We are delighted to announce that Hack Library School has welcomed eleven new contributing writers. We were all very impressed with the range of interests and experiences that they will bring to the blog.  Without further ado, here they are!

Ally Blumenfeld

Ally Blumenfeld is a first-year MLIS student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She also works full-time at the Paterson Free Public Library’s Reference Desk. For two years after graduating from Montclair State University, she served as an AmeriCorps Member in Paterson, NJ, teaching resume writing and computer skills to adults. Her burgeoning professional interests include urban libraries, outreach services to the LGBTQ community, and bridging the digital divide. When not falling madly in love with the library profession, Ally can be found reading Allen Ginsberg, eating vegetables, and going on adventures with her German Shepherd puppy. Ally also helps run Etched Souls, a vibrant online community of nearly 1,500 poets, and publishes their literary magazine. Visit fineartisticminds.com for more. And she’s somewhat of a Twitterphobe, but you can try to bolster her confidence by following her @allyblume.

Jasmine Burns

Greetings everyone! My name is Jasmine and I am in the trenches of my second and penultimate semester in the MLIS program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a concentration in  Archive Studies. After earning a Bachelor’s in Art History and Spanish Literature from the University at Albany in 2011, I completed a Master’s in Art History from Binghamton University in 2013. Among my many positions throughout college and grad school, I have worked as a museum educator and assistant curator of visual resources, and recently completed a Junior Fellowship in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. I am currently working as a digitization assistant in UW-Milwaukee’s Digital Collections, and as an archival processing intern at Marquette University’s Archives. Building from my Master’s thesis work, which was published this month in Art Documentation, my current research interests are focused around visual and material literacy in the archive, as well as issues surrounding the digital representation of visual materials. I serve in leadership roles in both ARLIS/NA and VRA, and I am the current intern for SAA’s Metadata and Digital Object Roundtable. On the rare occasion that I have some free time, I enjoy knitting and baking. I am very much looking forward to sharing and discussing my thoughts and experiences with the HLS readership in the coming months!

Christina Czuhajewski

Christina is a first-year MSI student at the University of Michigan School of Information. She is currently hacking (tailoring) a degree in library UX, educational technology, and data management. She works in the University of Michigan Libraries’ User Information and Discovery unit as a university library associate. Prior to grad school, Christina provided community outreach and instruction at public and academic libraries from California to Michigan. She loves library people–you should definitely say hi on Twitter @christinacz.
Dylan Burns

Dylan Burns is a first year MSLIS student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He works as the Digital Projects Graduate Assistant at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at UIUC. He holds a Master of Arts in Humanities from New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Southern Illinois University. His current interests are in archives, memory, trauma and nostalgia and he has written and presented on topics ranging from Chiquita Banana and the Latina Body, to the Country Music and the Apocalypse. You can follow him on twitter @ForgetTheMaine.

Bill Edwards-Bodmer

Bill Edwards-Bodmer is in his first year of library school as a distance student at Florida State University. He currently works as the Reference Training & Technology Specialist at Old Dominion University’s Patricia W. & J. Douglas Perry Library in Norfolk, Virginia. Before coming to ODU, Bill worked as Assistant Archivist at The Mariners’ Museum Library.  He has also taught United States history at ODU and Tidewater Community College.  Bill received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, both in History, from Old Dominion University.
Gennie Gebhart

Gennie Gebhart is a first-year online MLIS student at the University of Washington Information School. Prior to starting her degree, she researched public Internet accessibility and worked with university libraries in Laos and Thailand. She also worked in academic, media, and medical libraries for three years as an undergraduate. Gennie is now pursuing research opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her interests in LIS include digital divides and Internet inequalities, Open Access and other “open” movements, and international development. You can find Gennie on LinkedIn or contact her at gegebhart@gmail.com.

Sarah Hume

Sarah Hume is a part-time student at University College London, studying for her MA in Library and Information Studies.  She is a part time library assistant at the Geological Society of London and at the London Library, one of the world’s largest independent lending libraries.  A fully paid up member of the Fawcett Society, her library interests include the representation of women in classification schemes (hopefully the subject of her dissertation), as well as rare books and special collections.

An avid knitter and crocheter, when not studying or at work Sarah can usually be found working on one of her countless ongoing projects, drooling over wool she doesn’t need or asleep over her laptop.  She’s on LinkedIn, tweets @sarahfhume, can be found on Ravelry as Bubbles-McGee and sporadically blogs at datestampsandpapercuts.wordpress.com.

Liz McGlynn

Liz McGlynn is in her second year of the MSLS program at UNC Chapel Hill. Her professional interests include innovative modes of information literacy education, outreach, information access for underserved populations, and portraying academic librarians as real people. Fortunately she gets to work with many of these issues on a regular basis as a library assistant for the research & design department at UNC’s Undergraduate Library. She received a BA in English and psychology from the College of William and Mary in 2013 and continues to spend far too much time in overanalysis mode. When she has a spare minute she likes to make and eat good food, read good books, and listen to good music. You can reach out to her on Twitter @thelizbrarian.

Brenna Murphy

Brenna is currently an online MLIS student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She works at the library at the University of Illinois at Chicago and also volunteers at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. After graduation, She’d like to work in academic reference. Her non-library interests include cooking, knitting, biking, and cats of all shapes and sizes.

Ryan Randall

Ryan P. Randall is a second-year MLS student at Indiana University—Bloomington, where his coursework focuses on academic libraries from information literacy instruction to digital humanities. His student library positions span assessment, collection development, digitization of maps, instruction, and reference. Ryan pursues librarianship because libraries offer the most accessible and progressive version of the do-it-ourselves alternative spaces he researched while earning an MA in English and an MA in Visual and Cultural Studies. He’s constantly trying to make more time for yoga, running, and sound/music projects. You can get in touch with Ryan via Twitter @foureyedsoul, Tumblr, or his website.

Amy Wickner

I’m working on an MLS in Archives and Digital Curation at the University of Maryland, and am the digital projects graduate assistant at the UMD libraries.  Absent a research agenda, per se, I closely follow what’s happening in preserving born-digital news, architecture data curation, spatial humanities, and digital scholarly publishing.  In my non-library life, I play ultimate frisbee with DC Scandal — women’s national champs two years running!

You can find me on Twitter (@amelish).  Book reviews will be my focus at Hack Library School, so feel free to shout out ideas or titles worth a look.  Looking forward to talking books and praxis with everyone.