Kee Malesky
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 really 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 coordinates the library's internal News Wiki, and has also worked on special projects for NPR -- producing Election Night briefing books, documenting the early history of the network, and assisting with journalist training projects.
Kee has been married since 1970 to Robert Malesky, who was the senior producer of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday for twenty years. However, they are not on the official "NPR Couples" list because they met and married before either of them came to 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 arts magazine program, 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. Aired 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 2009, Kee took some time off to write All Facts Considered; The Essential Library of Inessential Knowledge (Wiley 2010), a compendium of interesting and unusual facts that she has accumulated during more than two decades answering questions for NPR reporters, editors, and hosts.
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, Information Today Inc.) 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.
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It's royal baby time in the UK. Great amounts of speculation and wagering seem to surround the choice of a name — George, James, Charlotte, Elizabeth? But what about the surname for this little prince or princess? There are a couple of options! -
As the year comes to an end, NPR librarian Kee Malesky shares closing lines from some great novels — those last few moments spent with a story that you love. -
In all of American history, just one woman has ever been awarded the Medal of Honor: Mary Edwards Walker, a physician during the Civil War. Congress later tried to take back the medal. -
The man was as odd as his myth. Long-haired, barefoot and nature-loving, John Chapman traveled the Midwest in the early 1800s planting trees and creating orchards for future settlers. -
In September 1862, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac clashed on the banks of Antietam Creek, just outside Sharpsburg, Md., in a battle that became the nation's bloodiest day. -
Golf's top pros are in the final rounds of the 2012 PGA Championship this weekend in South Carolina, so let's take a look at the fascinating history of one fundamental piece of equipment. -
The International Olympic Committee came up with some rather unusual sporting events for the 1900 Paris Games — including one that would probably be considered shocking today. -
Deep Throat whispered "follow the money" to reporter Bob Woodward during the investigation of Watergate, the third-rate burglary that brought down the Nixon administration. Or did he? An NPR librarian launched her own investigation. -
People object to having the nation's debt on their shoulders, and they take to the streets to show their anger. The Tea Party in 2011? No, Shays' Rebellion in 1786. -
April 14 marks the date 150 years ago that the first person was killed in the Civil War. But there's more to the story, and NPR's Kee Malesky has a special connection to it.
