You don't look like a librarian: The Book!
Ruth Kneale is the Systems Librarian for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope in Tucson, Arizona. Prior to that, she was the Librarian and Webmaster for the Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii, and the Gemini 8m Telescopes Project (what observatories are before they grow up) in Tucson. Basically, she's a librarian in geek clothing, whose first program was created using BASIC on a TRS-80 with a tape drive. Ruth holds a master's degree in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Science in astronomy and physics. An Air Force brat, she grew up all over the world before settling in the desert and becoming a cold-weather wimp.
Ruth has written on computer topics for Information Outlook and Computers in Libraries, and publishes a regular column about librarians in Marketing Library Services called "Spectacles: How Pop Culture Views Librarians." Even though she lives in Arizona, she's also written twice for the Oregon Library Association about pop culture and librarians. She has presented several times at the Special Libraries Association annual meetings and at Internet Librarian. She started the website You Don't Look Like a Librarian! in 2002, and a companion blog called Random Musings from the Desert in 2006.
Ruth's favorite color is purple, her favorite airplane is the A-10 Warthog (properly called the Thunderbolt II), and she has a secret collection of 1980s Euro-pop in her iPod.
