Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

It is with bittersweet best wishes and gratitude that we share that our dear colleague Marilyn Scott has retired, and today, November 30, is her final day at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM). After the retirement of Lucy Shelton Caswell in 2010, Scott has been here the longest, serving over 23 years! As all who have visited us know, the BICLM family is a small and tight-knit group, and her absence will be deeply felt. From managing our digitization program and website, to overseeing dozens of student employees over the years, to watering and pruning the plants she nurtured in our lobby and waiting area, Marilyn is one of those behind-the-scenes staff members integral to keeping our operations afloat. Here’s a look at Marilyn’s time at The Ohio State University:

Marilyn graduated from Ohio State with a Fine Arts degree. As a student, she worked at the Thompson and Fine Arts Libraries. Before beginning her career at BICLM in 1998, she also worked at OCLC. Over the past 23 years, Marilyn’s position in Special Collections has continuously evolved with the expansion of BICLM’s programs, facility and staff. In the early years, Marilyn’s job consisted of a wide range of duties including office management, financial oversight, graphic design, collection accessioning and processing, event planning and exhibition installation.   

Throughout her career at BICLM, Marilyn has been an extraordinarily productive contributor. Her list of accomplishments is long! She was instrumental in planning and executing BICLM’s popular triennial multi-day comics event, the Festival of Cartoon Art, from 2001 until 2013. She oversaw the management of BICLM’s extensive art collection, including the transition from an Access database to Past Perfect Museum management software. The system now manages and describes over 123,000 artworks that can be searched by the public. The database is a tremendously valuable resource for patrons, curators, donors and fans of cartoon art and allows BICLM to fulfill its stewardship responsibilities.

Working with students, Marilyn created and maintained the early iterations of BICLM’s website as well as numerous digital exhibitions, adopting multiple technologies and content management systems from HTML to Silverstripe, Drupal and WordPress.

Marilyn successfully managed BICLM’s digitization program, which served many hundreds of patrons and has resulted in a rich and valuable research resource. Marilyn oversaw the digitization of more than 17,000 rare or unique items from BICLM’s distinctive collections, making them discoverable with robust metadata. When Marilyn began this work, BICLM’s digital files were managed on CDs with Excel spreadsheets.  In collaboration with IT, she assisted with the migrations to Media Manager, the Image Management System and Digital Collections.

During Marilyn’s career at University Libraries, she has trained and supervised more than 50 student employees, providing them real-world skills and experience that they have carried forward into their careers.

Her vast knowledge of BICLM’s collections and history, her versatility, her willingness to help wherever she was needed and her cheerful demeanor will all be greatly missed. In retirement, Marilyn plans to pursue her interests in gardening, the arts, home renovation projects, yoga and attending to the whims and demands of her two house cats.

Please join us in congratulating Marilyn on her retirement!