OLA 2014 Conference review and the future of SSD

Susan Gilmont, a Library Technician III at the Guin Library Hatfield Marine Science Center, writes about her experiences and inspirations at the recent OLA conference the SSD took part in:

I was fortunate to be able to attend the first day of the 2014 Oregon Library Association conference, "The Inside Out Library." It was a great experience, and really recharged me. The OLA Support Staff Division had 6 sessions at the conference, 4 of which were made on Thursday. As the SSD Continuing Education Committee chair, my job was to find presenters, propose sessions, keep presenters informed, help them with conference minutiae, and introduce them when necessary.

The keynote address was made by two New Jersey librarians, Norma Blake and Kathy Schak-Greene, and was called "The Innies and Outies of Libraries." "Outies" advocated for libraries and reached out to local officials and organizations. "Innies" worked to advance their libraries on the inside through marketing, merchandising and partnerships. Perhaps the most intriguing concept of the talk was the idea of public library design "SWAT" teams that offer expertise to help libraries become more welcoming spaces through redesign and reorganization. Often a simple coat of paint and de-cluttering made a huge difference. "Weed aggressively. Clarify purpose and create zones." This was all very interesting in light of the Guin Library's recent remodel.

I wouldn't have dreamed of missing "Oral History and Libraries: a Perfect Fit." Three librarians from Lake Oswego Public Library led off with a description of their current oral history project, "In Their Own Words II." This project picks up at the point where a Bicentennial project in 1976 left off. They gave "how-tos," including hardware and software recommendations and pointers to good resources. They noted the importance of volunteer training and the need to get it right the first time, since many older people interviewed may not be around for a second take. The presentation was topped off by Mike Dicianna, a PSU student worker in SCARC, who talked about OSU's sesquicentennial oral history project and played a passionate and moving clip from the president of the OSU student body in the 1941-1942 school year. It was a knock-out clip, and really showed the importance of hearing people in their own voices.  This was an inspiring session. For more information, see NW Central. SSD sponsored this session.

Although I'm not a librarian, I do care about libraries, and "Building an Effective Library Advocacy Network" was another great session. Although some of it reiterated the themes of the keynote address, Peter Leonard from Cedar Mill Library, Vailley Oelhke from Multnomah County Libraries and Buzzy Nielsen from Mount Hood County Library District drew on their own experiences to forge and sustain vital networks of library supporters. It was wonderful to sit back and see all the earnest note-taking going on and listen to the excellent questions. I know we did some good there. SSD and PLD sponsored this session.

The last session I attended was "The Inside-Out Organization," a look at OLA itself, hosted by past chairs. The goal there was to get potential OLA volunteers. I had a different goal -- I was looking for clues for revitalizing SSD. We weren't able to have a conference this year because nobody volunteered to chair the Conference Committee. Last year, the SSD Board put on the conference, again because of a lack of volunteers. SSD needs new energy, a new generation of involved members, and a new generation of supportive library directors. There is no doubt that the Great Recession has hurt all volunteer organizations, and things may improve as the economy slowly rebounds. But what shape will SSD be in by then? All I can say is what I have learned: service is its own reward.

My spirits were improved by the SSD business meeting, when three of us executive committee members met with four members. One of them came forward and said she was interested in getting involved. Another was one of our scholarship recipients, who was able to attend the conference because of support provided by SSD. It made me feel better. I don’t know if it is the networking with old friends, or a general charge from the good energy in the air, but I really do feel more optimistic about the future.

All in all, this was an excellent experience.

Hard Times Can Make For Good Parodies

Nobody can deny that times are hard in many ways now. The news is rarely hopeful, and most (if not all) libraries are coping with either current or upcoming budget cuts.

There's nothing funny about it. And yet humor is a valuable way to deal with tough times.

Here at the State Library, I've been writing one or two song parodies every year for performance at our winter staff party. I'm lucky that several of my co-workers are willing to get up in front of the rest of the staff and risk making fools of themselves year after year. Below, we're singing about our scheduling software, to the tune of "Ding Dong, Merrily on High"



I've found that the worse things are, the easier it is to write a parody. Last year, both H1N1 and unpaid furloughs provided inspiration.

Last week, OLA past president Connie Anderson-Cohoon forward this video to the OLA executive board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8QjjKrEK7Y

It's worth watching, despite the danger of ending up with an ear worm. These library folks are definitely using humor (and a good deal of skill and talent) to point out the importance of their services.

Do any other libraries have parody traditions, or other ways of using humor to deal with difficult realities? If so, please share!

The Haunted Library

I work in a building that was built in 1939. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's a beautiful building. It does, however, have closed stacks that can be seriously creepy to work in. Not surprisingly, there have been rumors around for a long time that the library is haunted.

I'm a skeptic myself. The only person I've talked to who claimed to have seen something mysterious was a renovation worker who was running a jack hammer alone in the stacks at 2:00 a.m.; sounds to me like enough to make anyone hallucinate. Not that stacks aren't scary at time. Footsteps on the floor above sound disturbingly like they're on the floor you're on, which can lead to the feeling that someone invisible is walking towards, then through, you. It's also possible to be fairly close to someone else in the stacks, but not realize they're there because you can't see them.

If the library was haunted, though, I like to think that it would be a benevolent haunting. Maybe Cornelia Marvin, the first Oregon State Librarian, is still hanging around, making sure we're staying true to her vision for libraries in Oregon. Maybe a voracious reader from years past is attempting the impossible task for reading everything on our shelves. Maybe employees from long ago, with the insatiable curiosity that's common among library folks, are eagerly watching us adapt new technology.

