Michael Murphy MI’22 is the Politics, Policy, and Data Librarian at Seton Hall University (SHU) in South Orange, New Jersey. Born and bred in New Jersey, he earned his Master of Information from SC&I in 2022 and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall. Murphy holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from American University and has studied at King’s College London and New York University. He kindly agreed to answer a few of our most pressing questions.

C&I: What led you to choose the MI program at SC&I?

MM: After graduating from college in 2017 and returning to N.J. from D.C., I held a series of odd jobs and was looking for a career reset but was unsure about my exact path. I did an informational interview with a family friend, Suzanne Kosempel, who at the time (2020) was a reference and instruction librarian at Raritan Valley Community College and had earned her MLIS from Rutgers in 2016. Our conversation confirmed librarianship as the path I wanted to pursue. I also walked away with a good impression of SC&I’s program, and I remember her specifically praising the quality of the instructors. I did some research and found that the prestige of the Rutgers program, its affordable tuition and convenient location, and its ability to offer hybrid learning made it desirable, so I applied and was happy to be accepted.

SC&I: What does your current position entail?

MM: As the long-winded title suggests, it’s a dual role, half traditional library liaison for SHU’s School of Diplomacy and also the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs. The other half involves being a member of the university’s Research Data Services team hosted in the library, which helps faculty and students across disciplines find, manage, analyze, and visualize data for their research and courses.

SC&I: What classes and instructors had the most impact on you?

MM: Several courses and experiences stand out.

• Transformative Library Leadership with Professor of Library and Information Science Marie Radford: I really appreciated this class; it was a great opportunity to network with peers and the excellent speakers Professor Radford brought in. There were lots of great conversations and big picture overviews of librarianship and what leadership can look like in this context.                                                                                                                   
• Internship: My field experience was an internship at Seton Hall. Professor Radford, my advisor, helped arrange it, putting me in touch with someone at the university. I was able to apply my coursework in a working library, pulling on info literacy for freshman English instruction, reference sources services for chat reference and research consultations, and collection management with a weeding project I was later invited back as an adjunct to assist with. 
• Foundations of Data Science with Assistant Teaching Professor of Library and Information Science Suchinthi Fernando: I took this class on a whim, thinking it was an easily transferable skill no matter where I landed. It ended up being very integral and great preparation for my current job. Not only was it helpful for me to point to it as an example of my understanding of statistics and data analysis, but it reduced the learning curve and intimidation factor of learning new software and tools.

SC&I: What advice do you have for those considering the MI program?

MM: Resist the path of least resistance and anonymity that asynchronous learning affords and get involved. Forge connections with classmates and professors and the wider local librarian community. Join student and professional organizations, attend events, and break out of your comfort zone. There are shared values and interests to make those connections, and librarians are helpful people. Also, make the most of experiential learning. It was really gratifying to apply what I learned in my coursework to the internship and feel like I was speaking a common language with my supervisor and other folks working at the library. I knew the jargon, the trends and concerns, and the theory and then the internship let me apply it. Also, this gave me the opportunity to build connections that served as fantastic job references and leads in the job search. There was direct connection from my internship to the job I have now.

Photo courtesy of Michael Murphy MI’22