Who We Are

Steven Bell is the Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University in Philadelphia. He maintains a Web site and Weblog, “Steven Bell’s Keeping Up Web Site” and “The Kept-Up Academic Librarian”, that promote current awareness skills and resources. Steven is a co-founder of the Blended Librarian’s Online Learning Community on the Learning Times Network. He also contributes to the blog Designing Better Libraries. For additional information about Steven J. Bell or to find links to the various Web sites he publishes and maintains, point your browser to http://stevenbell.info

Barbara Fister is an academic librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, specializing in instruction. Her research interests include undergraduate research processes and the intersection of their reading, writing, and research practices. More recently, she has been investigating popular literacy as practiced in online communities, the rhetorical uses of anxiety in the framing of social issues, and the role research plays in creative work, as well as the role of the library in nurturing the social aspects of learning. She is the author of a book on third world women’s literatures, contributes to Bedford/St. Martin’s line of writing handbooks and, in her spare time, writes crime fiction.

Marc Meola is Humanities Librarian at The College of New Jersey, the most competitive beautiful public college with the happiest students. When not helping students and faculty find and use information, he’s hard at work deleting spam and going to meetings. His librarianly interests include how to evaluate information and he’s currently working on an article on Wikipedia. Marc lives in Philadelphia with his wife and son, enjoys bicycling, and plays the King’s Indian Defense against 1. d4.

Kim Leeder is one of ACRLog’s four new academic librarians. She is a reference & instruction librarian at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, with liaison duties to English, Theatre Arts, Environmental Studies, and Extended/Distance Studies. Previously she earned a Master’s in English and worked as an editor for Orion magazine and several other organizations. Kim currently serves as co-chair of the University Library Section’s (ULS) program planning committee for 2008, chair of the ULS Communications Committee, and was selected as an ALA Emerging Leader for 2008.

Melissa Mallon is one of ACRLog’s four new academic librarians. Originally from Kansas, she received her MLIS degree from Louisiana State University. She is currently the Library Instruction Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, a regional campus in Western Pennsylvania. In addition to coordinating all things instruction, she staffs the reference desk and provides outreach to students and faculty. She’s recently become interested in the visual side of information literacy, and has always been intrigued by the research habits of artists.

Josh Petrusa is also one of ACRLog’s four new academic librarians. He is currently the Electronic Resources Librarian at Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the nation. He also works the reference desk, provides instruction, and is the liaison to the Humanities Division. A graduate of the University of Illinois’ LEEP program, he previously worked at DePaul University in Chicago. Josh is getting used to central Vermont with his wife and daughter, misses living close to Wrigley Field, and enjoys the Autumn Defense in all situations.

Brett Bonfield is the fourth ACRLog new academic librarian. He is currently dividing his time between Temple University Libraries, where he works on systems-related projects, and Saint Joseph’s University’s Francis A. Drexel Library, where he works in reference.

Kevin S. Clarke is the Digital Initiatives Librarian, Coordinator of Web Services at Belk Library and Information Commons at Appalachian State University. He has published, presented, and taught on library metadata and the Extensible Markup Language (XML). He contributes to ACRLog.org by managing the WordPress software on which the blog runs.