Allen C. Benson earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in music from the University of Minnesota in 1974.
He served as percussion instructor at St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and as Artist
in Residence at Augsburg College from 1975-1979. In 1979 he won an audition to perform percussion with the United States Military
Academy Band at West Point, New York, a position he held from 1979 through 1982. During his career in music Benson’s interests
included composition, instrument building,
and the history and interpretation of French Tambour d’Ordonnance, Swiss Basel Trommel, and early American drum codes.
In a radical move commencing in 1983, Benson departed from the music profession to begin a career in real estate. His
interests focused on sales, brokerage, and renovation. This experience evolved into a back-to-the-land adventure
in the Ozark Mountains lasting three years, from 1989 through 1992. During his backwoods adventure, Benson built two small cabins,
raised free-range chickens, practiced organic gardening, captured a spring, and designed and built a gravity-flow water system.
In the spring of 1990 Benson’s interests took an unexpected turn towards libraries. While still living in the Ozark outback,
he accepted a position directing the county
library system in Searcy County, Arkansas, a position he held for two years. In the summer of 1992, with some reluctance, he
left the Ozarks to earn his Master's Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Alabama. After graduation Benson
returned to directing libraries and also began his career as a writer. His first book, The Complete Internet Companion for Librarians (1995),
was the first major work written on the subject of integrating Internet resources and services into traditional library practices.
Benson’s most recent position was at Washington & Jefferson College where he directed the U. Grant Miller Library, July 2002 through November 2007.
Benson is currently a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh in the School of Information Science.
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