Nominate yourself for an SSD position on the Board

Please consider nominating yourself or someone else (with their express permission) for a position on the Oregon Library Association / Support Staff Division Board. The election is in July at the SSD annual conference. You may be asking, “Why am I sending out a call for nominations so early?” This will provide you time to get approval from your supervisor or manager. The positions are:

· Chair-Elect – 1 year term, acts as Chair the following 1 year term, acts as Past Chair for a 1 year term
· Recorder – 1 year term
· Treasurer – 2 year term
· Archivist – 1 year term

You may be wondering just what the Support Staff Division is. Our bylaws state:

PURPOSE
The purpose of the Support Staff Division shall be to provide a framework for information sharing, continuing education and moral support for all library support staff. Specifically, the aims are to provide a forum to encourage new ideas, discuss concerns and solve problems; promote awareness of library issues; inspire and promote professional growth through networking, conferences, workshops and mentoring; exchange ideas on processes, systems, and policies; provide a medium for the exploration of new ideas and technologies; foster cooperation among all Oregon libraries in all the various public and technical areas throughout the library; and to increase awareness in the library community of the evolving roles played by support staff.

Position descriptions per our bylaws are as follows:

Duties of the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Assumes the office of Chair after one year as Vice Chair.
Assists the Chair; becomes familiar with the By-laws and procedures of the Association and Division. Attends meetings and chairs meetings in the absence of the Chair.
Duties of the Treasurer
Has approval authority for all expenditures below $250.00. Obtains signature of Division Chair for all expenditures above $250.00 (two signatures are necessary for expenditures above $250.00). Submits bills and receipts to OLA Treasurer.
Maintains records of all expenditures and profits for the Division.
Duties of the Recorder
Records minutes of the Division's Executive Committee Meetings.
Assures each Executive Committee member receives copies of the meeting minutes before the next meeting.
Duties of the Archivist
Maintains all historical data, scrapbook and photo album of SSD conference and other events, including keeping conference programs and accompanying material.

Thank you!

Cathy Zgraggen
Supervisor, La Pine Public Library
Deschutes Public Library
cathyz@deschuteslibrary.org
541-312-1094
http://www.deschuteslibrary.org

Know More.

In Praise of Ambiguity

In the library world, and particularly in Technical Services, we've got a reputation for being very literal, even unimaginative. Of course, we all know that we're really outside-the-box people with big imaginations and hearty senses of humor.

Fortunately, our work life provides us with the occasional giggle.

This morning, I made a note on the back of an old catalog card from a stash that we use for scratch paper. As I sometimes to, I turned the card over to see the title. It was the wonderfully ambiguous Fighting with Food. You can come up with all sorts of things that it could be about! Knowing that it was published by the U.S. government in 1918, I can infer that it was something about the war effort in World War I, but it still gives me a chuckle.

My previous favorite ambiguous title was 1958 Fish Stockings by Watersheds. I know it's about stocking fish in different areas of Oregon, but it conjures up an image of fish trying to pull stockings over their fins.