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Betty Lane recently retired from her post as archivist at Genesee Community College, where she worked as a librarian for more than 40 years. In fact, Betty started work the very day the college opened its doors in August of 1967.

Officially, Betty was the assistant dean of the library at GCC up until 1990 when she (sort of) retired only to return to work part-time as the archivist until her recent (really this time) retirement. She initially came back on staff to compile the history of the college.

"As a brand new institution, you don't necessarily think about those things," she said, "but I had been saving materials from 'day one' and other departments within the college had their own records as well."

We caught up with Betty in of all places the archive room at the library—"bursting at the seams," she told me—to talk about that first day on the job at a college that was so young, they barely had books to fill the shelves, which they didn't have yet anyway!

You can visit the college site for a brief bio of Betty. Here's some of what is included there:

Aside from her part-time work at Genesee, Betty is an avid reader, she enjoys sewing and knitting, and with 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren she keeps very busy. She has served on the Board of Trustees for Woodward Memorial Library in LeRoy since 1991, and she is a long term member of the Batavia-Genesee County Zonta Club. Betty and her husband reside in LeRoy.