August OLA SSD Board meeting - Open to all

Curious about the board, what we do, and how it all works? Got some great ideas to pitch? Come join our quarterly meeting this Friday! This time, we'll be recapping the OLA Board retreat and the recent conference, among other things.

The meeting will be hosted in person at Eugene Public Library. If you find yourself unable to attend in person, we can set you up to attend remotely. Convenient, eh?

For instructions on attending remotely or to get any questions answered, please contact the Chair at ssd@olaweb.org. We're looking forward to meeting you!

We are having an OLA-SSD Open House!

When: August 15th from 1:00-2:00pm

Where: Gresham Library, 385 NW Miller, Gresham Oregon 97030

There is free parking and the Gresham Tri-Met Transit Center is very close by.


There will be a short presentation, light refreshments, and time for questions.

All interested Oregon library support staff are welcome to attend to find out more about SSD and get your questions answered live and in person. Support Staff Division is a great way to meet other library staff in similar jobs from around the state and find out what is going on beyond your own library, as well as a fulfilling way to get involved and give back to the library community in Oregon. We have opportunities open to help plan the annual SSD conference, as well as some open board positions.

Did you know? If distance is a factor for you, the SSD meetings can be often be done on a computer, virtually, to minimize time & travel expenses.

As always, scholarship help to join OLA SSD is available.

So, if you are looking for a new opportunity for involvement in the library world, SSD might be for you. Come check us out this Friday, we'd love to see you!

SSD seeking new Chair

The Support Staff Division of the Oregon Library Association is seeking candidates for Vice-chair/Chair-elect. This is a three year commitment -- serving one year as vice-chair, one year as chair, and one year as past-chair. This is an excellent opportunity for professional and personal development. Although it is a lot of work, it is also very rewarding, and you make a lot of great friends and contacts along the way. The thing to remember if the prospect seems daunting is that you're never alone in any aspect of the "job" -- the rest of the board and the past chairs are always there with you. - Susan Bacina Past-Chair, OLA/SSD

From Sean Park, current SSD Chair :

SSD is a wonderfully diverse group of library professionals, ranging from supervisors and shelvers to IT and children's librarians, and countless other areas of expertise across the spectrum of libraries in Oregon, from large to small.

I entered my term as SSD Board Chair with a sense of wonder and excitement (and a bit of bewilderment), as I previously did not have much exposure to SSD and almost no exposure to OLA. The SSD past-chairs were my lifeline (one serves on the Board and is an invaluable asset to the Chair), and helped me feel welcome while answering all questions I had along the way. My first event was the OLA Executive Board retreat in Silver Falls, which was a great experience that was made even better as the past-chair was at my side, keeping me apprised of procedure while providing valuable background on the topics at hand.

Working with the OLA Board has opened my eyes to the great things OLA does, and the group is composed of a wide range of librarians, every one of them friendly, helpful, and very devoted to the OLA mission. It has been a great pleasure getting to know them and working alongside them, and you will feel very welcome very quickly with this group.

This past year has seen some exciting changes for SSD. Scholarship awards for OLA membership and attendance at the annual SSD conference have been increased, and SSD membership is also going up. Videoconferencing has opened up involvement in SSD for people who otherwise couldn't participate due to distance. SSD is looking to expand training offerings across the state with book mending and technology workshops, while looking ahead at different training approaches (including increased exposure to the LSSC program) to help support staff increase services amidst shrinking budgets.

Time commitment:

• Chair the monthly SSD board meetings, which can be attended in person or remotely via phone or videoconferencing (4 hours per month, depending upon travel)
• Compose the monthly SSD board meeting agenda (1 hour per month)
• Attend the monthly OLA Executive Board meetings (in person or remotely, 5 hours per month)
• Attend the annual OLA Board retreat in Silver Falls in person (2 days per year)
• Attend the annual SSD conference (1 day per year)
• Liaise with OLA to assist members representing SSD at the OLA Conference (1 hour per month)

My term as SSD Board Chair has been extremely rewarding. The exposure to library staff from all corners of the state, and the friendships I've made, have been personally and professionally enriching. I would not hesitate to do it again, and strongly encourage those who are seeking more involvement in OLA/SSD to consider running for SSD Board Chair.  - Sean, SSD Board Chair

How to apply:

This is a nominated position, and you can definitely nominate yourself.  If you are interested, please contact us at olassd@gmail.com or you can contact any one of our board members.

"There is not such a cradle of democracy on earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration." Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919

This past Monday I traveled from Eugene to Hood River for the SSD Board Meeting at the library there.  What a thrill and privilege it was to visit the Hood River library, recently reopened after a year's closure due to loss of funding.

The library is in the original Carnegie building with an addition built on at a later date.  Taking a brief walk around the building I spotted a delightful sculpture near the trees.  Taller than I it had a small brass plaque identifying it as "Stoniferous Pine" and was made entirely of rocks and flat stones in the shape of a tree.

They were fitted into place with no mortar, held together by their careful, complicated placement.

From the Hood River County Library District's website: "Hood River County's first publicly-funded library opened on September 13, 1912."   "Hood River County Library District recently became a member of the Libraries of Eastern Oregon, LEO, an organization dedicated to helping the many small, rural libraries across Oregon deliver great services to their users." 

The library reopened this July thanks to enthusiastic community support, generous monetary donations, and grants; and thanks to their library Foundation which used imaginative fund raising dinners held in local homes with themes based on books, in addition to their further dedicated efforts to solicit stable funding.  The Hood River library stands as a testament to those grass roots movements that often achieve what bureaucracy can't or won't.