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WEMTA Board Member, Technology Director (2026–2028) Contact
Kim Liepert
My path into library science didn’t start in a library. It started in customer service at a Herman Miller dealership, where I learned early that understanding how a business works from the inside — from the people who need things, not just the systems that provide them — is what separates good technology from useful technology.
That insight followed me into IT. I transitioned into the technology department at the same company, eventually rising to IT Director. Because I understood the business from the customer service side, I could speak both languages — the people side and the systems side. When I identified the gap between what the business needed and what the accounting software actually provided, I built a solution on my own time, sold it to two other Herman Miller dealerships, and spent the next several years in enterprise web development and product management.
Then I burned out. Working close to around the clock for years has a cost. I stepped back, reset, and found myself volunteering at my daughter’s middle school library — which turned out to be less of a detour and more of an arrival.
What I brought into that library wasn’t a career change — it was a career translation. Years of knowing what it looks like when people can’t find what they need, can’t evaluate what they’re given, or can’t bridge the gap between information and understanding. I had lived that problem from every angle. Library and information science gave me the framework to do something about it.
I earned my Master of Library and Information Science from the ALA-accredited program at UW–Milwaukee in December 2025, and I’m currently working toward Wisconsin Library Media Specialist state licensure. In my seventh year at Pilgrim Park Middle School in the Elmbrook School District, I work as a paraprofessional alongside 900+ students and 100 staff — building the kind of relationships that make the library the place people come when they don’t know where else to go. That’s not a small thing. It’s the whole thing.
Part of how I do that is by asking different questions. In reader’s advisory, I’ve found that “what don’t you want?” unlocks more than “what are you looking for?” ever does. The same principle runs through everything — good information practice starts with knowing what you’re trying to avoid, not just what you’re trying to find.
I believe information literacy is not a checklist. It’s a practice, an ethical commitment, and the difference between a person who can navigate the information landscape and one who gets used by it.
Meet Purrfessor Mewtonium, a distinguished academic. Holding a tenure-track position, the Purrfessor specializes in scratching post demolition, bookshelf exploration, and perfecting the art of the “empty bowl” lament. He maintains a staunch, principled boycott of the digital age; he has never checked an email, finds your smartphone to be an inferior chin-scratcher, and firmly believes that technology is a burden intended solely for the staff (Kim).
Plank and Pivot 