About me:
In short:
I am the Web Services Librarian at the College of Staten Island (City University of New York.) My education includes an MA in Media Production from Emerson College, an MLIS from Rutgers University, and an MS in Service-Oriented Computing from Stevens Institute of Technology.
I specialize in UX-based web design and development, social media, educational technology, and innovation, digital strategies and software engineering in higher ed.
You can find me online at vforrestal.com, vforrestal.info, or on Twitter @vforrestal.
In long:
As an undergrad at the University of Maine, I studied Mass Communications, specifically marketing and new media. My senior year, I took classes in video and audio production, which I loved, so I headed off to Emerson College in Boston for a masters in media production. It was there that I first learned how to build a webpage, which broadened my love of technology to include pretty much all forms of digital media.
After that I attended Rutgers for my MLIS, where I worked pretty intensively in digital archives (as the student project manager for the NJEDL and as archive assistant and consultant for the Institute of Jazz Studies.) As a consultant for Poet’s House in NYC, I created AudioArchiving.net, an annotated web resource for all aspects of audio digitization and archiving.
I recently completed an MS in Service-Oriented Computing, a branch of computer science that studies the architecture, design, and building of web services. In this program, I’ve focused on learning to program (C# and Java) and studying the underlying psychology of social networks (especially through the lenses of game theory, social capital, and UX).
Publications:
Arnett, Barbara, and Valerie Forrestal (Jun 2012). “Bridging the Gap from Wikipedia to Scholarly Sources: a Simple Discovery Tool“, College & Undergraduate Libraries, Taylor & Francis. 19 (2-4), 176-188. (Full-text available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/18837)
Forrestal, Valerie. (Jan 2011). “Making Twitter Work: A Guide for the Uninitiated, the Skeptical, and the Pragmatic “, The Reference Librarian, Taylor & Francis. 52 (1-2), 146-151. (Full-text available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/18839)
Professional speaking:
October 2011: Metro Science Librarians SIG Research Forum – Invited Speaker, “Building a Simple Library Bookmarklet”
May 2011: NJLA (New Jersey Library Association) Annual Conference – Presenter/Panel Speaker, “Technology Innovation Forum” and “Web & Mobile Tools for Improving Library Services”
March 2011: Library Technology Conference (Macalester College, St. Paul, MN) – Presenter, “Bridging the gap from Wikipedia to scholarly sources: a simple discovery solution”
January 2011: VALE Annual Conference – Speaker, “Bridging the gap from Wikipedia to scholarly sources”
December 2010: METRO Webinar – Presenter, “Three Tech Tools, One Objective: Improving Library Services”
January 2010: VALE (Virtual Academic Library Environment) Annual Conference – Speaker, “Teaching the New Literacy”
December 2009: Yale Handheld Librarian (Lecture Series) – Speaker, “Twitter for Libraries”
October 2009: NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) Zone Conference – Speaker, “Internet Literacy and Online Networking”
July 2009: Handheld Librarian (Online Conference) – Speaker, “Twittering in Libraries”
June 2009: METRO Library 2.0 SIG – Featured Speaker, “Twitter for Libraries”
June 2009: LibraryCampNYC 2009 (UnConference) – Co-facilitator, “Social Media Marketing for libraries”
More info:
Google Scholar Profile
Linked in
Slideshare (my presentations)
Twitter (vforrestal)
Facebook