Jose F. Rodriguez, Head of Access Services/Librarian Assistant Professor, University of Miami, selected winner of the STARS Atlas Systems Mentoring Award

As a new department head in Access Services, Prof. Rodriguez is seeking to learn much more about interlibrary loan and reserves so he can manage and provide visionary leadership to his department of 13 staff and over 35 student employees. By virtue of his role at an ARL member institution with a sizable library collection and membership in numerous other consortia and collaborations, Prof. Rodriguez has the responsibility to significantly support resource sharing, both nationally and internationally, and particularly lead in his state and local community. The STARS Atlas Systems Mentoring Award is intended to foster such leadership in new practitioners in these fields.

Prof. Rodriguez has worked as the Head of Access Services of Richter Library at the University of Miami for about eight months. Previously, he worked as an Outreach Librarian at Georgia State University, a Learning Resources Coordinator at Hillsborough Community College, and a Reference & Instruction Librarian at State College of Florida.  So far while at the University of Miami he notably has collaborated to expand resource sharing access among Hemispheric University Consortium members. Other noteworthy achievements in his career include receiving a grant while at Georgia State University to research librarian outreach across institutions, and, while at the State College of Florida, encouraging the expanded use of Open Educational Resources and implementing inclusive instruction pedagogies.

The selection committee was Chaired by C. William Gee.