Melissa Mannon is a professional archivist with 15 years of experience in the library and archives fields. Her work with museums, libraries, historical societies, town governments, and private collections gives her a unique perspective when engaging clients from diverse backgrounds. She posesses a graduate degree in library science with a specialization in archives management from Simmons College in Boston Massachusetts. Ms. Mannon has consulted for libraries, archives, historical societies, towns and museums since 2000. She has worked with the following towns and agencies:
Massachusetts
- Carlisle Historical Society- Essex National Heritage Commission
- Beverly Historical Society
George Peabody House
Jewish Historical Society of the North Shore
Lynn Public Library
Marblehead Arts Association
Stephen Phillips Trust House
Town of Essex
Andover Historical Society
- Massachusetts Moderators Association
- Lancaster Historical Society
- Shirley Historical Society
- Topsfield Historical Society
- Town of Lexington
- Westminster Historical Society
- Winchester Historical Society
New Hampshire
- Francestown Historical Society- New Hampshire Local Records Education Project through Dartmouth College (New Hampshire)
- Auburn Free Public Library
Center Harbor Historical Society
Hudson Historical Society
Nesmith Library, Windham
Town of Gilford
Town of Merrimack
Town of Peterborough
Town of Richmond
Before becoming a consultant, Ms. Mannon served as the archivist of the Waltham (Massachusetts) Public Library where she reorganized the local history collection and established an Archives that meets professional archival standards. In Waltham, she worked to establish a collaborative relationship with the town government to secure the public documents of Waltham. As archivist of the public libary, she worked with the Federal Archives and Records Center in Waltham to promote the care of historical records. She also served as a reference librarian and the first Waltham Public Library Internet Coordinator. In this capacity she created the first web pages for the institution.
After her work in Waltham, Ms. Mannon accepted a position as head of reference and adult services at the public library in Milford New Hampshire. Here she helped fulfill local residents' information needs, redeveloped the library's web pages, ran young adult services, and created finding aids for the local history/archival collections. Ms. Mannon performed a survey of the Town of Milford's records to help them ensure their safekeeping.
Ms. Mannon started Archives and Information Consulting Services primarily to encourage collaboration among diverse types of institutions collecting archives. Her work to date has assisted mainly non-archivists who are charged with caring for historical records in addition to their other responsibilities. She has worked with curators, librarians, educators, town clerks, church groups, volunteers, and the general public to educate them about the needs of the archives in their custody.
Ms. Mannon is an experienced presenter and welcomes the opportunity to speak or teach about archives, research, and reference and young adult services. See here for a list of available presentations and classes.
Ms. Mannon is a published author and has written in the fields of archives, history, art history, and photography.
In addition to her archives and library work, Ms. Mannon is an award winning photographer. For more information about her art see Melissa Mannon Photography