Barbara M. Sorondo

For many people conducting research in the health fields, Barbara M. Sorondo is their first stop.

As the health sciences librarian at FIU, Barbara helps students and faculty from the College of Arts, Science & Education, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work and the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences find sources and data that could inform their own studies.

To further her career, Barbara enrolled in the curriculum and instruction doctoral program focusing on the science, mathematics and learning technologies track. For her dissertation, Barbara researched what students, faculty and librarians each expected of each other during information literacy sessions held at FIU libraries. She learned that students wanted to learn how to access information quickly. Faculty wanted students to learn to use peer-reviewed articles for their research. And librarians wanted students to learn to apply the research skills they learned from course to course. Despite expecting different outcomes, each group achieved the outcomes they all had for each other.

But Barbara might not have become a librarian had it not been for a volunteer stint at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. That’s where she was mentored by medical librarian who helped Barbara discover a passion for librarianship, a career that married Barbara’s interests in reading, research and biomedical science.

By Chrystian Tejedor
Account Manager
College of Arts, Sciences & Education