LTED 618: A little about The Digital Librarian

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is John J. Alvarez.  In my former life I worked for the NJ Performing Arts Center. I held many positions; but my last was as the Marketing Manager. After 15 years with the company a new CEO decided he wanted a new direction and laid off much of the staff to start over, and so I also started over.  

After some time receiving unemployment and searching endlessly for a new job I started freelance marketing.  The money was good but the jobs were few and far between and I didn’t have insurance. My wife, a teacher of almost a decade, suggested I go back to school.  The problem was I had not the faintest idea what for.  I’d been out of school for 17 years. After some thought she told me about a position becoming in more demand because of computer based testing like PARCC. It was the School Library Media Specialist position. It was perfect for me. I’d always loved research; I’m a collector that researches, documents, and curates.  I enjoy working with students, as I did in one of my previous positions at NJPAC. I’ve also always enjoyed learning new technology; I was my old director’s go-to guy for new digital marketing initiatives.  So, after 17 years I returned to NJCU to start my life over. 

Currently, I am working in the Liberty Science Center as an Interpretation Associate. That is a fancy way of saying I teach children science through mini-labs. I plan to stay there once I get into a school. When I have my SLMS I am going to try to join the STEM team and work weekends and summers with children.

Once I graduate, I am undecided whether I want to work K-8 or 9-12. There are pros and cons to both age groups. However, either way I am considering taking the Praxis to add Business Teacher to my arsenal.  My long term goal is to become a Tech Coach.

This course is my first “in classroom” course in 18 years. I’m a little nervous, to say the least.  However, as a Librarian it is as important to understand the types of books as it to know what books are in the collection. My only goal is to come out of this course with a better understanding of an area I have little experience in.

As mentioned earlier, I am married. My wife, Janice is a teacher in Jersey City. She just finished her Master’s as a Reading Specialist and is already taking her first two courses in a doctoral program.  We’ve been married just over a year, dated 5 ½, and know each other for 25 years. We dated many years ago and have always remained friends.We got married last summer in Las Vegas.

 I have 3 step-children; a boy (14), a girl (18), and another boy (21) – who is attending NJCU for his undergrad.

In my spare time I’m a collector. My collection, until just recently, was Star Wars toy related artifacts. This always places images in people’s heads of dusty toys piled up in mom’s basement that the owner assures you will put his kid’s through college, if he ever moves out of the basement.  Sadly, the toys are never worth a fraction of what the owner thinks. Please don't think I'm THAT guy.

I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to speak at several Lucasfilm sanctioned Star Wars Celebrations around the US and abroad over the past 10 years. I’ve spoken in Los Angeles, Orlando, Pennsylvania, London, and, most recently, in Anaheim. We received the best praise for one of our Orlando panels. The MC overheard an audience member tell his friend, “that one actually didn’t suck”. HIGH PRAISE INDEED! After the most recent panel in Anaheim we were interviewed by Lucasfilm and it was posted on the Star Wars Youtube page. They picked a panel each day that they deemed as the best and we were it for that day. Needless to say being interview by Lucasfilm was a high point of my panel participation over the years.

That’s about it for me. Looking forward to the semester.

-Your Digital Librarian