Are libraries the new Netflix?

While Nick Iwanicki may not consider himself a detective, he does love sleuthing.

And that’s what he says is the best part of his job as the university archivist at the University of Miami, which is about much more than shelving books.

“Everybody asks me if I know the Dewey Decimal System, which is really weird,” he says. “I'm much more like, ‘I'll help you solve the mysteries.’ And it’s not just solving the mysteries, but maybe solving the mysteries and then helping people tell stories with what they've learned. That's a really fun direction I never expected my career to take.”

Iwanicki’s journey from graduating from the University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in library and information sciences to his current role with the University of Miami wasn’t exactly linear.

After leaving DU, he worked as an archivist and digitization specialist for Caribou Companies, the holding company for Caribou Ranch Recording Studios in Nederland, Colorado. There, he organized and managed different materials like records, photographs and microfilm slides.

Then, Iwanicki’s path took him to the Colorado School of Mines to work as a special collections librarian. He also stepped in as interim executive director of the school’s Geology Museum. This was where Iwanicki truly honed his management skills and spearheaded one of the projects he’s most proud of: a video series called “Ed Talks,” in which the museum’s curator spoke about the history of Colorado’s mining districts.

“He would talk about the geology in one presentation, and then a couple of weeks later, he'd do a presentation on how the district came into being and the history of it,” he reflects. “We recorded them and put them online, so they’re still there for people to watch in perpetuity.”

The project is a perfect example, Iwanicki says, of how libraries have evolved to provide different kinds of content.

Following his work with the Colorado School of Mines, Iwanicki took some time off from professional pursuits to travel around the country—and take a bit of a break.

“People are like, ‘Oh, you go into [library science], because it's easy and super relaxing.’ That's not how it is,” he says.

Then, in summer 2021, the University of Miami reached out, and the rest is Iwanicki’s history.

At UM, Iwanicki focuses on the history of the university, managing the aspects of the school’s collections and helping researchers bring their ideas to life with the help of the UM archives. One of his latest projects is curating UM’s 100th anniversary book, digitizing records and historical photographs.

Iwanicki says his drive to take on projects like these was born during his time at DU, during which he pitched a research idea that he thought his advisor, history professor Susan Schulten, would surely shoot down. To Iwanicki’s surprise, she fully supported his idea: A thesis about the history of Black baseball players in America.

The support from the research community in DU’s library science program built an academic and professional confidence that is reflected in Iwanicki’s work today.

“Especially with the work that I do now—those projects, if I didn't want to do them, nobody else is going to get them done,” he says. “And they're really fun, and they're really rewarding. So, I think that sort of support, from my undergrad and my graduate experience, translated to me being like, ‘I'm the guy that can get things done like that.’”