The Latest Introduction

Greetings!  My name is Matt Novak and I’m the fourth member of the GSE team from Nebraska to Australia.  Although I have lived outside of Nebraska for a few short periods of time, I have lived here most of my life.  I currently work at the University of Nebraska College of Law as an assistant professor of law library and reference librarian.  In this position I work with a wide variety of people including students, faculty members, and members of the public.  In addition to helping people find and use legal resources, I also co-teach legal research courses.  The areas of law that most interest me are environmental law, consumer protection law, and international, foreign and comparative law.  The College of Law recently started offering an advanced law degree in Space and Telecommunications law so I have taken an interest in these subjects as well.

I graduated from the Nebraska College of Law a few years ago, so it has been lot of fun to return to my alma mater to work.  Becoming a law librarian is sort of a second career for me.  I previously practiced law as a public defender for several years representing indigent clients at the trial level.  I have been very fortunate to work in two fields that are both challenging and rewarding.

In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking and cycling. As with several of my teammates, I also enjoy watching sporting events.  I am eager to finally figure out exactly how Cricket and Australian rules football are played.  I looked through the Melbourne Cricket Club’s Web site (it even has a library!), but still think I need to see them played to truly understand them. Of course, being a librarian, I love reading and learning new things – I seem to always have a dozen half-read books lying around.  Some interesting books I’ve read over the last year include: The Year of Living Biblically, When the Elephants Dance, the Omnivores’s Dilemma, and, I have to admit, the final Harry Potter book (my niece is a big fan, so I have to keep up).

I am very excited to participate in the GSE program and I’m looking forward to learning more about Australia and the members of Rotary District 9800.  I’m also looking forward to getting to know my fellow GSE team members better over the course of our adventure.