I Found it in the Archives

Janet DeVries Naughton

Associate Professor, Librarian

Palm Beach State College

 

Assortment of items from the Hallock/Gibbs Collection, including a snapshot of Marian Hallock Gibbs, ca. 1943.

 

Recently, a faded manila envelope mysteriously appeared on my desk with no provenance. As I sifted through the worn newspaper clippings, crumbling scrapbook pages, sepia toned photographs, hand-written tuition receipts, type-written letters, fraternity party invitations, wrinkled sporting event pennants and ink smeared report cards, an amazing story emerged. A tale of hard-working, middle class Palm Beach County teenagers attending Florida’s first public junior college. A chronicle of sweethearts separated by the second world war and lives reorganized to support both life on the American home front, our national security and war efforts.

 

I eventually pieced together that the materials were donated to the college by the family of Marian Hallock Gibbs and John Allison Gibbs who attended Palm Beach Junior College between 1941 and 1947. Marian Hallock served as editor-in-chief for The Beachcomber, the college’s newspaper. In 1942, she arranged for the first Florida Junior College Journalism Conference and served as a correspondent for The Palm Beach Post newspaper, chronicling Palm Beach Junior College’s “men in uniform,” and the “scrape for scrap” drive for local newspapers.

 

Portrait: J. Allison Gibbs, Portrait in uniform. Dated November, 1943.

 Hallock married classmate J. Allison Gibbs before he enlisted in the United States as infantry paratrooper in April 1943 and after graduation she worked for The Palm Beach Post as a staff writer.  Though Hallock and Gibbs were college sweethearts, the official Hallock’s May, 1943 graduation photograph shows only eight women. Gibbs eventually graduated from Palm Beach Junior College in 1947.

 

 

 

 http://www.palmbeachstate.edu/library/lake-worth-library/college-archives.aspx

Click this link above for more great info on our college history!

 

 

 

 

PTLC's “Here’s the Scoop”, Gallery- Library

 

“Scooping Out”
Fresh Ideas about Studying!
 

 

On Wednesday, September 14, Learning Specialist, Lyam Christopher, was a delightful addition to the “Here’s the Scoop” series.  Mr. Christopher shared ideas for calming anxieties with breathing exercises and increasing memory functions by using word associations.  Christopher shared his first-hand experiences learning to breathe in a calming manner, as a result of his practice of free diving. 

Breathing exercises are always useful for controlling the flow of air in and out of the lungs.  The benefit is a reduction in stress.  Christopher encouraged audience, consisting of half faculty/staff and half students, participation by facilitating the practice of inhaling and exhaling.  The idea was to inhale and hold for four seconds, then exhale, with the hissing sound of a snake, for eight seconds.  The audience repeated this exercise several times.

Christopher also shared two different approaches for better study skills.  Each strategy depends on whether studying facts and information in short or long narratives. 

When sentences and/or phrases contain important information to be retained, word associations help in the process.  Christopher presented a strategy he described with an acronym:  WOH or WORDS, OBJECTS, HILARITY (including humor with a SHOCK VALUE).  Christopher again engaged the crowd with an exercise.    

Using the sentence, “Henri Becquerel invented radium in 1896,” the audience was asked to determine the hardest word to remember.  In this example, the audience agreed upon the surname of the inventor, Becquerel.  After identifying the word, the audience was challenged to think about some object which comes to mind regarding the word.  This elicited several responses, including one suggesting the object, cheese, because “béchamel” sauce is associated with cheese and the name sounds like “béchamel.”  The “hilarious” is left to the imagination.  Christopher’s second example about word associations elicited responses about throwing scalpels at people in a court room! 

When studying and attempting to retain information in longer narratives, another suggested strategy is the List Method.  The audience discovered the benefits of this approach by creating a “list” from a narrative about Mark Twain’s tragedies in life.   By reading the narrative and creating a list of the tragedies, the reader is able to determine the number of items in the list, or, the number of tragedies in Twain’s life.  Studying with this number in mind provides a benchmark, in order to be certain all the tragedies are studied, should there ever be a quiz or exam asking questions about the tragedies.

