Retiring UNLV employee saw phenomenal growth

UNLV's longest-serving employee will retire June 30 after 40 years on the job.

Billie Mae Polson, director of technical services at the James R. Dickinson Library, will be honored with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. April 7 in the lobby of Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall.

Polson began working at UNLV in the summer of 1959 when the school was still known as the Southern Regional Division of the University of Nevada.

"When I first came here, they had just paved Maryland Parkway," Polson said. "But other than that, it was two buildings and desert."

She was one of two librarians hired by the university that year.

She supervised cataloging and reference in the one-room library in Maude Frazier Hall.

Polson was acting head librarian for two years in the early 1960s.

"The growth on this campus during my 40 years has been phenomenal," Polson said. "We have gone from 150 students to 20,000 and from a library budget of $17,000 to $32 million.

Her last official act as a university employee will be to lead the procession of the class of '99 into the Thomas & Mack Center during one of UNLV's two graduation ceremonies on May 15.

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