Bio
I was born and raised in
Minsk, the capital of Belarus, a former Soviet republic. In
1989, I graduated from the Belarusian University of Culture with
my Masters Degree in Library and Information Science. Upon
graduation, I was offered a teaching position at the same
department and taught Library Science courses for five years.
During these years I traveled extensively across Europe as a
member of the international organization
“Servas”,
spent two summers as a Rotary exchange student in Holland, and
attended conferences in Finland, Russia, and Poland. In 1994, I
received a Freedom Support Act Fellowship from
IREX (USIA)
to come to the United States as a one-year graduate exchange
student. While at LSU, I applied for the Masters Degree Program
in Library and Information Science and was subsequently awarded
a full-tuition award. During my graduate studies I had a
wonderful opportunity to spend two summers as a summer intern at
the Library of Congress. I
worked in European division as well as Congressional Research
Service. I graduated with my M.L.I.S. in December 1995. In
January of 1996 I started an Advanced Certificate Program in
Library and Information Science and after completion I was
offered a Web Manager/Reference and Instructional Services
Librarian position at
Michigan Technological University Library. While working
full-time at Michigan Tech, I was in PhD program in
Rhetoric and Technical Communication. I completed all the
coursework but unfortunately wasn’t able to complete the program
due to a new employment offer in California. In May 2001 I
accepted a web manager position at
Whittier
College where I presently work full-time. I
also work as a part-time librarian at
Rio Hondo Community
College and freelance in web design. The URL to my web site is: http://www.shabelnikdesign.com