Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Relaunch

As I promised in my last blog for the ACRL conference, I am reconceptualizing, rebranding, and relaunching this blog. I had abandoned it for a variety of reasons: lack of audience, lack of interest, not enough time in the day or gas left in the tank to blog anything worthwhile. But I've since seen the possible benefits of using my blog as a gateway to scholarly publication--something I'm very interested in, and have already achieved, just not in the field of librarianship--as well as a means of "getting my name out there."

At this point I should at least offer some sort of manifesto or blanket statement about the type of content you're going to see on here. But I'd prefer to just let this blog find its own niche. So expect some fits and starts, some link dumps, and more than a few tangents while I stumble around blindly. Chances are that I will manage to touch on the following topics:

-Academic librarianship
-Medical/health sciences librarianship
-Information literacy
-Bibliographic instruction
-Medical humanities
-Medical school
-Social networking media
-Literary fiction
-Writing, revising, and publication (and its more common counterpart, rejection)
-Balacing work and writing

Those last three might seem somewhat incongruous. I hold an MFA and an MLS; I am a librarian and a writer. Hence the retitling of this blog, which was formerly johnwaddyisworkingonhispectorals.blogspot.com. (A nod to both my extremely Southern given name and the opening line of Bobbie Ann Mason's classic short story "Shiloh"). But "B8527" is my last name in LC classification, and I can think of no better way to indicate my interest in, and passion for, libraries and literature.

So thanks for reading. You'll be hearing from me again shortly!