On May 1, 2024, the University Libraries held their annual Staff Recognition Ceremony. Six library staff were honored for their years of service and four for the Staff Achievement and Recognition (StAR) Award, including one honorary recipient. The StAR award is a peer recognition program designed to honor excellence among library staff through individual awards. The Friends of the Libraries provide finance support for the awards.

Library Staff Years of Service Awards

Phil Flynn, Head of Instruction & Research Services – 35 Years of Service

Phil Flynn is a graduate of Wittenberg University and received his master of Library Science from the University of Kentucky. He began his career librarian at Wright State University in 1988. Over the years, Phil has served as the primary contact for the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Mathematics and Science. He has taught many classes from Art to Biology to Engineering to Motion Pictures. He has also taught many sections of EDT 110 and this year he co-taught a class in the Chemistry department.

Phil serves the library well through committee work. He has been a member or is currently a member on a variety of teams and committees, i.e. the University Libraries Web Advisory committee; chair of the Assessment Team; Diversity Team, Collection development, and the libraries’ Professional Development Team. He has also served the library profession very well as a member of ALA (American Library Association); American Association of Engineering Educators; ALAO (American Library Association of Ohio); Collections Management Interest Group, and OhioLINK committees.

Last year, Phil stepped into the role of department head managing the day-to-day operations of the Instruction & Research Services department and is doing great with these new responsibilities. To quote from I&RS staff, “Phil lends a kind and understanding ear to us in the department. He is also 100% focused on helping students in any capacity he is able.

Congratulations Phil, for 35 years of service and thank you for your dedication and commitment to the library and Wright State University.

Deberah England, Electronic Resources Librarian – 25 Years of Service

Deberah England was hired in 1998 to oversee our print serials operation and to manage the Current Periodicals Room, where staff maintained recently-received loose issues of hundreds of journals and provided assistance to patrons using them.

As the publishing landscape has shifted toward electronic, Deberah has shifted her skills as well. In 2004 her title as changed to Electronic Resources Librarian, and she is now responsible for shepherding new online resources through the entire acquisition process, including setting up trials and collecting feedback, reviewing license terms, coordinating license negotiations between vendors and WSU’s legal counsel, and receiving and routing invoices.

She also participates in review of existing licenses, and provides troubleshooting assistance to patrons and staff who have issues accessing or using our electronic resources. Deberah has been active throughout her career in the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG), and her contacts with the publishing and distribution side of the industry have been a great asset to her work here at WSU.

Deberah is an extremely dedicated member of our team, and is always thinking of ways to improve the services we offer to our patrons.

Congratulations to Deberah on your 25 years of service with Wright State University.

Toni Vanden Bos, Archivist, Cataloging & Preservation Manager – 20 Years of Service

Toni Vanden Bos received her undergraduate degree from Gustavas Adolphus College and her MLA in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin. Prior to coming to Wright State University, she served as an intern for the national parks service and worked at the Wisconsin Historical Society in various roles including public records archivist and as an archivist at the University of Texas.

Toni began her archivist career at Wright State University Libraries in 2003 – the year of the Anniversary of Flight, an exceptionally busy time in the archives but she jumped right in giving presentations, providing tours for dignitaries from around the world, and handling an exorbitant amount of reference and photo reproduction requests. Over the years her archivist position has changed. She has served in a variety of capacities from outreach manager, exhibit coordinator, and media request manager to her current role of preservation and cataloging manager. In her current position you may see her processing a collection, doing preservation work on an at risk item, as well as assisting researchers with reference requests.

As an adjunct professor in the public history program, Toni has taught classes on archival preservation and has supervised Capstone projects and internships.

She has also served the library well through committee work as a member of the Social Committee; Disaster & Emergency Committee; Professional Development Team; StAR Committee; Web Team; Marketing Team; and Diversity Team. She also served on the OhioLINK EAD (Encoded Archival Description) Taskforce.

Toni has also served the archival profession as a member of the MVAR (Miami Valley Archivists Roundtable); SOA (Society of Ohio Archivists); SAA (Society of American Archivists); and several committees including Emerging Leader subcommittee and the Donald Peterson Scholarship Committee where she served as chair.

Thank you, Toni for your dedication and service to the University Libraries and congratulations on your 20 years at Wright State University.

Shannon Michalak, Library Operation Specialist 2 – 15 Years of Service

Shannon is a master of Course Reserves and Interlibrary Loan. She also helps out at the circulation desk and can fill in to either open or close the building, as needed. She volunteers at campus functions, representing the Libraries well and making connections with students. Shannon has exciting, fun ideas on the social committee and looks to build bridges, not burn them. Her fire comes from a desire to help students in a fair, efficient, and friendly way. Shannon can handle so many different roles, and she maintains a positive attitude throughout. She has adapted to such chaotic times as Covid-19 and the Sierra-to-Alma migration. She gives great advice on policy and procedural questions, keeping others from drifting astray. Shannon is a pivotal player in the Libraries’ mission.

Congratulations, Shannon, on 15+ years with WSU! 