Overall, the presentation was interesting and informative.  Could a side benefit of learning the value of word associations be to think about “hilarious” gothic and macabre stories of shock value, just in time for Halloween?  WOH there, diver, you forgot your béchamel sauce!

 

Submitted by Doug Cornwell

PBSC-Librarian/Associate Professor

 

 

Professor Allen Takes a Lead in Public Services!

Robbie Allen

Librarian/Associate Professor

Robbie started here at the college in November of 2012 as a Librarian/Associate Professor and liaison to the baccalaureate programs. 

He serves on various committees such as College Affordability Taskforce, eLearning Advisory Committee and the FLA Scholarship Committee.

In 2015 Robbie completed the Emerging Leaders Program. As his Emerging Leaders project Robbie created a pilot project with Dr. Mia Ocean to create textbook replacements in four of her courses. 

This year Robbie will be advisor for Kiskeya Club and responsible for Public Service area on the 3rd floor including managing the Circulation/Reserve Department. 

Come to the third floor to visit the Circulation/Reserve department to checkout tablets, laptops, graphic or scientific calculators, textbooks, popular books, and more. 

 

Stop by the 3^rd floor and say hello to Robbie!

 

 

 

Welcome Professor Naughton!

Janet Naughton
Librarian/Associate Professor

August 1^st Janet joined the faculty as a Librarian/Associate Professor.  She recently earned her Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University. 


Janet joined the college in October of 2012 as a Library Technician II, assisting students at the Circulation and Reference desks.  She also worked on our digital archives preservation projects, coordinated exhibits, programs, and digital graphic production initiatives. Janet brings nearly two decades of experience in libraries, archives and museums.

Janet also holds a Bachelor's degree in History from Florida Atlantic University. Janet will serve as the librarian for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Bachelor of Applied Science programs. Janet follows the solid groundwork established by Professor Robbie Allen  during his 2012-2016 appointment.

Stop by the Gallery and visit the Hispanic Heritage
Month Art Exhibit through October 28th.
Event Coordinator - Janet
Stop by and say Hello!

Welcome to a NEW School Year at PBSC!

Please Welcome Our New Librarian/Associate Professor
 Jill Saracino 

Jill spent the past 16 years as a K-12 librarian in the school district. The last five years she was a Media Specialist at Palm Beach Lakes High School.  She earned her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. She grew up in New York and has been living in South Florida for 18 years.
   
When Jill is not working she enjoys reading, bike riding and traveling with her husband. She spent 3 days this summer riding 180 miles across the state of Maine.  Jill looks forward to working with the students, faculty and community here at Palm Beach State College.

Stop by the Information Desk on the 2nd floor of the 

library and say hello to Jill!

Congratulations Samantha MacLaren - NEW FAU Grad!

 

We would like to congratulate Samantha on her high achievements these past four years working at the library.  She graduated here at PBSC with an AA degree 18 months ago and just graduated this month from FAU in Boca Raton August 9th.  Samantha’s degree is a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Management of Information Systems, with a concentration in Data Analytics.  

 

These are some of the neat technology tasks she gets to work on for the library; helping coordinate, produce and publish Social Media content, including designing and editing graphics and videos.

 

Samantha also uses her talents building applications that retrieve information from the library API’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samantha is a terrific asset to the library and we wish her all the best in her future adventures. She is looking forward to beginning her masters in the near future while enjoying some well-deserved free time going to movies, working on graphic designs and hunting for Pokémon.  

 

Look for Samantha’s fun and exciting new info videos on our Facebook page beginning today! Take a peek at #‎PBSCLibraryClip.

 

 

Looking Back: Brian Kelley's 'A Ray Bradbury Moment' April 2002

Brian Kelley

Library Learning Resource Center Director

His personal story  about a  ‘Ray Bradbury Moment’!

