An old, wise phrase says, “A smooth sea never made an expert mariner”….and the past three years have been anything but smooth seas. However, thankfully we have had a skilled and caring leader to guide us through the stormy seas of the pandemic, including challenges such as: safety and cautionary issues, budget and enrollment crises, and the management of all the other day-to-day elements of developing and maintaining a successful hub of service and support for Queensborough Community College, which the Kurt R. Schmeller Library has provided, and continues to provide during these challenging times.
Professor Jeanne Galvin, Chief Librarian of the Kurt R. Schmeller Library was that leader, who is finally departing for greener pastures, after 15 years of leading the library and staff through rigorous challenges, and all the cheerful successes and painful heartbreaks that we all of have gone through and shared over these years.
Professor Galvin has always created a nurturing atmosphere that helped the Library and its team be all it could be- a safe and effective learning support service and a beacon of knowledge for students and faculty alike. Through the years, she has guided us through technological adaptations and changes, shifts in leadership on campus, and through the personal tragedies that her staff members had suffered through the years.
Professor Galvin, in my experience, is an extraordinarily kind, fair, and strong leader, who was not afraid to speak on behalf of her faculty and staff, and to advocate for the needs of the Library. She was as tough and sharp as she needed to be, and as kind and compassionate as she needed to be.
Professor Galvin has had a lengthy and illustrious career in Academic Librarianship, and cared deeply about her work in Library and Information Science. and the students and faculty of the institutions she served. Never backing away from the hardships of the job, and always with a wry sense of humor, Professor Galvin, unceasingly was that leader that each of us could look to for guidance and support.
Professor Galvin’s door was always open for inquiries and questions about the library and the work we performed there. She generously donated her time to many of us, while maintaining her usual rigorous routines and responsibilities that come along with the job of being a Chief Librarian.
I hope you will all join me in my sentiment in thanking Professor Jeanne Galvin for her years of tireless service, and her compassionate and empathetic attitudes towards students and staff alike, and for her years of endeavoring to make the Library here at Queensborough Community College the very best it could be.
It has been my honor and privilege to serve under her leadership, to work aside her as a colleague and to call her my friend. We all wish her the very best life has to offer. She has devoted so much of herself to Library, the College, the staff, the faculty, and the students, and her legacy will not be forgotten.
-Bill Blick
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