Brett Bodemer is the College of Liberal Arts Librarian at Cal Poly State
University's Robert E. Kennedy Library. As a member of the library faculty's
collaborative team, he leads the overall Library outreach and service activities designed
to support the unique information resource needs of the students, faculty and staff of
the College of Liberal Arts. His responsibilities include reference, instruction,
collection development, and digital services.
Brett has a diversity of interests, and has published fiction, poetry, and book reviews.
In 2008, EastBridge released his biographical book, "John Hedley in North China and
Inner Mongolia, 1897-1912." With a long-standing interest in English-language haiku,
he has published articles on both its history and poetics. In 2006 he earned a Master of
Arts in French Language and Literature, and his thesis ("The Title as Suspect
Codepiece") took a new look at Rabelais' parody of medieval Parisian library.
A Seattle native, Brett lived in Hawaii from 2001-2009, where he experienced the
diversity of Asian and Pacific cultures. He also spent one year in Vietnam, where he
taught English and edited exhibit texts for the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.
In addition to perennial interests in literature, Brett's library research interests
include an examination of the foundational notions underlying Information Literacy, and
the emerging field of Information Ethics, which lies at the intersection of Philosophy,
Sociology, and applied Science.
Thesis
Pantagruel's Seventh Chapter: The Title as Suspect Codpiece, Library Scholarship (2006)
This study explores historical and linguistic aspects of Rabelais’ invented catalog for the Library of...
Poems
Fiction
Articles
The Importance of Search as Intertextual Practice for Undergraduate Research, College & Research Libraries (2012)
By first reassessing the role of search in the literacy event of the lower division...
Rabelais and the Abbey of Saint-Victor Revisited, Information & Culture (2012)
The seventh chapter of François Rabelais’s Pantagruel concludes with a list of books attributed to...
The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System, Libraries & the Cultural Record (2010)
Rabelais Unsheathes the Book: The Linguistic Critique Offered by the Catalog of Saint-Victor's, The International Journal of the Book (2009)
In the seventh chapter of Pantagruel, written in 1532, François Rabelais seized on the relationship...
Translations
"Our Man Scapin" By Molière. Translated by Brett B. Bodemer, Library Scholarship (2012)
2012 American translation of Jean Baptiste Poquelin’s Les Fourberies de Scapin. Some liberties taken to...
"The Doctor in Spite of Himself" By Molière. Translated by Brett B. Bodemer, Library Scholarship (2011)
2011 American translation of Jean Baptiste Poquelin’s comedy Le Médecin malgré lui. Some liberties taken...
Don Juan, (2010)
2010 American translation of Jean Baptiste Poquelin’s Dom Juan ou Le Festin de Pierre. Some...
Travel Memoirs
Back and There (Complete Version), DigitalCommons@CalPoly (2010)
These brief vignettes combining cross-cultural reflection and memoir were written shortly after returning from a...