By Suzanne Arist, North Suburban Public Library

Bridget MacMillan is a Librarian Relations Consultant with LexisNexis. Her role is to work with librarians in the legal arena, including law firms, law schools, courts, and agencies. Through group presentations and individual training sessions, she keeps librarians up to date on the LexisNexis research system. In addition she listens to concerns and suggestions from librarians and reports those to management teams at her company.

Bridget has worked at LexisNexis for four and a half years. Prior to LexisNexis, she was the librarian at an intellectual property law firm in Chicago, Marshall O‘Toole Gerstein Murray & Borun, for almost three years. Before that, she was a Business Researcher at Ernst & Young in Chicago for almost a year. Her MLS is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to graduate school, Bridget worked in Cleveland, Ohio as a fundraiser and special event planner for a number of non-profit organizations.

Highlights of Bridget’s career include receiving many awards from the SLA-Illinois Chapter and LexisNexis. She has made significant contributions to both organizations. Along with Priscilla Stultz, she was honored to receive the SLA’s Library Partner award in 2005 on behalf of LexisNexis. This came in recognition of the time, effort, and energy both she and Priscilla have devoted to SLA in recent years. In 2001 LexisNexis was the recipient of the Library Champion Award recognizing the involvement and commitment of Priscilla Stultz and Bridget.

Bridget has also been recognized by her company LexisNexis. In 2004 Bridget received a Program Excellence Award and Creativity/Innovation award. She also accepted the Most Motivational Award from LexisNexis in 2003. Prior to that, she was recognized with the Creativity/Innovation Award in 2002. And Bridget was first honored with the Team Building Award from LexisNexis in 2001.

Bridget joined SLA-Illinois in 1997 after moving to Chicago to work at Ernst &Young. In 1999 she was recruited to co-chair the Meeting Arrangements Committee with Priscilla Stultz. They scouted locations, negotiated costs for meals and rooms, and coordinated the details of meetings. They did this for three years, from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 to 2003, Bridget served on the Strategic Planning Committee. And for the past two years, 2003-2005, she has been the Treasurer.

In addition to SLA-Illinois, Bridget is a member of the Chicago Association of Law Libraries, Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin, American Association of Law Libraries, and the SLA Legal Division at the national level of SLA.

As a member of the AALL Public Relations Committee one of her responsibilities is to write a Public Relations column a few times a year. Her column in the AALL journal, Spectrum, published in June 2005, was “Finding Inspiration in the Oddest Places” (http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0506/pub_sp0506_PR.pdf [1]).

She will be contributing two more columns in the coming year.

Bridget has been involved in mentoring relationships. There is a core group of librarians she turns to for help, advice, and guidance with her career. Similarly she is part of support groups for fellow librarians; she assists them with their decision-making process as it relates to their careers. Bridget refers to herself as a “sounding board” for thinking aloud opportunities and possibilities and their related costs. The system benefits all involved.

For the past 18 months, Bridget has been involved extensively with the SLA Legal Division as the Program Planner for the 2005 SLA Conference. She found it to be exhilarating. The biggest benefit from this volunteer work is that it forced her to think about balance in her life. In recent years, her career and librarianship have dominated her life. She is now motivated to also spend time on activities and interests that “feed her soul” and provide enjoyment.

Bridget plans to begin reading over 200 unread books she has collected. She also plans to continue knitting, learning meditation and Yoga, writing stories for and about her family, solving crossword and jigsaw puzzles, building a website for family and friends, and enjoying weekends with friends from various times in her life. She will excel in these areas as she has with her career.