Melody Sky Weaver recalled her reaction the first time someone told her she'd make a great librarian: "I'm not a quiet person. I am a really loud, extroverted person."

At the time, Weaver was a sculptor, building large-scale art installations designed as environments that bring people together. When she took a children’s librarian job at the Garden City Public Library outside Boise, Idaho, she quickly understood why the recommendation had been made. 

"What I was trying to do with my public art was to build community and bring people together around important issues," she said. "When I applied for the library job, … I realized that's what public libraries do. They bring people together in beautiful ways and build community."

Over two decades later, her love of community-building carried her into a new role. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs recently appointed Weaver to serve as the next Washington State Librarian. She comes to the job after serving as Community Services Director for the City of Port Townsend, where she managed the public library, parks, facilities, and arts and culture. "We are why you want to live in a community," she said, pointing to Dr. Eric Klinenberg's writing on social infrastructure: Libraries, parks and public schools build the social cohesion that helps communities thrive, especially during hard times.

Weaver earned her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington Information School in 2010, and she credits the program for accelerating her career. "It was a great theoretical underpinning of understanding how important it would be… to make sure that we really understood things like policies," she said, pointing to collection development, privacy and intellectual freedom. A storytelling class stood out as a favorite, she said, noting that at their core, librarians are stewards of stories.

Weaver credits Professor Trent Hill and professor as well as MLIS Program Chair Karen Fisher as key influences during her time at UW. Fisher's research on "information grounds," informal spaces such as coffee shops where people exchange knowledge, shaped how she thinks about libraries as community hubs.

That view of libraries as gathering places took root well before graduate school. Weaver remembers forming an interest in librarianship during an undergraduate study abroad trip to Egypt in the early 2000s, where she watched the newly rebuilt Library of Alexandria shape culture and inspire communities. "That was what planted the early seeds in my librarianship," she said. 

Her work since then has drawn praise from others in the field. Past MLIS Program Chair Cindy Aden, who spent more than three decades in various libraries, including a term as Washington State Librarian, spoke highly of Weaver:

"Melody has been an inspiring librarian in Washington state for over 15 years and is well-connected to all kinds of leaders — including the other public library directors in this state. She is positive and creative and has got all the skills and experience, in my view, to be an impactful leader — and we certainly need that now,” Aden said. “The challenges of defending libraries and finding funding and support are great right now, but there is no one I can imagine better prepared to take this on; we are all so lucky to have her in this role."

In her new role, Weaver will oversee the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library, which serves residents who can't read standard print, along with the Institutional Library Services programs reaching state prisons, hospitals, a juvenile facility and the state's research library facility in Tumwater. Outreach is her top priority: 

"Everyone should be shouting from the rooftops about how incredible our Washington State Library is," she said. 

Outside of work, Weaver continues to make art, and for the past six and a half years she's brought her certified therapy dog, Gryfin, to the library through the Read to Rover program. Her favorite book is Madeleine L’Engle’s "A Wrinkle in Time," a gift from her godfather when she turned 10 that she rereads every decade. 

“It's not only a story about a courageous girl saving the world through the power of love,” she said, “but it also broke a glass ceiling for women writers in science fiction.”

Looking ahead, Weaver wants to help restore state funding lost to recent budget cuts and advocate for moving the state library back to the Capitol campus in Olympia, alongside the state archives. She's also eager for the public to see the library's territorial collection, currently held in a vault in Tumwater. But she says the foundation of her new role starts with people, the same instinct that carried her from public art to public libraries, building spaces and communities that represent everyone who walks in. For Weaver, that work is just getting started.