Adrienne Savage, Library Associate – 15 Years of Service

Adrienne works nights and weekends, having the invaluable task of opening the building on Saturday and Sunday mornings, while the rest of us are watching cartoons! She is the type of employee where if I have a big project to work on, I can do so knowing that Adrienne has everything covered. She is super reliable, steady under pressure, good natured, and confident in her work. She deals with holiday shift changes, clock changes, technology changes—while providing great input on the Web Advisory Team—and money changes. Adrienne also hires, trains, schedules, and supervises our student workers in RDS. She is supportive of them, patient with them, and gives students a chance to prove themselves. She had to really adapt this role during Covid-19, and there will be future opportunities for innovation in this area after transitioning to Alma. Furthermore, thanks to Adrienne for suggesting the perfect book to add to the Libraries’ collection in memory of Ed Trentman. Check it out!

Congratulations, Adrienne, on your 15 years! 

Donna Bobb, Administrative Specialist – 10 Years of Service

In 2021, when an archivist departed the library, Donna was moved to the Archives to help provide administrative support. She is the friendly smiling face that greets all visitors. She helps them set appointments to use the archives and guides them on how to find materials on site and on the web. Donna sets up the desk schedule and helps with SCA (Special Collections and Archives) student employees to ensure they know the operations of the reading room. She loved working in Admin and she loves her role in SCA. Donna support the University Libraries by serving on committees including the Assessment and the Social Committee.

Congratulations Donna on 10 years of dedicated service to Wright State University and thank you!

2024 StAR Award Recipients

Barbara Conklin, Office Assistant 2

Barb Conklin exemplifies everything a StAR should be. She goes above and beyond her job description to make this a fun and comfortable work environment for library staff and students. Her heart is in every event she plans with the Social Committee and every treat bag she prepares to appreciate our student workers. As a part-time employee, she is flexible and rearranges here schedule to facilitate these events. Barb is the friendly voice who takes library staff facilities requests and ensures we get toilet paper when we run out and exterminators when we have bugs – these are just a couple of the MANY maintenance requests in a day. Barb is a whiz when it comes to find hard to find supplies – her super power! As the Library Student Assistant liaison, she welcomes student workers and helps them navigate paperwork, policies, and procedures. She makes the library an inviting place to be. Barb is a pleasure to work with and we all benefit from her roll in Administration and as Fun Committee Chair. Thank you, Barb, for all you do!

Leigh Duncan, Head of Library Technology Services – Honorary StAR Award

Unfortunately, Management Advisory Council (MAC) members cannot be nominated for the StAR award, but staff wanted to recognize Leigh Duncan and all the work she engages in. First and foremost is her taking the lead on the Alma project. Her organization and project management skills are paving the way for a smooth transition to what very well could be chaotic and unmanageable if not for her proactiveness in working with OhioLINK folks but also pre-training our own staff. She has thoroughly immersed herself in this so that we can be successful. And, all this is being done while she single-handedly runs the Library Technical Services department. Leigh is always willing to step up and take on extra tasks for the good of the organization. It is hard to realize or notice all these things that just get taken care of behind the scenes. Thank you, Leigh, for your caring dedication for a friendly working environment, and your commitment to Library success. 

Desirée Loewit, Acquisitions Coordinator

Desirée has two very distinctive jobs in the Library, the second of which she took on when we lost a position in Special Collections and Archives (SCA). Desirée’s attention to detail is uncanny which is very helpful in her Content Acquisition Management (CAM) accounting position. She makes sure our materials bills get paid. She tracks expenditures down to the penny in Banner and makes sure out acquisitions funds are error free. Desirée has been doing this job for so long it is easy to take her for granted, but this job should not be taken lightly. It is definitely an important piece. For her to do a complete turnaround each morning at 10:00 a.m. and do scanning work in SCA is remarkable. Although there was a learning curve involved, her persistence and attention to detail paid off and made her an invaluable member of the SCA services team. Desirée is flexible with her time and also spends part of her work day at the SCA information desk, fielding questions and helping patrons. We are so thankful that Desirée’s loyalty to the Library has helped us keep our service levels high while the budget has been cut low. Her work ethic and desire to succeed have made her a “STAR” employee. Thank you Desirée for all that you do.

Brian Olesko, Psychology & Social Sciences Librarian

Brian Olesko serves as the subject librarian for both social science and health science disciplines, and there are a lot of them! He is also an experienced and valued member of Wright State’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). One of his major IACUC duties is to perform comprehensive literature searches to identify humane practices or alternatives for using live animals in specific research. The process of performing and reporting on these searches requires numerous iterations in multiple databases, which takes time and attention to detail. The lab animal site reviews in which he participates require serious dedication as well.

Brian earned an M.S. degree in Psychology before earning his M.S in Library Science. His experience with and understanding of the scientific research process is particularly clear when he consults with graduate students and faculty in Psychology and Professional Psychology. Investigating the availability of research instruments (Tests and Measures) is also very time-consuming and complex, but Brian readily assists patrons (and even colleagues) with this challenge in his normal affable and unassuming manner. These are just a couple of examples of Brian’s consistently stellar service, not just to the University Libraries, but also to the wider university community!

Congratulations to all our award recipients and thank you to all our staff for their continued dedication and service to Wright State University and the University Libraries.