Presentations from the conference now available

Did you attend our conference this year, but can't quite recall all the details of your sessions? Did you have to pick between two sessions that both looked interesting, and now you want to see what you missed? After some technical hiccups, all the presentations from the conference are now up and available for you on Northwest Central!

If you'd like to see them, follow this link  and click through to whichever presentation suits you (including the keynote speech from Eva Calcagno).

If you have any questions or comments about the presentations, we'd love to hear from you. Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day!

The OLA SSD Board and why YOU should join

We've been pretty focused on the annual OLA SSD Conference lately, as I'm sure you've noticed. With all the planning, prepping, and organizing it takes to make an event like that happen, it's easy to get laser-focused on it. And what an event! The 2016 conference had record attendence (by a very wide margin), a new format, and plenty of other new and positive changes that we hope added value to it for you. I know I had a great time and learned lots!

But that's not all OLA SSD does, and we're always pushing to do more. The Conference Committee is one sub-group of a larger SSD organization, and SSD has room for YOUR skills, whatever they may be! We have a number of vacancies to fill on the SSD board if you're interested in an official position, including:

• Chair of the OLA SSD Board
• Continuing Education Committee Chair
• Continuing Education Committee Member
• Conference Committee Member
• Outreach Team Member
• OLA SSD Webmaster
• Board Member-At-Large
• ...plus a number of other positions that will probably open up soon!

Not to mention opportunities to write a guest post here on the blog, offer suggestions for next year's conference, set up a local meet-up between SSD members, and more. We need you!

"So what's in it for me?" you might ask. That's the best part! Not only do you get a chance to work with other people in your field (we're a pretty cool group, if I do say so myself), you'll be beefing up your résumé, expanding your skill set, getting leadership experience, networking like crazy, and doing your part to help out support staffers across the state. If you have time for a meeting every few months and a few minutes a week for some extra work, this really is a golden opportunity. 

If this sounds good to you, send us an email! olassd@gmail.com will reach us directly and we can discuss details and answer any questions you may have. We are excited to meet you!

Thank You!

If you attended the OLA SSD conference this year, we want to extend you a huge thank you! We blew the roof off of our previous attendance record (170 people this year!) and received tons of feedback. You all rock!

If you weren't able to fill out a paper evaluation the day of the conference, we created an online form so that you can get your thoughts to us quickly and easily. Click here to find our online evaluation form.

We'll be posting photos from the conference on facebook and here soon, so keep an eye out for your coworkers and colleagues. We are so happy to have prepped and organized this event, and we're looking forward to OLA SSD 2017.

Two weeks to go!

It seems like yesterday we were announcing this year's conference for the first time, but here we are two weeks away! If you plan on attending but haven't yet signed up, why not get your conference registration squared away before you head home for the holiday? Find the link to register by clicking here.

Here's hoping this will be a fun, safe, and relaxing three day weekend!

Conference Session Highlight: Ergonomics in the Library

If you're like most support staffers, you've noticed some aches and pains after a long day at work. Whether you're stuck behind a desk all day staring at a computer or on your feet running from shelf to shelf for hours, you can learn how to prevent pain and chronic injury (not to mention stay more comfortable!) at our Ergonomics in the Library session.

Victoria Eaton, OTD, OTR/L and her fabulous team of graduate student professionals Kaitlyn Blair, OTS; Kelsey Sandage, OTS; Amy Van Goey, OTS are going to be sharing some of their extensive knowledge with us about ergonomics, and you won't want to miss it. If you are looking for an interesting, informative session that will have concrete benefits for your day-to-day work, look no further!

Register for this session (and two others of your choice) here. Let's get those bodies into alignment!

Don't wait!

Just a quick reminder for everyone interested in the conference: you must register by June 10th to get our early bird price! More details can be found on our registration page if you have questions, and you can always feel free to email us at olassd@gmail.com.

Conference Session Highlight: Supportlandia

The big conference is coming up fast, and the registration numbers we're getting are great to see. If this keeps up we will definitely beat our attendance record!

As you've seen if you're a blog follower, we've got a whole bunch of great sessions this year. We'll be periodically highlighting some of the new sessions and panels we have planned, starting with something completely new: Supportlandia, our networking session!

We've gotten feedback from previous conference attendees who were hoping there would be a little more opportunity for networking at the 2016 conference, and we decided to make it happen. Supportlandia will be a gently guided networking session led by Jane Corry designed to help you meet people across the state in our profession, make connections, and maybe make a few friends too. Whether you've never been great at the whole networking thing or you're looking for an opportunity to use the skills you already have, this is the session for you.

Spots are filling up fast, so register today by clicking here. Bonus: if you register before June 10th you'll get the early bird discount!

And Basic Book Repair for Libraries is... Filled!

Thanks to all of you who have already registered for the 2016 OLA SSD Conference in Wilsonville, "Coming to a Crossroads: Intersecting Roles in Library Service and Community"! If you can believe it, the Basic Book Repair for Libraries workshop has already filled up and we've started a waitlist.

Just a reminder to those who haven't heard, there's a discount for early registration. Head to our registration page by June 10th to snag our Early Bird discount off the already-reasonable fee. Check here for more information on the conference particulars as well as what other fantastic sessions await you on July 17th!

