After a 25-year career as a full-time church musician, Alvin R. Blount is focusing on another passion: library and information sciences. A 1991 Mercer graduate, he currently serves as a learning and engagement librarian at Georgia State University. Recently, he was recognized nationally as one of Library Journal’s 2026 Movers & Shakers in the community builders category.
Blount, who grew up in Augusta and now lives in Decatur, comes from a family of musicians. His mother was a church organist for 40 years, and he started learning piano as a child and was in his high school band.
He began his academic career at Tuskegee University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English while also taking piano and organ lessons, singing in the concert choir, and completing a few music classes. He continued to study organ privately and play for a church as he taught middle school in Augusta, realizing a few years later that music was his calling.
Blount met the late Robert Parris, Mercer organist and professor, at an American Guild of Organists convention in Augusta. Parris encouraged him to study organ at Mercer and talked him into visiting Macon.
Despite Blount’s initial reservations about going back to school, all the pieces for his Macon chapter fell unexpectedly into place. He visited Washington Memorial Library and was offered a circulation assistant job on the spot; found an apartment the same day; secured a music job at St. Francis Episcopal; and landed some music scholarships.
“I really do believe that Mercer was meant to be in my life. I received so much from Mercer,” said Blount, who earned his Bachelor of Music in organ and sacred music. “The music faculty was very supportive and saw things in me that I couldn’t always see in myself. There were staff members on that campus who would encourage me just when they saw that I needed it. They did not give me an option to fail.
“I want Mercer to know how grateful I am for my instruction and mentoring. I loved Mercer. I want Macon to know how grateful I am. It’s a second home.”
Blount went on to earn a Master of Music in organ performance at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and serve as a full-time musician for Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches in Tennessee and Georgia for nearly three decades. In addition to being an organist, he was a choirmaster and involved in worship planning. One of the highlights of his music career is conducting a church choir performance at the Vatican in front of Pope John Paul II.
“I enjoyed the choral music, I enjoyed playing, but I (most) enjoyed the interaction with the congregation,” Blount said of his time as a full-time church musician. “I got that from Mercer. I got that from Macon. I just get to know the folks. You have to be there for people.”
Blount said he always emphasizes the importance of engagement and outreach with parishioners when talking with future organists.
Amid his music work, Blount’s longtime love for libraries was flourishing. He volunteered in the archives department at Spelman College in Atlanta, and his work on special projects there led him back to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for the master’s degree program in information sciences.
“Spelman College opened the door to the new career and opened the door for some writing projects that I’ve been engaged in recently,” said Blount, who will have four essays featured in Bloomsburg Publishing’s Black Women in Librarianship: Voices from the African Diaspora that is due out in April 2027.
In 2021, he became an archivist at the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee and headed its Becoming Beloved Community (BBC) initiatives, which support racial justice, healing and reconciliation. For the latter, he launched a guest speaker program and book groups focused on race relations, led a series on oral history and storytelling, and compiled collections of virtual resources. Two years later, he joined the library team at Georgia State University.
“My BBC work of promoting social justice through information sources and activities allowed me to combine my church work skills and library education, which also led to my current position as a library faculty member at Georgia State University,” Blount said.
Among his many contributions at Georgia State, Blount provides library research consultations; conducts library instruction sessions and workshops; collaborates with faculty who want to incorporate library instruction into their courses; leads library tours; and develops library collections. He is also involved in a number of other outreach initiatives related to student success and support.
“The students are what fulfills me,” he said. “I absolutely love collaborating with departmental faculty, teaching library instruction that’s related to the assignments that students receive, and doing presentations on special topics.”
Blount’s research focus areas include Black spirituals, African American diaspora and Black feminism, and he often gives presentations to African American history, U.S. history and English classes on these topics.
Blount’s passion for his work has gained notice. He was voted 2025 Instructor of the Year for Georgia State University Libraries in addition to his selection for the Library Journal’s 2026 Movers & Shakers list.
“I was so grateful for the nomination, and when I received the note that I was selected, I was shocked. I’m still shocked,” he said.
Blount continues to take substitute or freelance organ jobs in the Metro Atlanta area, including playing for Mercer events such as commencement and hooding and pinning ceremonies. He is currently serving his second term on Mercer’s Townsend School of Music’s Alumni Board, and he was the guest speaker for the School’s 2025 senior recognition and hooding ceremony.
