Wenli Gao

Wenli Gao, data services librarian at University of Houston Libraries, has been selected to participate in the 2019 American Library Association (ALA) Leadership Institute, an immersive leadership development program for mid-career librarians.

Gao, who came to the University in 2014 as a liaison librarian for communications, sociology, and anthropology, is proactive in seeking collaborative opportunities in response to the evolving needs of library users. In her current role as data librarian, Gao develops and delivers services and support for faculty and students working with geospatial, numeric, statistical, and other data. She also provides instruction in methodologies and tools relating to geographic information systems (GIS), analysis and visualization of data.

Among Gao’s recent accomplishments are the creation of a centralized source for information on data journalism with colleague Lindita Camaj, PhD and supported by the ALA Carnegie-Whitney Grant; managing a project team to host a data-focused conference in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute and Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES); and launching a research workshop series. Gao was also recently elected as incoming vice president-president elect (2021-22) for the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA).

Gao is excited to be a part of the ALA Leadership Institute. “I want to focus on becoming a more effective team leader, to foster relationship building among team members, and to motivate and influence people so that they work to their full potential,” she said.

Gao is active in ALA and Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). She has presented various topics at ALA, ACRL, ER&L and NASIG conferences. Before coming to UH Libraries, Gao earned a Master of Library Science from Syracuse University, and an MS in Communication Media Technologies from Rochester Institute of Technology. She previously worked at SUNY Morrisville and University of Central Oklahoma.