By Jo Mathis/AAPS District News Editor
Clague Middle School librarian Kim McLean grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University, where she studied communications and theater. She started her career in book publishing, where she worked in marketing and public relations for a variety of publishers, including Congressional Quarterly Publishing in Washington, D.C. and Rand McNally in Chicago. After staying home to raise her two children while working part-time for the Lamaze Association and the Wild Swan Theater, McLean returned to school to earn her master of science in information degree from the University of Michigan in 2010.
She met her husband, Austin, during a study abroad program in London, England during her junior year in college. The Ann Arbor residents have been married for 25 years and have two children, Neil and Grant. Neil graduated this past spring from the College of William and Mary with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and art history, and is now working as a cloud solution engineer for Oracle in Washington, D.C. Grant is a sophomore at Villanova University studying business and history. He is on the ultimate frisbee team and will be studying abroad in London next year.
What inspired you to study library science? When my boys were attending Lawton Elementary school, I volunteered in their library helping with book circulation and book fairs. After seven years of volunteering, I took a job as a media clerk at Tappan Middle School and realized how much I absolutely loved working in the school library. The only thing holding me back was a degree, so with the encouragement of the librarians I had volunteered and worked for, I decided to apply to the University of Michigan. Not only did I get into the program, but I also received a non-traditional scholarship awarded to students who have been out of college for more than five years. This cemented my decision to return to school. After two years in a full-time program in the School of Education, I earned my teaching certification and at the School of Information, I received my master’s degree.
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