You may have noticed that WiLS has some new faces among its staff. We are excited to grow our skills and improve our services by bringing new members into our team while also leveraging the experience and strengths that our existing team contributes. In the coming months, we will be sharing a little more about WiLS staff members, both new and experienced, in their own words.
This month, we talk with Melissa McLimans, Community Liaison and Service Specialist, who began working with WiLS in 2015.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’ve been a librarian for about 14 years, with nearly ten of those years spent at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as the production manager of the digitization group. Before that, I worked across the Mall at the Wisconsin Historical Society on early digital projects and managing an online genealogical research service. My whole career, before library school (ever heard of a traffic manager at an ad agency? I did that for a year) and after has really been focused on project management and being a really, really good generalist. I’m not an expert at any one thing, but I can understand and communicate the basics of almost anything to almost anyone. That won’t sell you on LinkedIn (hey, I’m pretty decent at lots of things, but not great at any of them!) but, it makes for a pretty good project manager and communicator. I’ve been with WiLS for over three years now and that’s still my wheelhouse, though I’m developing more and more skills.
It will surprise no one that I love reading and it is probably beyond hobby level and more of an obsession. I make sure to schedule time in my day to read and if I can’t, I really feel the loss. I love hiking and have a dream of one day (after my two kids are off to college) completing a major through hike, not the Appalachian Trail, but maybe parts of the Continental Divide Trail. After all, I’m not crazy. My family and I do try to travel quite a bit, a trip in the summer and a trip at spring break. Next up on our travel docket is Glacier National Park where we will do some backpacking after stocking up on bear spray.
What do you do in your role at WiLS?
I am a Community Liaison / Service Specialist with a focus in our Consulting service area. The majority of my time at WiLS is spent working with public libraries to develop strategic plans that will help guide them in their decision-making, advocacy, and day to day operations. I love learning about the libraries and their communities across the state — surveys and community conversations allow me to learn about Wisconsin towns and cities in a way that many can’t and I count myself very lucky.
I also work on other projects as they come up, large and small. And, I do some social media and communication work for Recollection Wisconsin, one of the consortia we manage that brings together digital cultural heritage resources from Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies and shares them with the world. What this means is that I get to explore all the amazing photographs, documents, oral histories, and more that represent Wisconsin’s shared history and then pick out the gems, the historical points of interest and share them with our followers. It’s pretty much the best.
I can also be counted on to make staff meetings go longer than they need to be by wisecracking. A good one-liner should never be left on the table.
Why did you make the decision to do this job?
I loved my work at UWDC on the UW Madison campus, but I had received both of my degrees from UW Madison and worked on campus for about 15 years. I was ready to try something different. WiLS offered me a chance to learn more about libraries of all types and about my untapped skills. I had never facilitated large meetings with strangers. I had never written planning documents or studied data for trends. I was ready to learn and this job and this organization allowed me to do just that.
If money or capacity were no concern, what WiLS service would you implement or expand?
I’m not sure it would be a service, but I would love to be able to do a long term study of impacts libraries have on people’s lives. You know, a huge, longitudinal study looking at how (and if) libraries, and in particular public libraries, impact the overall well-being of individuals and the communities in which they live. I want to help libraries figure out how to tell impactful stories rooted in data and have a deeper understanding of their place in their communities and larger society. So, you know, not much.
I would really like to help our libraries develop marketing and communication plans that have been built to reach their specific stakeholders while building towards a bigger message about libraries as a common good.
What are you listening to or watching or reading right now that’s making you think?
My family has been really into The Good Place lately. Watching people try to be good (and discuss philosophy) is kind of nice.
A recent provocative read is On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder and next on the reading list is, oh I don’t know! I have 286 books on my to-read list!
What do you see as a significant opportunity for our members in the next ten years?
Learning about and becoming experts at data collection, dissemination, and management. Libraries of all types will be called on to collect and use data to communicate their value to their stakeholders, whether that is campus administration, school administration, or citizens. We may be using data to develop and promote content and learning to do that skillfully now can only help in the future. As data collection and use become more prevalent, libraries will have a role in managing data for future generations and libraries will have an important role holding the line when it comes to patron privacy and intellectual freedom, something that an overreliance on data might be in tension with.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Libraries are symbols of democracy – the ability to equitably access information, to be informed, is at the very heart of our democratic society. Libraries reflect and support the very best in us.
I want to shout that from the rooftop!
Melissa is awesome. Want to connect with her about a potential project or idea that’s floating around? You can! Send her an email at melissa@wils.org.