Hello, my name is Ricke Elaine Ballard Gritten.  In 2019 I graduated from IUPUI with a Masters in Library Science. I enjoy cult television and movies, books and travel. I am the mother of two girls and am husbanded by Kevin, and act as steward to two cats, Hermione and Bandit.

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Please visit my other sites created for and inspired by library school assignments:

Our Family History : This site created and powered by Omeka includes multiple digital exhibits that feature scanned family photographs,   completed photo albums, correspondence, World War II  artifacts and other family treasures.

Reader’s Advisory Blog: Welcome to My World : A blog created as part of a Reader’s Advisory class which features book reviews and recommendations as well as a research paper on Indigenous Futurism, a groundbreaking genre in which Native American writers incorporate science fiction and fantasy to tell unique stories.

The Bronte Library Shelf. : The purpose of this website is to provide a tantalizing glimpse of the intellectual world occupied by the minds of the Bronte sisters, while also exploring library history via the lens of the time and place in which the sisters lived. Using primary source documents, such as estate sale lists, and library catalogs, as well as scholarly and popular works on the reading habits and preferences of the family, I have loosely reconstructed and curated a collection based on a fraction of what they had available to them. The mythos of the Brontes is amplified by the perception that in Yorkshire they were cutoff from cosmopolitan society and social norms, as well as culture. Even this brief examination of the libraries demonstrates that not only did they take advantage of social networks to borrow books from friends and acquaintances, they also had access to private family libraries like the one at Ponden Hall, and possibly subscription libraries such as the Bradford Library and Literary Society, the Keighley Mechanics Institute Library and the Bradford Mechanics Institute Library. Each title is linked to an online copy, enabling the user to experience browsing the bookshelves that influenced, entertained and educated the legendary literary trio.