Registration Now Open

You’ve heard about it, now it’s time to sign up! Registration is now open for the OLA Support Staff Division Conference “Coming to a Crossroads: Intersecting Roles in Library Service and Community.” Follow this link to register. Remember, if you sign up soon you can take advantage of our early-bird discount! Once you're registered, RSVP for the Facebook event and see who else will be there.

For more information about what's in store for you at this year’s conference, the location, or anything else, check out the 2016 Conference tab up at the top of the blog or click right here.

If you have any trouble registering or have any questions at all about the conference, email us at olassdconference@gmail.com or call our Conference Committee chairs Justyne Triest or Jennifer Patterson at (503) 352-1426 and (503) 691-3074 respectively.

Presenting... the Presenters!

With the OLA conference happening in Bend this week, we all have conferences on the brain. If this is your first visit to our blog, you might not know that SSD's own annual conference is coming up fast as well! If you're curious what's in store for you there, we have finalized our sessions and the wonderful people who will be leading them. Check it out:

Registration will be open in early May, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for announcements. If you're fast, you can take advantage of our early-bird discount. More information about the conference can be found here.

Thanks for following the Supportability blog! If you’re interested in seeing more great content related to the support staffer role, we’re also on Facebook and Twitter. And speaking of Twitter, if you’re attending our conference this year in Wilsonville, use the hashtag #OLA_SSD16 to join the conversation. We're excited to see you there!

Call for Networking Emcee

The OLA SSD annual conference on July 15th in Wilsonville is looking to be a great one, full of new ideas and interesting sessions! Based on some of the feedback we received after 2015’s conference, one of those new ideas we’re going to be including is a chunk of time set aside specifically for networking, open to all conference attendees and presenters. This networking session will go best if there is someone there whose job is to keep it lively and make sure everyone gets as much as they can out of their time.

While our committee members are happy to provide a bit of structure for the session, we thought we’d present the opportunity for professional development to all of SSD’s talented members. If you’re a networking rockstar (or if you just happen to know a few tricks for getting a group of strangers to meet), we’d love to have you emcee this year’s networking session! Contact us at olassdconference@gmail.com and share your ideas. If you prefer a phone call to an email, feel free to call conference committee co-chairs Justyne Triest (503-352-1426) or Jennifer Patterson (503-691-3074). For more information about the conference, look here to get to our current conference page. We look forward to hearing from you!

A Call for Presenters

As you probably know, the next Support Staff Division annual conference is coming up this summer, July 15, 2016. This year, the conference will be held at the Holiday Inn Portland-South in Wilsonville. As you may not know, we are trying a new and exciting format for some of our sessions, and the new format gives you more opportunities for professional development!

This year, in addition to the presentation-style format you’re used to (one or two people presenting to an audience for the majority of the allotted time), we are hosting interactive, panel-style sessions as well. These sessions will involve a short presentation on a theme by the panelists at the beginning, leading into a lightly moderated discussion involving everyone in the room for the majority of the time. You’ll be able to choose which style works best for you, so you can get the absolute most out of the conference.

Of course, we’ll need more presenters and panelists than we’ve had in the past in order to execute this plan, which means more opportunities for you to share your hard-won expertise with your fellow support staffers. As an added bonus, presenters’ conference fee is completely waived! Interested in presenting? Take a look at the themes of our sessions this year:

• Presentation style conference sessions:
• Managing Compassion Fatigue
• Library Ergonomics
• Handling Challenging Patrons

• Interactive panel style conference sessions:
• Interpersonal Skills at Work
• Customer Service Victories
• Training Guides/Techniques/Manuals – Best Practices

If one of our sessions jumps out to you as something you’d feel confident presenting about in either format, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at olassdconference@gmail.com, or alternatively call Justyne Triest or Jennifer Patterson,  conference committee co-chairs, at (503) 352-1426 and (503) 691-3074 respectively. Let us know which theme interests you, and if you have questions about the new format or anything else conference related, we can answer those too!

OLA SSD Presentations and Pictures

We know that you all are missing OLA SSD 2015, and sad that you have to wait almost a year for the next OLA SSD conference. We've got some good news though! You can remember your time at the 2015 conference in a number of ways:

Many of the presentations are now available on NW Central!

We also have some fun pictures from OLA SSD 2015 up on our Facebook . If you have any to share or any stories/comments to tell, please feel free to post them there as well. We had record attendance of 141 people!

It's our hope that everyone had a great time and brought lots of new and interesting ideas back to their library. Thanks to all who filled out the evaluations- the Board and 2016 conference committee are looking at your comments and they're appreciated!

It's not too late to get involved for the 2016 OLA SSD conference- if you'd like to help out, please see how you can do that here.

OLA SSD 2015 Conference & Get Involved!

We're in beautiful Newport, OR at the 2015 OLA SSD Conference! It's off to a great start, with a ton of attendees. We hope everyone's having a great time so far!



Want to share your work experience with the OLA SSD community, but don't want to do so from the stage? Share your job and stories with us with the OLA SSD Blog's "A Day in the Life"- no microphone required!

If you're enjoying the conference, why not help to plan next year's? There are currently openings on the 2016 Conference Committee and we'd love to hear from you! To get involved or to share any feedback, please send an email to-

Shanel Parette (2015 Conference Committee Chair)
Justyne Triest  (Conference Committee, OLA SSD Social Media)