Persona 2: Libby Olsen

Dr. Elizabeth “Libby” Olsen, 41
Assistant professor of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Minnesota at St. Paul campus. Her husband, Matthew, 43, is a professor in the Veterinary Sciences department at the same campus. Together, they make well into the six-figures. Socially, they’re upper middle class, but are so down-to-earth you wouldn’t know they make a chunk of money.

She has her Master’s and Ph.D. both from the University of Arizona. Libby loved Arizona, but was ready to move home where there were seasons. When UMN came calling, she jumped at the chance to move back north. It took her a while to get acclimated to the cold winds and shoveling snow, but now that they’ve been back in the northern plains, she wonders why she ever left.

Libby and Matt own their house in St. Anthony Park. They enjoy living in the area and love being able to walk to restaurants, cafes, bookshops, not to mention to work. They’ve been married for 10 years, have no kids, and two dogs, Milo and Ben. They own two cars, but they’re green – one is a hybrid Toyota Prius, the other is a four-wheel drive Subaru, for when they need a car for longer distance trips. Generally, they walk, bike or carpool to campus, depending on what the weather is.

They enjoy the outdoors – hiking, camping, skiing, biking – and frequently travel around the Twin Cities and to more exotic and rustic locations. Libby and Matt frequently visit Canada, national parks and her parents who have retired to a ranch in North Dakota. Libby’s something of an adventurer and will try just about anything once. Just don’t call her “granola.”

Personalities: Smart. Outdoorsy. Adventurous. Sarcastic. Energetic. They make good money and enjoy spending time working on the house when they are not in the research labs or out with the dogs in one of the local parks. Libby is smart and fun to be around. She enjoys meeting new people, loves having her graduate students over for dinner parties. Takes part in a local book club and is active in a Big Sister relationship.

Attitudes: She’s a perfectionist and will spend money to purchase quality goods over cheaper ones. Libby prefers to buy American whenever possible. She and Matt are fortunate that they make enough money to afford them these luxuries. Loves that Al Gore had a blast on the Oscars. Libby hasn’t considered who’ll she’ll support in 2008, but knows that she will likely be involved with the campaign once she decides who to support.

Lifestyle motivators: Libby believes in developing green technologies and practices. She is committed to developing smart technological solutions to help preserve the environments she holds so dear.

Media interests: Libby reads the Pioneer Press when she can. Libby and Matt are subscribers, but she’s finding less and less time to spend with the paper. She reads several academic journals at work and has a lengthy list of RSS feeds in her inbox at the university. Customized information is the fastest way for Libby to keep up with innovations in the field. She’s not that familiar with the twincities.com site.

Computer skills: Libby’s pretty adept at using her PC, loves being wireless and wishes more stores would offer free access. She’s an impatient user: if she can’t find what she’s after in the first few clicks she’ll quickly jump to the next site to help find what she needs. She’s a pretty regular online shopper, ordering clothing and camping equipment online when it’s convenient. She also booked their last adventure to British Columbia online. As for computer equipment, the university laptop isn’t the greatest, but the computer at home was purchased at a sale after Christmas, fully loaded with all the bells and whistles. She longs for a Mac, but knows in academia, PCs are the norm. Libby falls somewhere between early-adopters and early-mainstreamers, but is quick to get used to new technology. She finds technology to be an integral component to her job.

Libby’s loyal to her favorite sites, but is usually willing to go surf and find something new if a recommendation comes her way. She’s pretty time starved, so she won’t spend much time goofing around. She maintains a blog so her friends from graduate and doctoral schools can keep up with what she’s doing, what races she’s thinking of participating in next and to keep up with photos of the Olsen adventures.

Why twincities.com could improve the site to get Libby to read it: She’s time starved, has lots of different things going on in her life. The site is generally very geared to those with families and doesn’t do much for Libby in terms of planning local adventures or hikes. She thinks she would read the site more if it were easier to find things to do. The Home and Garden section could be improved, she thinks, to include more information about what people can do to make a difference in keeping things green. Libby wishes it were easier to tailor the site to things that interest her so she wouldn’t have to spend so much time digging around through drop down menus. She thinks it would be a great idea to have a personalized option and would love to have more news that comes out of her neighborhood and the campus.