Enroll in a MLIS Program

I have been accepted into San Jose State University's  Master's in Library & Information Sciences Program. I will complete 3 to 6 credits a semester, up to 9 credits a year.

Leave RGA, Inc. and Begin New Job

After approximately 4.5 years of employment, I have decided to pursue a new job opportunity with The College of New Jersey. I've decided to pursue a new career path and return to the profession of library sciences. My professional goals have changed. I want to use the skills that I've learned as an archaeologist/GIS specialist and bring them to another community. I want to pursue a degree in GIS librarianship and digital curation. I want to use my knowledge base to assist others who utilize GIS resources to complete their professional, personal, and academic goals.

HFFI 2016 Presentation at CRRL

Very short update here! The Historic Foundation of Fredericksburg, Inc. invited me to present my CNEHA 2015 paper at their annual meeting. I was delighted to attend. Although, I will say that in hindsight I realized that I should have provided a summary of the presentation as oppose to a full reading of my landscape analysis paper. I think a summary of the collection and history of the site would have been more enjoyable for avocational historians, archaeologists and enthusiasts. This was my first presentation I gave geared towards the public, so I'm happy to have had the experience to further practice my craft.

CNEHA 2015 Presentation

This year's conference will be hosted in my old stomping grounds of Fredericksburg, Virginia. This will likely be my last conference for a while. I knew I wanted to present on a project relating to Fredericksburg but given that I work in New Jersey, my options were fairly limited. Thankfully, I recalled an old collection I had learned about while working at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A project was conducted on the property in the early 90's and the budget was extremely small. Every artifact was collected via pedestrian reconnaissance and during monitoring. You can read a copy of the presentation from my Academica account, although I will provide a disclaimer here: 95% of the research wasn't actually mine, I essentially gave a presentation on a project that another firm completed. The firm no longer exists and I was able to give this presentation with the support and approval of the archaeologist who ran the job in the early 90's. I was unable to back check all of the information in this report prior to the presentation and it is possible that some of the information could be fine-tuned given that there may be more resources available today. The paper, which offered some background research, summary of results and a look at landscape analysis, was well received by archaeologists local to the Fredericksburg area and I was happy to have presented on the subject.

An added bonus to this conference was that my colleagues from New Jersey were also able to attend and I was able to share some of my favorite haunts with them during the post-presentation hours.

MSU Digital Archaeology Conference 2015

A few weeks ago I learned of an Institute on Digital Archaeology program, hosted by Michigan State University. I submitted my application materials and I am happy to say that I received word that I was accepted into the program. I am one of twenty participants who will receive funding to attend the conference and complete the program. There are an additional ten participants who will not receive funding.

We will need to develop a capstone project which will utilize various media tools to produce and promote a project that focuses on an ongoing project in archaeology. I am now working on a project located here, which focuses on a historic tavern site in the Pinelands of New Jersey. MSU requires that we provide monthly updates about the status of this project on their blog. Once the website is ready for official launch, I will post an update here. Stay tuned!

CNEHA 2014

This year I agreed to be the Registrar for our CNEHA conference. Boy was that a busy, busy, BUSY task! Thankfully, CNEHA is a smaller conference so it was perhaps the best one to start out with as a Registrar. I collected all of the applications and payment receipts, tracked their check ins and purchases. The registration desk ran pretty smoothly and we had the largest turn out since the conference was held in Williamsburg, pretty great!  Again, saw some great conferences and met some new faces. I was a little busy running between the registration desk and paper session, but it was well worth it. I stayed with a friend in Long Branch and was able to squeeze in some much needed social time.

MAAC 2014

I was really excited that MAAC was only 20 minutes from my house this year. There were several well done papers, including a paper that focused on geochemical analysis on archaeological sites. I didn't buy any books this year because Mike Madden the book salesman was not there. I usually bring home several bags from his table alone, I can't help myself. As always, it was great to recharge my academic and professional thinking with great papers, great conversation and great after-dinner drinks. I had a lovely time. MAAC is a very student friendly conference and we had a great student turn out. It was wonderful to meet some of the new graduate students attending Monmouth and to learn of their experiences in the program. I had never heard about conferences as an Undergraduate, that is probably my only negative critique I can provide about my Undergraduate experience. UVA was a much larger school though and I had a very large anthropology program. It is possible that I would have learned of conference opportunities if I had reached out to an adviser. But, as a student, if you don't know something is available to you then you don't always know to ask about it. I'm glad there are a few undergrads that can start networking early, it's so important these days. They seemed to be having a good time too.