Near the end of the first Read Together Palm Beach County program our director Brian Kelley was approached to set up an afternoon ‘live’ interview with 81 year old Ray Bradbury.  This event would be via a remote call from our Duncan Theatre at Palm Beach State College, [formerly PBCC] to his home in Los Angeles. Radio personality Renee Montagne from NPR Radio was hired to conduct the interview. The stage was set with a large screen, a comfortable overstuffed chair, a green end table and a microphone.  There were over 400 attendees quietly yet anxiously waiting for this event to begin. [April 2002]

Mr. Kelley is telling me this story in his office at Palm Beach State College not too long after the passing of Mr. Bradbury on July 5^th, 2012. He tells me that he has told this story numerous times at library events whenever the book Fahrenheit 451 or Ray Bradbury is mentioned.

Mr. Kelley continues...

"The fun began 20 minutes before the interview started."  Renee Montagne made the initial contact to Los Angeles.  Mr. Bradbury is on the phone talking with Renee and he made the commitment to begin the interview in 20 minutes. They did a sound check and both Renee and Mr. Bradbury agreed to set their phones down until it was time to begin the interview.  The stage is set.  Behind Renee the big screen has a larger than life picture of Mr. Bradbury and the spotlight is on the chair.”  Mr. Kelley is very pleased with the turn out as he looks out towards the audience.





Quote from website: Read Together Palm Beach County  "In 2002, Renee Montagne of National Public Radio hosted a two hour public discussion of Fahrenheit 451 at the Duncan Theatre. The event included a telephone interview with author Ray Bradbury, in Los Angeles, who answered questions from the audience in Lake Worth." Image Credit: http://pbcliteracy.org/general.php?category=Programs/Read-Together-Palm-Beach-County

Mr. Kelley continues...

“Around five till, we pick up the phone and say, ‘Mr. Bradbury are you there’?  We didn’t get any answer.  At this point the program is supposed to begin. 10 minutes after the hour we are still not hearing a voice from the other side! We thought something must have happened. He must have forgotten that we called but we’re still on the line.  Or he didn’t realize he had put the phone down and thought we were calling back.  But at this point we don’t have another phone number or contact for him.  He didn’t have a cell phone.  2002 was ‘pre-everybody has a cell phone’ era.  He’s not the kind of person that would have a cell phone even today."

 

"Because we are having difficulties contacting Mr. Bradbury, we make an announcement to the audience that we are having some technical difficulties and we are currently trying to get Mr. Bradbury on the line. All those involved in the set up for this event are in a cold sweat.  We are panicking and thought 'maybe he took ill'. What should we do? Call the police in Los Angeles? Should we call the library in Los Angeles and have someone go over to his house?"

 "Someone thought of this idea...‘what if we got a cross reference directory on his phone number to find out his street address and find the nearby address and call those numbers?" 

That’s exactly what they did!

When your guest author has wandered away from the phone,

who you gonna call? A librarian! Of Course!

The end of the story goes something like this...

“We called the City of West Palm Beach Library. Their librarian looked up Mr. Bradbury’s phone number in a cross-reference directory for Los Angeles, and found his address.  The librarian looked up his street and found a few neighbor's phone numbers.  We called a couple people, and one of them walked over and knocked on his door, who in turn found Mr. Bradbury outside.  The neighbor told him to go inside and pick up the phone and that’s what he did!”

Mr. Kelley said the interview was a success and went surprisingly well after the difficult delay.  The program began around 15 after the hour instead of the top of the hour. Mr. Kelley also said that this was the longest 15 minutes waiting and wondering what they were going to do if they couldn't reach Mr. Bradbury with 400 people in the audience patiently waiting.

Mr. Kelley continues: “To this day, I can’t ever hear the name ‘Ray Bradbury’ without thinking of that whole incident!  Everything was perfect after that."

 

It was definitely a ‘Ray Bradbury Moment’!

Librarians save the day!

This story was written from a recorded interview with Mr. Kelley

via our library Flip video device by Library Technician Colleen Shaffer

Palm Beach State College

Lake Worth, Florida

 

Ray Bradbury August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012