About
Charlotte Johnson Jones is Reference and Social Sciences Librarian at Simpson Library of the University of Mary Washington. Although she does alphabetize her spices, her passion is not managing books but teaching people, whether one-on-one, in small groups, or in the library classroom. In an academic world populated by n-ach Achievers, she is motivated by the need for affiliation.
Perhaps predictably for a woman who has heard a thousand off-key renditions of “Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte,” Jones is one of the world’s most raucous librarians. She laughs loudly and often . . . and never says “Shhhh.” Previously she made a lot of racket as a reference and instruction librarian at American University in Washington, D.C., and at the University of Kentucky, where she earned an M.S.L.S in 1999.
A lapsed journalist with twenty years before the keyboard, Jones claims to have loved everything about her first career except the writing. Her articles appeared in a wide and wild range of publications including the Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Travel & Leisure, Arthritis Today, and USA Weekend under the byline C. J. Houtchens. She has interviewed Sissy Spacek, Maya Angelou, three Misses America, and a roomful of centenarians, among many others, and her work won a Society of Professional Journalists Washington Dateline Award and an American Association of University Women Mass Media Award. (HerPost piece about videos for cats, alas, received neither.)
She has decided to sit quietly in front of a computer and produce a blog only because she believes that this solitary confinement will eventually lead to opportunities to meet face-to-face with others who share her passion for initiating college students into the arcane pleasures of academic culture and inquiry.