What is an Instructional Design Librarian? Here at Clarkston Library/ Perimeter College / GSU, an Instructional Design Librarian is a reference librarian who:

• Understands databases, Boolean searching, and even "natural language."
• Searches both inside and outside GALILEO.
• Troubleshoots most Office 2013/ 2016/ 365 glitches, and helps students create Excel charts and functions, PowerPoints with or without bells and whistles, Access databaes, and Word documents with diverse headers and references/ footnotes.
• Selectively crashes software on recalcitrant computers.
• Tackles hardware issues such as room temperature power bricks or dirty drive ports.
• Creates Research Guides (LibGuides) using HTML for aesthetics, flexibility, and easy modification.

Professional Interests

I review books for Library Journal. My specialty areas are biology, genetics, paleontology, evolution, and technology. This last area sometimes has me reviewing books for the Social Science editor instead of the Science and Technology editor. It is fun to use the biology I learned in college and the computer skills I've picked up on the job, but it is more exciting to learn what I have been missing and what has happened since 1984.

I manage and maintain the Explore Second Life Spreadsheet, the most up to date and complete listing of educational sites in Second Life, not because I beat out a dense field of competition, but because I doggedly if slowly update this project.

I am gradually learning VBA (Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications). So far I have three useful programs, as well as the usual practice programs you write when teaching yourself programming from a book. VBA has already made me more productive. Hopefully it will also deepen my knowledge of how Office products work behind the scenes.

Links for You

Every personal, professional page needs a list of these. There are some who even say that you are what you link. I'm not sure who I am that, but here are the links:

• All That Stuff, my Edublogs blog. I write mostly about Windows 10, Office 2016, and RSS feeds on Facebook.
• The Atlantic, the magazine of ideas with a variety of captive blogs, a great place to read regularly so you'll have English/ current events/ or argument paper topics at the ready.
• The New Republic, a slightly liberal magazine with good political articles, interesting book reviews, and no paywall!. People have complained about this magazine's attempts to modernize its web presence, but to me it is all good.
• The National Weather Service: a weather "app" with nothing to install, no commercials, no malware, and your tax dollars hard at work.
• Medline.plus, a tax-funded (Yes your tax dollars hard at work!), medical portal to credible health information, and again with no ads!

Although I am a proud member of the Panther Family, this page in no way represents the views of Clarkston Library, Perimeter College, or Georgia State University. The ideas on this page unless otherwise stated are mine and mine alone.