Library Staff Receive Length of Service Awards- Lake Worth Campus

Oct 15th, 2010, three of our library staff received "Length of Service Recognition" at the Palm Beach State College "Employee Recognition Event" at the Duncan Theatre at Lake Worth Campus. 
Please join us in congratulating them on these GRAND milestones!

Penny Brown 40 years of service

Nita Johnson 25 years of service

Doug Cornwell 15 years of service

http://www.palmbeachstate.edu/x19678.xml#news

[10-15-2010 ]

Dr. Gallon sent them a personal invitation to receive their award and to thank them for playing a critical role in accomplishing the Palm Beach State College mission.  He also thanked them for their service and efforts in making our College a premier learning and teaching institution.

The College recognized 179 faculty and staff as 'Length of Service' recipients, with contributions ranging from five to 40 years totaling 1,905 years combined. Palm Beach State College recognizes the importance of the contributions of committed employees to the continuing success of the College.

Penny has 40 years of service and has worked on all three floors of the library and in every department. The Boca Campus Provost, Dr. Bernadette Russell, gave Penny a GRAND introduction, reviewing her 40 years of service during all the name changes from Palm Beach Jr. College, Palm Beach Community College and now Palm Beach State College.   Penny is our 'unofficial' historian! If you have any questions about who worked when and where, or what a particular room or building was originally used for...she'll most likely know the answer.  She is presently working on a project to get all our old yearbooks digitized.  This is a huge project and we wish her well in this endeavor.

Nita has 25 years of service and has also worked in the library for all of these years. Nita was recognized as a nominee for the BRAVO award. This program helps the college applaud employees that get caught doing great things, going above and beyond the call of duty without hesitation. These behaviors embody the philosophy and mission of Palm Beach State College.  Nita also received the yearly MAD award, [Make A Difference] in the Circulation Department.  She always puts the students first and continues daily, working diligently to keep our General Collection of books in tip top shape.  This is not an easy task with over 150,000 titles.

Doug has 15 years of service, and has also worked in the library for all of these years on all three floors.

Doug commented on some of his memories from the past:

"Seems like only yesterday and it was Oct. 1995! Started around the 19th or the 20th..." I have had offices on all three floors. Began with the Electronic Library Lab in room LL101 – where Word Processing Service Center are now located, except it was a large classroom with a satellite link to the outside world. I shared the classroom with Eric Neumann – our little corners were the “office space!” This was before databases on the Internet. Eric and I installed and maintained a network and CD-ROM stack (about 14 or more disks at once) on the network. These disks were the “databases” we access today over the Internet, but there were fewer databases at that time.

When Eric departed for greener pastures, I moved to the 2nd floor where Pat Alvarez’s office is now located. As long as the ELL remained on the first floor, I was on the 2nd floor. Keep in mind, Reference was on the 3rd floor in those days.

Then, we re-named the lab to the Internet Lab and moved it to room LL303, the current location of the “lab/classroom” area. My office was stuffed in the back of that room for awhile, but then I moved to the office where Rob is now located on the 3rd floor. When “Rosemarie” retired, I moved into her office – my current office.

Events or memories? Oh, I remember when;

… the first six months I worked here, I was living in the college apartments on 2nd Street and commuting back and forth on weekends to my family in St. Petersburg. The house in St. Pete finally sold and we purchased a home in Royal Palm Beach.

…preparing blueberry pancakes for everyone for our “holiday” breakfast one year.

…a student in a wheelchair stuck on the third floor one afternoon when the power went out. We called EMT and those guys strapped the student into a chair and carried her down to the first floor. The wheelchair went separately!

… doing a staff “training” over the summer and teaching Genealogy. I remember the workshops I did (through Continuing Education) on Genealogy and other “new” Internet sources (new at the time, second-nature today).

… the team teaching with Lori Crane, David Duncan, and Lois Pasapane. Then, the trips we took to Biloxi, MS, and Tallahassee, FL, to present a paper about our experiences.

… being one of the first to teach using WebCT (which is now Blackboard). And the 1-credit courses – LIS1002 and LIS2004.

…the hurricanes and the damage to the circulating books. That was about 10 years after I began. In the first week (Oct. 1995), sections of Military Trail were so flooded, it was difficult heading west!

… interrupting “couples” (at the lips), students in the study rooms (blush!)… in romantic relationships.

We are very proud of our colleagues and wish them many more wonderful and enjoyable years of service.