Michael Benowitz
Director Of Engineering, Backend at The New York Public Library
New York, New York, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolMichael Benowitz is a seasoned engineering leader and backend specialist with 10 years of experience building production systems for public institutions, currently serving as Director of Engineering, Backend at The New York Public Library. He blends full-stack development chops with an MLIS background, bringing a librarian’s rigor to data modeling, metadata, and integration work—skills he’s applied to projects like the open-source CollectiveAccess Providence cataloguing tool. As a former hands-on manager and contributor, he’s led teams through SimplyE for Research and backend integrations (including iDigBio and ResourceSpace), improving import/export pipelines and implementing UUIDv4 support. Based in New York, he’s known for translating archival and library-domain requirements into reliable backend services and pragmatic engineering practices.
10 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
Semester Abroad History, Semester Abroad History at University of OtagoMaster of Library & Information Science (MLIS) Library and Information Science, Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) Library and Information Science at Pratt InstituteBA History, BA History at Colgate University
Github Skills (11)
import-data10
data-import10
data-transformation10
apim10
php10
data-export10
exports10
api10
guzzle10
uuid9
mysql8
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
collectiveaccess/providence
Aug 2017 - Jun 2018
Cataloguing and data/media management application
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:13 commits in 10 months
Contributions summary:Michael primarily contributed to the CollectiveAccess Providence project by implementing and refining functionalities related to data import and export, specifically for integrations with external systems like iDigBio and ResourceSpace. The user modified existing PHP code to improve data handling, refine data transformation logic, and to accommodate updated libraries and APIs for the external services. The contributions included implementing new features, such as the UUIDv4 numbering option, as well as fixing bugs.
intranetphpltimedia-managementpdo
NYPL/sfr-hathitrust-reader
Feb 2019 - Jan 2020
Read and ingest HathiTrust items into the SFR database
Contributions:23 PRs, 42 pushes, 23 branches in 11 months
sfrdatabaseingesthathitrust
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