Maria Accardi, instructional librarian, has worked at IU Southeast for more than a year now, and said she hopes to teach skills that will be useful after college.

Accardi’s job is to teach instructional sessions on how to use the IUS Library and setting up instructional sessions with teachers.

“I make sure we are doing what we are supposed to do,” Accardi said.

She also handles the library assessments to see how successful the library is teaching things.

“I love teaching, learning about the library and teaching skills that help you in the world in general,” Accardi said.

Accardi said she cares a lot about the students and it’s important to teach them what she knows.

When Accardi started to work at the IUS Library in August 2007, she said she wanted to make a difference.

“I desire to have an  affect on academic, students’ lives,” Accardi said.

A colleague of Accardi’s at the library said she is a breath of fresh air at the library.

“She has re-inspired us in terms of teaching,” Nancy Totten, coordinator of references, said. “She has brought a new energy.”

Originally, Accardi is from southern California, but when she was 13 years old her family moved to northern Kentucky.

“I was unhappy, because 13 is the worst age to move,” Accardi said. “I didn’t know what my parents were thinking.”

She had a hard time adjusting to the change because she had to go to a new school and make new friends, she said.

“Kentucky was just not as cool as California,” Accardi said, “It took me a good year to adjust.”

Accardi lives in Louisville.

When Accardi is off campus she loves to read and browse used bookstores, going to the movies and going out with friends.

She likes to read nonfiction and historical books. Some of her favorite authors are Virginia Woolf, Barbara Kingsolver and David Sedaris.

“My favorite movie is ‘Stranger than Fiction,’ from just a couple of years ago, because it celebrates the small things that make up a life,” Accardi said.

A friend and colleague of Accardi had nothing but good things to say about her.

“She is intelligent, exuberant and funny,” Kelly Ryan, assistant professor of history, said. “She’s a huge Scrabble buff and claims to know everything.”

Accardi also likes to crotchet.

“I make afghans to give as presents to people,” Accardi said. “I also have made scarves and hats, but mostly afghans.”

Accardi has two domestic, shorthaired, cats that she loves to take pictures of.

“I am a total cat lady,” Accardi said, lightheartedly. “Which I think is a requirement of a librarian.”

By  MARY LYONS
Staff Writer
marlyons@ius.edu