Ida Joiner is a student at Texas Wesleyan currently working on her doctorate in education, yet she has already done so much in her lifetime.

And although she has only been in Texas for a year and a half, Joiner has already done a lot in her new state.

“I am also the librarian at the Universal Academy in Irving, Texas,” Joiner said. “I am an author, a technologist, as well as librarian. I’ve published about five articles, since I’ve been here in Texas.”

Before coming to Wesleyan, Joiner said, she also performed on stage in several music performances; the arts are something she has always loved and has been passionate about.

“I’ve sang in Vienna and Budapest; I’ve been in two Pittsburgh Opera productions,” Joiner said. “Opera’s my first love.”

Joiner said her love of the arts slowly merged into her current career as a librarian and a technologist when she was employed at Carnegie Mellon University, a school that attracts large numbers of artists as well as technologists.

She explained that this new-found love for technology became something that she wanted to constantly write about.

“I really enjoy writing about technology. If there’s a new development in artificial intelligence or drones or virtual reality, I’m on it,” Joiner said.

Joiner was able to find different jobs and occupations that centered around technology, she said, such as the consulting work she did in Pittsburgh, where she was first approached about writing a book.

“Elsevier had contacted me about possibly writing a book back in 2009,” Joiner said. “I always kept it in the back of my head.”

Fast forward years later when, Joiner said, she was inspired to write a book and decided to use her contact at Elsevier in order to get the ball in motion.

“There was a webinar that I did and I thought this might make for a nice book, and I contacted the publisher for Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers in the world,” Joiner said.

Her book, “Emerging Library Technologies: It’s Not Just for Geeks!” was officially published in August and has impressed many, such as Dr. Dianne Hawkins, one of her Wesleyan professors.

“I was indeed impressed upon hearing Ida had not only written a book, but had been published it and is now enjoying wide distribution and acclaim,” Hawkins said. “Knowing a bit more about her and her joy for learning, I am not the least bit surprised.”

Dr. Celia Wilson is another one of Joiner’s professors at Wesleyan who also commented on her love of learning.

“My first impression of Ida was that she appears to be someone who is interested in learning; she’s a lifetime learner,” Wilson said.

It is a combination of her eagerness to learn and hard work that will lead Joiner to have a big role in the future, Wilson said.

“Ida will likely have a hand in designing systems to allow education, communities, and libraries to meet the needs of people in a yet unknown future,” Wilson said.

For the time being, Joiner said, she only hopes her future contains more writing and even more learning.

“I see myself publishing more books, more articles,” Joiner said. “And just learning, I love to learn. For me, it’s exciting learning something new.”