*Dirty Librarian*

I believe that prefaces are necessary to set the tone of any creative expression; whether it be a brief item description set next to a museum display or the literal preface of a novel, it is simply more effective that the author of any work provide his or her audience the necessary fallow period in which to assemble a foundation to support whatever new work is about to be interpreted, instead of throwing the circus prized gold-fish immediately into frigid sink water and hoping it will survive the initial shock. So, here, I offer, although with much brevity, and introduction to myself and to this blog, for the sake of anyone reading, and as a method to avoid the work I know I should be doing instead.

At 23 years of age, I am the youngest member of the NASA Glenn Research Center's Technical Library. My official title is a Part-Time Bibliographic Data/Science Librarian, which puts me as one of only three non-civil servant librarians at this center. Although I often involve myself in department wide concerns, my primary job is to manage the Exploration Soil Bibliographic Database, created by one Dr. Allen Wilkinson as a repository for research into lunar and Martian soils and soil simulants. The database itself is a wiki, and when I am not entering data directly into the 2.0 software, I use a program called JabRef to organize my BibTex citations before uploading them to Dr. Wilkinson's wiki.

Yet, this library thing is certainly a shocking new direction for me, considering my plan only two years ago to pursue my Master and eventually PhD of English Literature. I entered the Kent School of Library and Information Science one year ago because I decided I needed to step away from literature for awhile without leaving the realm of information. I was mostly interested in academic librarianship, and quickly developed an interest in studying the application of Web 2.0 software within the library environment. With a dearth of experience in the field, I spotted a job ad and applied immediately for a part-time library position willing to accept an MLIS student, eager to replace my 3 and 1/2 years of barista work with something more mentally stimulating and relevant.

Funny, the add mentioned nothing about employment at NASA...

Yet here I am, obviously having succeeded in landing the job, and I read about Mars and the moon every day that I am here, and can tell you more about regoliths and Discrete Element Methods then I ever thought I would know! So, I hope with this blog I can document my experience here at the NASA library and maybe offer advice about the union of bibliographic data, lunar and Martian soils, and Web 2.0!

Or maybe a reader will have advice for me....

And given the title I have chosen to represent this blog, mention likely will be made of office shenanigans and my contributions to an obnoxious and liberated working environment.