About Me

Professional | Personal

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Professional

I am an academic librarian currently working at Mt. Hood Community College, in Gresham, Oregon. I have been lucky enough to participate in librarianship across the globe and the United States, having also worked in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Wisconsin, and Texas (see my résumé page). I practically grew up in libraries, and I have several years experience in academic and public libraries and teaching information literacy. I earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Texas and a bachelor’s in English from West Texas A&M University. My professional interests include information literacy, intellectual freedom, international relations, and mentoring and training new librarians.

While working at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, I participated in the inaugural WeLead program, a program for mentoring leaders in the library field. Through the support of WeLead, I became active in the Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA). I was lucky enough to meet the smart, generous, and incomparable Judith Krug (1940-2009) at the WLA Annual Conference in 2007, which led to my internship on the national Intellectual Freedom Committee and active involvement in the American Library Association (ALA).

From 2008-2011, I lived overseas and worked at Zayed University, located in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. Our international adventure was a fantastic experience, and since 2009, I have been involved in ALA’s International Relations Round Table and International Poster Session Committee.

Click here for an online interview to read more about my background and outlook on academic librarianship.

I have also researched librarian portrayals in film for over a decade, which has led to starting up my Reel Librarians blog (see my Web Projects page), which blends both my professional and personal interests of librarians and movies. With the Reel Librarians blog, I get to take a deeper look at how librarians are portrayed in film.

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Personal

I am a proud second-generation librarian! My mother is a semi-retired school librarian, and I vividly remember her master’s degree graduation ceremony (I was in the second grade). A sudden storm totally rained out the ceremony which was taking place in the football stadium, and my older brother and I danced the “Singin’ in the Rain” dance on our way to the gymnasium to pick up her diploma. Good times.

My first few years were very exciting — I was born overseas and travelled to many countries, all before my second birthday. My parents moved overseas to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the 1970s to work as teachers. They worked through the International Schools Services (ISS), which places educators to schools in over 150 countries. They taught at the Jumeirah American School, now known as the American School of Dubai. My family lived in the city of Dubai for several years, and during that time, I came along! I was born at the Rashid Hospital in Dubai.

My parents then moved back to the United States, eventually settling in a rural area in the northeast corner of Texas, called Sulphur Bluff. My father was the elementary principal of the K-12 school, as well as the bus driver, social studies teacher, and basketball scorekeeper. My mother was the school librarian, math teacher, and whatever else they needed her to be. I grew up there and graduated as the high school valedictorian, as my brother had done. And even though I no longer live in Texas, I still am committed to using the word y’all — and I hope to spread its use wherever I go!

I have been married to Samuel Snoek-Brown for over 11 (very happy) years. His surname was Snoek, mine was Brown, and together, we’re the Snoek-Browns. Easy tip to pronounce our last name correctly:  The first part, “Snoek,” rhymes with “book.” Appropriate for a librarian, no? We married in a tiny little community church in Poetry, Texas. Yes, we were both English majors.

My husband and I now call Portland, Oregon, home, and plan to keep it that way. We enjoy travelling, watching movies (of course!), reading good books, drinking good coffee, blogging (!), and hiking through Oregon’s gorgeous natural scenery. Our two beloved cats, Ibsen and Brontë, are world travelers, too!

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