Natalie Milbrodt

Natalie Milbrodt

E-mail: Natalie.Milbrodt@qc.cuny.edu


Work Title and Work Place


Courses Being Taught Presently and/or in the Past


Academic Statement

I believe in the power of personal narrative to tell larger human stories that connect us to one another and I always bring the lived experiences of my students, our classroom guests, and myself into dialogue with the concepts and practices in our coursework. Stories help us learn, remember, and find meaning. The study of Library and Information Science is an excellent foundation for anyone interested in preserving and expanding knowledge to enrich the quality of our lives as individuals and societies. 

I am an information professional and content developer with over two decades of experience working in small business, academic, cultural heritage and library settings. I currently manage the Metadata Services division within the Queens Public Library’s Technical Services department. I oversee archival digitization and the creation and management of metadata for the library's physical and digital collections. This includes the preservation of intangible cultural heritage and local history on behalf of the library's community-driven digital archives initiative, the Queens Memory Project, which I founded in 2010. The program was recognized in 2012 by the ALA Association for Library Collections & Technical Services with an Outstanding Collaboration Citation, in 2014 by the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York with an Educational Use of Archives Award, and in 2019 by the New York State Archives for Excellence in Documenting New York’s History. I hold an Interdiscipinary Humanities bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and a master's degree from Queens College in Library and Information Studies with a concentration in Archives and Cultural Heritage.

I currently serve on the Oral History Association’s Metadata Task Force, responsible for the creation of the OHA Metadata Toolkit, designed to help teams working at all scales and stages of an oral history project’s lifecycle to determine what information is important to preserve about their collections. I proudly serve as an advisory board member for New York State Historical Records, Design Dream Lab, The Municipal Art Society of New York’s Enduring Culture Initiative, and Wikitongues.