Congratulations to Brad Baxter!

In honor of his contributions to Georgia libraries for over 15 years, Brad Baxter, GALILEO programmer at UGA Libraries, received the Library Support Services Award this past week during the Georgia Library Association 2010 Annual Awards Banquet held during the Georgia COMO Conference in Athens, GA.

Comments read during the banquet about Brad:

GALILEO has a name and a face, and it is Brad Baxter’s. While most have heard of the “big names” behind GALILEO - Jayne Williams, Bill Potter, Stephen Portch, Charles Beard, Ralph Russell and Merryll Penson among them - it has been the genius, dedication, commitment and tireless energy of Brad that has kept GALILEO up and running. While the vision of a statewide library system should not be minimized, the idea would not have survived without the “behind the scenes” work of individuals like Brad. Even before 1995, he was focused on making GALILEO work, and work even better than imagined, for the state of Georgia. An astonishing uptime of 99%, millions of users authenticated, and the evolving customizations of GALILEO are only a few of the accolades that should be shared about Brad. While his official title is Application Analyst Principal, perhaps after tonight he will be recognized as the mind, heart, and soul of GALILEO. What do his colleagues say about Brad? “…responsive, curious, talented, and dedicated; always ready to solve a problem; explains a complex challenge in terms that anyone can understand and finds a solution to a customer need; great ingenuity; patient and thoughtful; wise.” It is only right that in the fifteenth birthday year of GALILEO, the man behind the programming is honored for his ongoing stewardship. Thanks from all of us in Georgia, Brad!