About
About BLOOM
BLOOM is a collection of openly licensed library-instruction resources, made by a librarian, for the librarians and educators who are constantly asked to do more and more with less and less.
Hi, I'm Christina
I'm the Research and Information Literacy Services Librarian at the Daniel A. Reed Library, SUNY Fredonia, where I teach information literacy, lead our open educational resources work, and help faculty and students make sense of AI in their courses. I came to libraries through a Master of Information Studies at McGill, by way of a long habit of tinkering, and most of what I do sits where instruction, open pedagogy, and educational technology meet. I received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship for 2024–2025.
I'm a librarian, so I like sharing, documenting, organizing, and curating, and I care about doing it without algorithms, ads, or tracking getting in the way. BLOOM grows out of that, openly licensed teaching resources made once and given away, so the next person doesn't have to start from scratch.
I came to all of this as a first-generation college student, by way of community college and then the University of Pennsylvania, and I don't take that road for granted. Higher education changed my life. It gave me the room to cultivate myself and grow as a person , and I'm grateful for every part of it. I believe education is a public good and should be affordable for everyone, even though it isn't the right path for everyone, and that's okay too. It's a big part of why I care so much about open educational resources, and not only for the cost. Open practice gives students the chance to become knowledge creators instead of passive consumers, and there have never been more ways to do that than there are right now.
, and I'm grateful for every part of it. I believe education is a public good and should be affordable for everyone, even though it isn't the right path for everyone, and that's okay too. It's a big part of why I care so much about open educational resources, and not only for the cost. Open practice gives students the chance to become knowledge creators instead of passive consumers, and there have never been more ways to do that than there are right now.About the name
The name is a happy double meaning. BLOOM stands for Badges, Lessons, Open Objects, and Materials, but it's also a nod to Bloom's Taxonomy, the framework we use to build learning outcomes, from remembering and understanding up through analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The badges and lessons here help educators guide students in building those skills.
How I think about AI
I'm not here to sell you on AI, or to tell you to avoid it. My aim is to help you think about it clearly and use it on purpose.
Use AI when it helps, and skip it when it doesn't. Know what it's good at, know where it falls short, and weigh the real costs along the way. Choosing not to use it is a perfectly good answer.
The use I care about most is a less obvious one. You use AI to build tools that then run without it. Instead of going back to a chatbot every time you need a routine thing, use AI once to build a reliable tool, template, or page. After that it's yours. It runs offline, it's free, it doesn't hallucinate, and it doesn't burn energy every time you use it. Often the most useful thing AI can do is build the thing that means you don't need it next time.
One of the simplest things any of us can do is share what we make, so the next person doesn't have to build it from scratch. I've written more about that, and about AI, expertise, and what I think it's all for, in a note called "build it once, then give it away".
How BLOOM was made
This whole site is that idea in practice. Every piece of it (the badges, the live course preview, the calculators, and the interactive activities) was built with AI, and none of it needs AI to run.
I'm open about that. I don't hide my use of AI, because I believe AI without expertise is nothing. The years spent building the frameworks, the theory, and the craft are what let me use it well, and the ideas, words, and decisions here are mine. This site was created with Claude Design and built with Claude Code, by Anthropic.
Openness is the whole point. Except where noted, everything on BLOOM is licensed CC BY 4.0, so you're free to use, adapt, and share it with attribution. Take what's useful and make it your own. Icons are by Icons8.
Share your own badge
Made a badge of your own? You're welcome here, two ways:
- Host it yourself. Keep your badge and its files on your own site, and I can point to it from BLOOM so more people find it.
- Submit it to BLOOM. Send it over and I'll host it here, openly licensed, with full credit to you. You keep authorship; BLOOM just gives it a home and an audience.
To share or submit, open an issue on GitHub or get in touch. Credited guest badges are welcome.