2-4-6-8! It's Olga We Appreciate!

Every year, Northampton Community College employees gather together to celebrate the college's accomplishments at our Staff Appreciation dinner. It's part awards ceremony, part sumptuous banquet, and a bit of good-natured teasing -- all in fun. We honor those among us who have reached milestones in their careers, and say goodbye to those who are leaving.

This year's Staff Appreciation will be special for the folks at the NCC Libraries, because we'll be giving Library Director Olga Conneen a heartfelt pat on the back as she counts down the days until her June 30 retirement. Anyone who has been at NCC for more than ten years can tell you about the many improvements Olga has made to our Libraries, including:

A major renovation of the main campus Library, which added the 64-computer teaching lab and the testing center, replaced dot matrix printers with laser jets, and gave the whole facility a desperately needed furniture and carpeting makeover;

Remodeling at the Monroe Campus Library, which doubled its size and added computers;

Expansion of the Library's collection of databases, which rivals the selection at many four-year colleges;

Addition of the Dornish Collection of Children's Literature, which contains first editions of children's books, signed by the authors and illustrators;

Adoption of information literacy as a student outcome in the college's General Education Core Curriculum, and development of the information literacy component of the COUN 150 course; and

Hiring of more staff, including more reference librarians to teach information literacy classes and assist students with research.

And you can forget about Olga slacking off in her last few weeks at NCC: another renovation has just begun at the main campus Library, where additional study rooms and another computer classroom are being added to the Periodicals Tower.

All of us on the Library staff want to thank Olga for her unflagging efforts to improve service to students and faculty, and her support of our projects and ideas. We have enjoyed our time together, and wish Olga well as she pursues an entirely new goal: relaxation!