Nickie Colello-Klubek Retires After 32 Years at UB Libraries

by DENISE WOLFE

After more than three decades of making life easier for students, faculty and colleagues, Nickie Colello-Klubek is retiring from the University at Buffalo Libraries. Throughout her 32-year career, she's been known for spotting problems and finding smart ways to fix them — all while keeping her focus on helping people access the information they need.

Colello-Klubek started at the libraries in 1993 as supervisor for Course Reserve Services for Arts and Sciences. Just four years later, she and her team created something that seems routine now but was groundbreaking then: UB's first online course reserve service. The innovation made it so much easier for students and faculty to get to course materials, and it earned multiple Service Excellence Awards along the way. 

She went on to develop Delivery+, which became one of the UB Libraries' most popular services by making it simple to get materials across UB's campuses. It's still a go-to resource for the campus community today.

In 2006, Colello-Klubek took on management of the Libraries Annex, a 21,000-square-foot storage facility. What started as a space for low-use materials eventually grew to house more than 1.3 million items — way more than anyone originally planned for. She kept things running smoothly through that growth, designing workflows and leading a major weeding project to make sure people could still get what they needed quickly. 

Her responsibilities grew even more in 2015, when she became head of Delivery Services. In that role, she oversaw everything from resource sharing to circulation — services that touch nearly every corner of campus. She helped UB get more connected with major resource-sharing networks like IDS, RapidILL and OCLC Express, which meant faster delivery times and happier users across the SUNY system.

One of her biggest accomplishments was leading UB's switch to Alma/Primo, the cloud-based platform that SUNY libraries now use. The transition took years, but it unified how SUNY schools share materials and created a catalog that lets institutions borrow and lend seamlessly. UB was the first campus to make the SUNY-wide search the default option, giving UB users access to resources across the entire system. 

More recently, Colello-Klubek helped plan the Lockwood Library renovation, serving on the Lockwood Library Implementation Committee and the Physical Collections Moving Team. She brought her deep knowledge of workflows and collections to big decisions about moving materials and keeping services running during construction. As head of Annex Operations, she led her team through weeding more than 500,000 items, coordinating new shelving construction, and getting the facility ready to become the main distribution point for physical materials during the renovation.

Throughout her career, Colello-Klubek has been recognized as a great mentor and team player. She earned her Alma Administrator Certification, completed the ARL Library Management Skills Institute I and got a project management certificate through the School of Management. She's shared what she knows at conferences around the region and country, and she's served on committees across SUNY, the university and UB Libraries. 

Colleagues say Colello-Klubek is straightforward, thoughtful and never afraid to tackle tough problems. Her leadership and clear communication have shaped library services for decades, and her influence will stick around long after she's gone.

Congratulations on your well-earned retirement Nickie and thanks for 32 years of outstanding service!