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Jami Schwarzwalder

Blogger / Gamer/ Librarian

Librarian

I currently a recent graduate of Indiana University School of Library and Information Science. My undergraduate degree is in Elementary Education from Butler University. I have always loved books and Nintendo. Growing up I always dreamed of being a writer. Most of my teachers didn't believe in me because my spelling and grammar was (and still is) completely horrible, and we all know that's the first thing to being a good writer. Ideas don't hold as much credit if you can't say them right, but that didn't stop me. I wrote my first book when I was five, then became serious in middle school with short stories. In high school I moved to poetry, and in my undergrad I wrote papers. I loved writing so much I would always go over the page and word limit, but my teachers gave me the room, because my ideas were there. Butler was the best place on earth for me. The teachers were all supportive, and encouraging, and I had a great job(at the library) with a great boss (who is now at Harvard). The thing I loved the most about my school, was that I was able to help my fellow students connect great books with students in the classroom. I always loved being the behind the scences person. For this reason I continued to pursue a Master in Library Science degree from IUPUI.

Great things started happening December 2005, I attended a Symposium in Chicago, Gaming In Libraries, where I first became interested in combining my loves: Games and Libraries.

After I came back to Indianapolis, I was excited about being able to do something with my loves, so I began a blog, and started asking to help local libraries. My husband and I have a large game collection, that we had hoped to use someday to create a game room for neighboorhood kids, when we had a neighborhood. I figured I might as well use the collection sooner than later.

Soon I began talking with Beth Gallway, and writing for her blog. I also signed up for the YALSA Teens and Technology Online Class taught by Linda Braun. It was the first part of all the wonderful things that has happened. For the class I created a MySpace account, and started enjoying learning again.

After my class ended I was invited to blog for YALSA, which I was nervous about. "Who would want to listen to me when I don't even have a library"

I soon learned that people wanted encouragement and support, and I could give them that. I went to the Public Library Association Conference in March, and was amazed at how many people were just like me. It wasn't too long before I heard about the new library they were starting in Second Life. I jumped right in, and finally had a library of my own.

Under the Collections tab you can see all my past and current projects. Here you will find all of my presentations available on the web. I hope I inspire you to reach for the stars, and not "make you feel old" like Beth likes to say. Remember for all my energy and enthusiam, I still don't have some things you do: experiance, patrons, or money.

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