{"id":80762,"date":"2014-09-08T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=80762"},"modified":"2014-09-09T08:17:48","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T13:17:48","slug":"meet-michael-rodriguez-inalj-assistant-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=80762","title":{"rendered":"Meet Michael Rodriguez: INALJ Assistant Editor, Librarian & Faculty"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tracy Wasserman, Senior Assistant, INALJ Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Meet Michael Rodriguez: INALJ Assistant Editor, Librarian & Faculty<\/span><\/h3>\n

Meet Michael Rodriguez, INALJ Florida Assistant Editor and Faculty Library at Hodges\u00a0University<\/a> in Naples\/ Fort Myers, Florida<\/p>\n

* Photo credit to Lynn Elliott, Florida Library Association, via Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Michael-Rodriguez,\"<\/a>Tracy:<\/strong> Tell us about your history in working in libraries.
\nMichael:<\/strong> I started out as a volunteer in the Collier County Public Library<\/a>, shelving books while I\u00a0waited for a weekend part-time assistant position that didn\u2019t conflict with my college schedule.\u00a0For almost four years I worked in circulation and reference and enjoyed every minute of the\u00a0frenetic pace of public service. This August, I graduated with my MLIS and joined Hodges\u00a0University<\/a>, a private nonprofit institution not far from my home. So I\u2019m now a professional\u00a0librarian, with the faculty rank of Assistant Professor as of September 1! I\u2019m doing cool\u00a0technology and instruction work, revamping our website, and helping transform our traditional\u00a0library into a learning commons.<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> What project are you currently working on and what is especially enjoyable about it?
\nMichael:<\/strong> Currently I\u2019m collaborating with one or two colleagues to spruce up my workplace\u2019s\u00a0LibGuides and website, streamlining the content and rendering the interface more visually\u00a0appealing and interactive. This is great because I get to teach myself a new content\u00a0management system and play with coding and templates in the service of better products and\u00a0more successful users! I\u2019m also creating several subject LibGuides and just completed a library\u00a0orientation video that all new Hodges students are required to see. It\u2019s been an exciting first\u00a0few weeks on the job!<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> What are your favorite information resources?
\nMichael:<\/strong> Proprietary databases dominate the market, but I am a huge fan of open access\u00a0resources and plug them at every opportunity. Wikipedia is an amazing general knowledge\u00a0resource, despite the challenges inherent in crowdsourcing, and I contribute to articles\u00a0whenever I find the time. I love open libraries, particularly the Digital Public Library of America<\/a>\u00a0(DPLA), which is developing a vast open portal to America\u2019s cultural heritage (full disclosure: I\u2019m\u00a0a DPLA Community Rep). I enjoy plugging URLs into the Wayback Machine<\/a> to see how websites\u00a0have evolved over time.<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> What\u2019s your favorite website\/blog?
\nMichael:<\/strong> For world news, progressive commentary, and Glenn Greenwald, nothing tops the\u00a0Guardian<\/em><\/a>. Mostly I surf Twitter if I want news or commentary from the library world\u2014it\u2019s hard\u00a0to call out one particular blog as being my unqualified favorite. I do love Hack Library School<\/a>\u00a0and INALJ for job-related blogging, and Jacob Berg<\/a> and Jessamyn West<\/a> offer always insightful\u00a0commentary. If you\u2019ve ever worked in a public library or have a sense of whimsy, you are gonna\u00a0LOVE Librarian Problems<\/a>! I won\u2019t spoil its delights\u2014just click on the link and hoot at the truths\u00a0GIFed therein.<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> Why did you become a librarian?
\nMichael:<\/strong> Like most librarians, I\u2019ve always loved to read and hang out in libraries or bookstores.\u00a0A career in libraries was the natural choice for someone like me, with broad academic interests,\u00a0a love for research, a passion for helping people, a drive for innovation, and a thing for\u00a0technology. I did consider pursuing a history PhD, but decided that I wasn\u2019t willing to wait\u00a0five to ten years to launch my career in earnest. So I did an MLIS instead, and it\u2019s working out\u00a0marvelously so far!<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> What do you like to read?
\nMichael:<\/strong> For professional updates, I subscribe to AL Review and surf Twitter. For professional\u00a0insights, I follow a bunch of library blogs: Letters to a Young Librarian<\/a>, In the Library With the\u00a0Lead Pipe<\/a>, Hack Library School<\/a> (full disclosure: I blog for HLS), and others. For fiction, I am\u00a0omnivorous but I love the historical genre, especially if set in the Middle Ages or in medieval-like fantasy lands. Sharon Kay Penman, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Arturo Perez-Reverte are three of\u00a0my favorite authors. I love history and have five reviews in the pipeline for Library Journal\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0social sciences section. Currently I\u2019m reading a monumental biography of Spanish dictator\u00a0Francisco Franco (review for LJ forthcoming) plus a 1951 scifi classic, Day of the Triffids<\/em>, whose\u00a0first chapter set in a hospital inspired the opening scene in 28 Days Later<\/em>. You learn the\u00a0darnedest things from IMBD.<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> What social media sites do you have or manage and what is their primary focus?
\nMichael:<\/strong> I use LinkedIn<\/a> as an online resume-slash-portfolio and as a means to connect with\u00a0folks I meet at conferences or other professional events and don\u2019t know well enough to\u00a0friend on Facebook. My Facebook is strictly for personal use, unless I goof off with the folks\u00a0on ALATT<\/a>. My Twitter<\/a> is mostly professional and a means to tap into the collective conscious\u00a0of #librarians. My library has no social media presence independent of the university, but we\u00a0might be able to create a YouTube channel down the road, for our tutorials and orientation\u00a0videos and such.<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> Do you have a personal\/professional website?
\nMichael:<\/strong> I do, yes! I playfully call my website Shelver\u2019s Cove<\/a> because the name unites my\u00a0twin passions of librarianship and sea kayaking. I definitely recommend getting a free site\u2014WordPress works great for me\u2014to showcase one\u2019s resume and portfolio and, in my case, a blog\u00a0of book reviews.<\/p>\n

