Rukmal Ryder is the Reference Services and Childhood Education and Care Research and Instruction Librarian at Salem State University. She worked at Salem State as a student employee, library assistant, Library Media Studies program faculty and as a temporary librarian, before becoming a full-time librarian. Prior to joining Salem State, she worked at Head Start, Overseas Schools, (Pre K-3) and in Global Business Corporations. She earned her M.L.S from Simmons College in 2006 and taught online courses as an instructor in the Continuing Education Graduate Library Science Program. She has a M.Ed. in Technology in Education and a B.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from Salem State University. She has Massachusetts Educator Licensures for Library (K-12 levels) and Early Childhood Education.

At Salem State she manages the Library Help Desk Ticketing System, Reference Services , Reserves staff and Education Resources Area Collections. She helps at the Library Help Desk with reference and in-depth research questions and works with the Childhood Education and Care faculty for research, instruction, and collection development. She supervises reference staff, Education Resource Area student employees and creates Canvas courses for staff and student training.

During her leisure, she likes to do gardening, cooking, reading and walking with her husband and dog. She enjoys traveling around the U.S. states and around the world.