Kee Malesky

NPR

NPR listeners often ask, "What is her name anyway - Keema Leski, Kim Alesky, Kay Marlenski, or what?" Her name is Kee Malesky, nee Christine Mary Shields, of Brooklyn, N.Y. The "Christine" became "Kee" when her youngest sister learned to talk, and because she thought it was a rather cool name, she stuck with it.

With her colleagues in the Reference Library Kee Malesky performs background research, answers fact-checking questions, finds experts and story ideas, and provides guidance to staff on grammar, usage, and pronunciations (but don't blame her when someone says "nook-yoo-ler"). She maintains the library's book collection, and has also worked on special projects for NPR - producing the Election Night Briefing Book, documenting the early history of the network, and designing training programs for the staff.

Kee has been married since 1970 to NPR's Robert Malesky, who is the senior producer of Weekend Edition Sunday. However, they are not on the official "NPR Couples" list because they met and married before either of them came to work at NPR.

After several years as an administrative drudge for NPR, Kee abandoned the network to get her Masters degree in Library Science from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She had planned to find a position deep in an archive somewhere with no human contact, but was lured back to NPR by her friends in the Broadcast Library in 1984. After cataloguing NPR programs for three years, Kee became the staff librarian for the original version of NPR's Performance Today, and then moved to the News Reference Library in 1990.

Breaking the Mold: The Kee Malesky Story (2003) is a completely fictional account of Kee's early life. Producer Josh Seftel, working on a documentary about environmental science, asked Kee for permission to use her name for the character, a high school girl who enjoys research and finds the solution to a house mold problem that is making people sick. Airing on PBS and at film festivals around the country, the short film has been well-received by reviewers and audiences. The Providence Journal called it "a zanily eccentric tale."

In her copious spare time, Kee collects books and New York City memorabilia, enjoys European travel, and works on her family genealogy. She was the subject of a chapter in Super Searchers in the News : The Online Secrets of Journalists and News Researchers (2000, Cyberage Books) and co-authored the entry on "News Libraries" for the electronic edition of the Encyclopedia of Library & Information Science (2003). Kee has been a member of the adjunct faculty of Catholic University's School of Library and Information Science, and is active in the Special Libraries Association and in Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society of library science. She is a frequent guest speaker at library conferences and workshops.