For the first time in 28 years Colleton County Memorial Library has a new children’s librarian. Mrs. Jimmy McClellan comes to Walterboro by way of just about everywhere due to her Dad being in the military, but she originally hails from Arkansas. Mrs. McClellan’s husband worked in North Charleston, but she did not want to live inside Charleston. Looking online, she found a listing for a home that had a huge yard that just happened to be in Walterboro, and here she is.
Mrs. McClellan attended the Memphis College of Art and studied Fine Arts and also received a great deal of training in Early Childhood Education in the Idaho Head Start program where she worked as a teacher. Leaving teaching to stay at home with her children, it eventually morphed into homeschooling. During her years homeschooling she did research on books and how libraries function. She worked in a church library and developed their book selection and was the religious education director as well. In Walterboro she was volunteering working on the archives and saw that the bookmobile was hiring and applied. She got the position and fell in love with the work and the interaction she had with the kids in the community. The transition to Children’s Librarian was easy. McClellan is currently attending college online at The University of Nebraska for her Library Sciences degree.
Mrs. McClellan’s plans for the library focuses on the children’s library collection. She aspires to revamp and get some newer books and more diverse books that are reflective of the community. She wants to offer more specialty story time and have more to offer toddlers and babies. She would also like to see offerings for homeschoolers. McClellan reveals they are looking at starting a tween time for kids 9-12 years old. She wants to integrate games, crafts, and engineering things. She also would like to work with USC Salk to bring in more STEM education opportunities to kids. In the short term, Summer Reading is on the horizon and she is making plans for a successful year. McClellan wants to make sure the library is a place where everyone feels welcome to come in and hang out and have something to do. She wants families to be able to come in and there be something for each member of the family to enjoy and maybe discover something they are passionate about.
Outside the library, Mrs. McClellan still has a passion for art. She does color pencils, watercolors, and graphite drawings. She also has a love of the outdoors loving hiking and gardening.
