Alejandro Sobalvarro (he/him) joined TDL in January 2025 as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA).
Where did you go to school?
For my undergraduate degree, I studied English at New York University. I later received an MFA in creative writing, with a focus on fiction, from Texas State University.
Where is your hometown?
I am from Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. My first library job was as a page in a suburban library when I was in high school. After college I worked for DC Public Library, during which time I worked at all 26 branches in the city.
What might (someone) be surprised to know about you?
I love the Austin music scene in general, but I am an especially huge fan of death metal and go to metal shows often!
What has surprised you most about working with Texas Digital Library?
As a student at Texas State, I had some encounters with Vireo, DSpace and OJS, but I didn’t know they were all parts of a larger statewide operation under the umbrella of Texas Digital Library. It was an exciting surprise to realize that those resources, which helped me a lot in my first master’s program, were all operated by the TDL team in collaboration with libraries at universities all over the state, and definitely made me think about the value of collaboration in the digital space. I have been interested in digital libraries for years, but I hadn’t previously fully understood how much work goes into maintaining e-resources, nor that a relatively small team like TDL’s could impact such an enormous population of students, faculty and staff.
Tell me about where you are in your library degree program / studies.
I am in my second semester at the iSchool. I’ve been digging into metadata in all of my classes, which I find to be a heady topic that is a lot more expansive than I ever would have imagined before becoming an iSchool student. Working at TDL has allowed me to get hands-on experience with Dublin Core standards, for instance, so it has been exciting to immediately see concepts I’ve learned about in class in a practical, on-the-job setting.
What do you find most challenging about working in academia?
Recent technological advances like artificial intelligence have made academia feel like it is shifting at a very rapid pace. People seem to have widely varying degrees of comfort or interest in adopting new technologies, which is certainly a challenge. However, as we can see from the platforms TDL provides its member institutions, exploring technologically innovative education platforms can also help further along the missions of academia, tricky as threading this needle can sometimes be.
The interest in digital libraries / digital archives seems to be growing. Why do you think that is?
Digital media is often a lot more easily accessible than physical media, and I know I am not the only person to be dazzled by how vast digital library collections were during the COVID pandemic.. As an avid library user, I remember discovering the depth of online collections in those months, and learning that digital archives not only existed but often had enormous and extremely unique collections was an exhilarating realization. I see the digital library space as one that promotes a lot of values that librarians often hold dear, like equity and accessibility, and there is lots of potential for this space to democratize aspects of academia that were previously much more closed off from the average library user.
What would you tell someone who is thinking about getting involved with TDL?
Anyone thinking about getting involved with TDL should absolutely do so; the team is extremely knowledgeable and the resources TDL offers are full of potential for anyone interested in finding new ways to increase access to research, data, and scholarly publications. In my month at TDL, my knowledge on the topics of open access as well as the various platforms TDL uses to achieve its mission has increased exponentially, and I am hopeful I will be able to put this knowledge to use throughout my career. If the mission and services offered by TDL resonate with you, this will likely be true for you too.