Meet…
17 November 2008
SLIS Student Vanessa McCall Finds Unique Career Opportunity
Rather than pursue a traditional library career, student Vanessa McCall has found a niche as a Prospect Research Development Associate for the University of Texas at Dallas. In this role, she directs her efforts toward identifying donor prospects among individuals, foundations and corporations. Using a variety of research methods, McCall investigates who potential donors are, what type of institutions and causes they support, and whether they might be a good fit with the University’s mission. Using the information gathered by McCall, a member of the development staff is able to cultivate relationships with these donors.
She is a native Californian, growing up in Long Beach, California and moving to Orange County before she entered high school. McCall worked as a library assistant for the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Irvine before moving to Texas this year.
McCall is enthusiastic and passionate about her job, adding that she often feels "like a detective," pulling the information together to paint a picture of the individual, foundation or corporation. The work that she does plays a critical role in the fundraising process, and she adds that there are opportunities for this type of research in many sectors, including higher education, environmental, political and nonprofit groups.
She points out that many people in her field have degrees in library and information science, including her director, University of Texas at Austin alumna, Toni Loftin. The resources she utilizes are those that she would use to do any kind of research, such as public records and online databases such as Lexis-Nexis or Factiva. The process of searching for charitable contributors and analyzing information draws heavily on the skills McCall has been learning at SLIS. She cites Reference and Information Services and Online Searching as being especially helpful in this regard.
McCall, who will graduate in Fall 2009, says that she has a lot of fun at her job and encourages students to think creatively when deciding how to utilize their MLIS degree. "Some people are not necessarily meant for the reference desk," she states. "This was a great opportunity for me to take my library degree and mold it to what I want it to be."
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