Welcome! My name is Patty O'Connor. I received my M.L.S. from University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--go Steelers--and my B.A. in Elementary Education from Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado--go Broncos. I graduated from Mercer University with an M.S. in Mental Health Counseling. I have my Ed.S. in Instructional Technology from Georgia Southern. This past summer, I was a recipient of a National Endowment of the Humanities scholarship to attend an immigration workshop for educators in Seattle.
I have always loved the magic of reading and its power to whisk me away to different lands, families, and times. I equally loved the magic of theatre, movies, and television for the same reason. As a result, I grew up wanting to be an actress. Practicality in the guise of my parents insisted that I major in education, however. I loved learning; I loved working with students. Yet, I continued to love theatre and acting. There was something about the stage lights, slipping into the soul of my character, walking through the stage door, waiting behind the curtains for my cues that enchanted me. When I was in a play, all the cares of the world dropped off of my shoulders. Eventually, I found a way to merge the practical and my passion. I pursued an advanced degree in Library and Information Science and became a teacher librarian where I could share my passion for literature and literary characters with others.
Meet Zoey, my dog. She's smart, funny, and very loving. She has never met a squirrel that she doesn't believe she can catch. (She can't.) She doesn't know that she is not a person. I use one of the many books she chewed up as an example of what not to do to a library book. (I had to pay for it!) One of the dogs--Whoopsy--in the book of poetry that I really like, Once I Ate a Pie, looks a lot like Zoey. Zoey has not chewed that book up yet. This picture is of her being her gorgeous, diva self.