocated to the South in 1977. I bought a lovely house in the woods, and thought I would be settling down for good...but....

After a totally unexpected personal experience in 1981 which convinced me that--contrary to my previous belief--God really does exist, I became a convert to Catholicism, and in 1983 I decided to become a nun. I entered convents of two different Catholic orders, and remained in the last one (the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville) until 1990, when I decided it just wasn't for me, and I returned to Georgia for good!

Amazingly, my entire immediate family is all here in the metro Atlanta area: my parents fell in love with Carrollton and bought a house here a few years ago, and my brother Jon--who settled in Ohio after getting his PhD at Ohio State--now lives in Avondale Estates with his new wife, Mary (he lost his first wife to cancer some years ago). He has two daughters; the oldest has just completed her Bachelor's degree at Valdosta State University, and plans to enter Library School next semester. The younger one is a 3rd-year Law student at Florida State University. It's great to have everyone in the same state for a change! (Speaking of family, I think librarianship must be in our genes: I am proud to say that my cousin, Luanne Goodson, is a Database Specialist at OCLC--and my cousin-in-law, Jennifer Goodson, is Director of the Ft. Smith (AK) Public Library--and pretty soon, my niece Amber will be the 4th!)

I began working at West Georgia in August 1991 in a newly created position, Coordinator of Distance Learning Library Services. When the Library reorganized in 1996, I assumed the position of Head of Library Access Services, responsible for oversight of Circulation/Reserves, Inter-Library Loan, Distance Learning Support Services and Document Delivery. I love my job: working with distance education students has totally changed my thinking about what libraries can and should do for users.

Currently, I share a little house in Carrollton with 7 cats, one dog, and my Statue of Liberty collection. Besides collecting SOL stuff, I am also actively acquiring (mainly from eBay) materials which document the history of my hometown (Springville); eventually I plan to donate my Springville collection to the Concord Historical Society; in the meantime, I've started creating a website to display my Springville items: take a look at a work in progress! I also dabble a bit in genealogy, trying to illuminate the mystery of why my grandfather so clearly chose to disassociate himself from his parents, Peter and Bernice Jarmulowicz, and their Polish culture. Although I'm very happy in Carrollton, it is my fond hope to be able to retire back home to Western New York someday.

I received a second master's degree (English) from West Georgia in 1996, and was awarded tenure in 1997. I was promoted to Full Professor in 2004. My MA thesis was on Woody Allen, in which I discussed his work within the context of neo-romanticism; I presented a paper on Allen's use of music in his films at the FSU Film & Literature Conference in January 1997, which was included in a recently published Garland casebook. I hope to do more writing on Allen in the future. My most recent large project was a book on creating & implementing library programs for serving distance learners.