Schaumburg Township District Library

Anonymous
  • Library Employee
Former MLB pitcher Jim Mecir came to Schaumburg Library when he needed help getting his new business off the ground.

Born with a club foot, Jim Mecir overcame his disability to find success in the big leagues as the pitcher for the Oakland A’s team depicted in the bestselling book and movie Moneyball. Now a resident of Kildeer, Jim has teamed up with Ellen Schnur from The Second City and created ImprovTalk , a presentation all about teamwork, communication and innovation.

“On the mound, you have to make strong connections with your team to be successful,” Jim said. “The same is true in business. We make sure people walk away from our presentations with a few new communication tools in their belts.”

But starting a business is never easy. Jim turned to Schaumburg Library’s Business Liaison Librarian Patti Smolin to help build his list of contacts and find the best places to bring ImprovTalk.

“Patti’s vast knowledge about business and marketing gave us great ideas to kick start our search,” Jim said. “She showed us many valuable tools that have helped us make lots of contacts and earn more bookings. We’ve even developed relationships with other area libraries, and our contacts in those communities continue to grow.”

Since meeting with Patti, Jim regularly uses library resources, including online databases to research more contacts, the digital production studio to record podcasts and videos for his business, and online learning tools like Gale Courses.

“Library services have changed a great deal recently,” Jim said. “I would definitely recommend businesses check out their local library for resources.”

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