Tracy:<\/strong> How did you get your current job?
\nMichael:<\/strong> I was recruited. My current director spotted me working at the public library, liked my\u00a0energy and style, and hired me as on-call staff. A full-time professional position opened up six\u00a0months later and I was brought on board without formally interviewing\u2014or even applying. It\u00a0was cool!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tracy Wasserman, Senior Assistant, INALJ Florida Meet Michael Rodriguez: INALJ Assistant Editor, Librarian & Faculty Meet Michael Rodriguez, INALJ Florida Assistant Editor and Faculty Library at Hodges\u00a0University in Naples\/ Fort Myers, Florida * Photo credit to Lynn Elliott, Florida Library Association, via Flickr Tracy: Tell us about your history in working in libraries. Michael:…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":80778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[6518,4287,69,6516,3592,6510,6517,6511,88,6509,225,3652,13,6514,857,499,1526,1439,3257,655,41,6520,6508,6515,6519,6513,5893,40,6512],"class_list":["post-80762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-28-days-later","tag-alathinktank-com","tag-article","tag-arturo-perez-reverte","tag-blog","tag-collier-county-public-library","tag-day-of-the-triffids","tag-digital-public-library-of-america","tag-hack-library-school","tag-hodges-university","tag-in-the-library-with-the-lead-pipe","tag-inalj-florida","tag-interview","tag-jacob-berg","tag-jessamyn-west","tag-jrr-tolkien","tag-letters-to-a-young-librarian","tag-libguides","tag-librarian-problems","tag-library-journal","tag-linkedin","tag-lynn-elliott","tag-michael-rodriguez","tag-sharon-kay-penman","tag-shelvers-cove","tag-the-guardian","tag-tracy-wasserman","tag-twitter","tag-wayback-machine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/michael-r.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-l0C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}