Yes, I'm a skeptic, but I have no problem thinking that the library I work in is strengthened by all those who have gone before me - even if they're not still hanging out in the stacks.

Enthusiasm: it's not just for kids

I work at the Oregon State Library. Because of both our mission and the architecture of our 70+-year-old building, we're a little different from most other libraries in the state.

One of my occasional duties is giving library tours. They're generally for state employees, or for visitors from other libraries. However, this week, I gave an hour-long tour to a group of 20 5th graders. The kids, from Chenowith Elementary School in The Dalles, were very well-behaved and interested. But what struck me most about them was their enthusiasm.


Not that the adults who tour the State Library aren't enthusiastic. They like learning about the history of the building, and enjoy the behind-the-scenes trip into our warehouse-like closed stacks.



The elementary school visitors liked those things, too, and asked good questions. But they liked pretty much everything else, too. They were impressed that our federal documents collection includes a game to educate kids about the danger of underage alcohol use. They were interested in the genealogy research folks can do in our Reference Room. They were impressed with the Talking Book and Braille Program. They paid attention and asked good questions. They liked our heavy bronze doors, and even thought getting to ride in the freight elevator was cool.


After they left, I started thinking about enthusiasm, how important it is for positive attitude, but how elusive it sometimes is. I probably sometimes sound like Marvin in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Don't try to engage my enthusiasm, because I haven't got one."


However, the kids were right. Our building is beautiful, the collection is full of treasures, and even the freight elevator can be kind of fun. I see it all every day, so I start taking it all for granted.


So, to engage my enthusiasm, I'll start paying more attention to things I see every day.


If you'd like to highlight cool stuff that you see every day at your library, post an comment!

Bright Ideas

In our library, we collect almost 40 different newspapers, from all over Oregon, in addition to the New York Times, the Seattle Times, and the Wall Street Journal. The retention varies for some, but we generally keep a year’s worth of papers in our stacks. These papers are stacked in piles on the outer wall of one of our tiers of stacks. Every month, it is necessary to weed the oldest issues. It is a rather exhausting task, especially when you have to lift up piles of heavy newspapers again and again to check the dates. Finding where the oldest month ends can be rather difficult, especially when each newspaper puts the issue date in a different area of the cover. It is almost as if newspaper businesses made a pact to keep things interesting for people in libraries! Personally, when I am completing a task that requires a lot of exertion, my mind constantly thinks of ways to make it easier. I thought, “What is the most difficult part of this?” Shifting the piles takes physical effort, but there is not a lot of struggling involved. Lifting stacks of issues over and over, however, can be very frustrating.

Then it hit me! Why not turn the newspapers sideways, alternating direction for each month? This would work with daily papers and those published less frequently. I would simply turn every four issues a different way for a weekly, every 30 or so for a monthly, etc. This made it much easier to grab the entire pile. Of course, I double check the issue date on the top and bottom, but I don’t have to “guess and check” to find where one month ends and the other one starts. Genius! Of course, I didn’t personally come up with this pile alternating procedure, as you see it with stacks of paperwork all the time. But the idea of applying it to the newspaper stacks did come to me (eventually…). So I am not trying to “toot my own horn” but simply to say, even if it takes a while to think of it, a good idea is still a good idea. And now, I often have someone else to do the big monthly weeding, so it is even easier for me (because I don’t have to do it very often!) Regardless, when I do perform this task, it will be much easier than it was before. Does anyone else have a bright idea that you or your organization have put into practice?

Jessica Rondema

Oregon State Library

Are We Ever Not at Work?

It can be hard to find a good balance between your work life and your professional life. It's unrealistic, if not downright silly, to think that we can divide our lives into neat categories that don't overlap, or that we're always just focused on one thing.

For us library folks, though, I think there's an added dimension to the work/other life split. Are we every really not at work? We love libraries, reading, inquiry, and intellectual freedom, and we're always willing to talk about them. That's great. We're ambassadors to the wider world.

My job has an unusual focus. I primarily work with Oregon government documents. Many people think that means dry, technical reports full and statistics, and that's certainly part of it. But government documents are all over the place. I've picked up many at events like the state fair, and even even got a Tourism Commission document from the hotel during our EOLA road trip in October.

I imagine that others have stories about how their library specialties and personal life overlap. So please share!

Musings on old catalog cards

It's been a seriously long time since we closed the card catalog here at the State Library. However, in Tech Services, we still have a box of old catalog cards that we use for scratch paper. (After all, "re-use" is one of the 3 Rs!). I've become a little obsessed with looking at the cards before I scribble my notes on the back. It's partly to see what books the library had way back when. But it also causes me to muse about the people who did the cataloging, typed the cards, etc., in the pre-computer era. For instance, there's one in which the typist almost couldn't fit the title on the one line, so the period at the end of the title isn't all there. Was she relieved that it fit? Frustrated that it almost didn't? Then there are those neatly hand-written notes on the back; cryptic things like "t.c." Actually, I've been around long enough to know that was an instruction from the cataloger to the typist to make a title card. But what in the world, if anything, did "MMM", typed on the back of the card, mean?

I like thinking about the previous staff at my library, and how they worked with different tools, but were still doing what we're all doing today; providing access to information for their patrons.