A Couple of (not necessarily related) SSD Thoughts

Thought 1: Three weeks ago, SSD gathered for its 16th conference. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. Mo Cole's keynote address was full of good advice, interspersed with a lot of fun. Every session I attended was interesting, informative, and definitely worthwhile; I wish I could have gone to all of them. It was fun to be able to peak into the book repair workshop. And, as always, I enjoyed reconnecting with SSD friends I hadn't seen for awhile.

At the same time, I was a little sad. 16 years ago, the SSD conference regularly had over 200 attendees. Attendance began to drop off eventually. After one year, when we seriously considered dropping the conference entirely, we decided to down-size in order to continue the conference while still at least breaking even financially. This has served SSD well. But I hope, some day, the economy, and support for support staff, will once again allow SSD to have a larger conference.

Though 2: Several months ago, I wrote about my concern over the fact that support staff in some Oregon libraries do not receive support from their institutions to participate in OLA and SSD. At the OLA leadership retreat this past Monday, outgoing SSD chair Susan Gilmont and incoming chair Susan Bacina brought up this issue. It led to a lively discussion; I didn't attend the second day of the retreat, but I understand the discussion continued then, leading to some action items. I'll let The Susans fill us in on those.

But I do want to say how encouraging it was to hear OLA leaders strongly supporting support staff who are willing to be involved in OLA. There was no question that all who participate actively in OLA are equally valuable. I can't think of anything else to say, except "Wow!"

Pictures from the Conference

How to Chair a Conference in 100 Difficult steps, part one

I bet you thought I was going to say something like, "How to chair a conference in 10 easy steps", didn't you? Alas, it ain't easy, and it takes a lot more than 10 steps.
Chairing the 16th Gateways Conference for the Support Staff Division was a tremendous experience. Yeah, yeah, I know, people always say that, but it really was - tremendous, occasionally awful, stressful, gratifying, exhausting, fun; I can tell you how it feels when over 80 hungry, sleepy people find out they are not going to be fed the hot breakfast they were promised because the conference center "forgot" to arrange for it! For about 5 minutes there I teetered between throwing up and bursting into tears. But I had an empty stomach, so nothing to throw up, and had sweated out every drop of moisture, so no tears were forthcoming. I suppose that was a good thing. Everyone was looking to me to do something and I realized that I was not alone: I had a past conference chair beside me who stepped up to help, and I had a radio! All I had to do was turn it on, push in a button and say "Al, where's our breakfast?" Unfortunately, although Al came at a run, he had no solution to offer, having no breakfast crew available and not enough time to cook a breakfast even if he had. We eventually got some food, cold and meager as it was. But nobody starved. I found myself in an odd mood of fatalism - and I just rode it along on autopilot. Many wonderful people worked together to make the day an ultimate success, and after all, as someone said, once started the conference just takes on a life of its own and will not be stopped. It did, it wasn't, and hopefully most attendees got what they wanted from it and left satisfied. My mantra became, to quote Keynote Speaker Maureen "Mo" Cole, "It's not about you," or rather me.
More to come.....

Finding Your Voice

In late June, I came down with an obnoxious summer cold. After a couple of days, I completely lost of my voice, and couldn't speak above a whisper for the better part of 5 days. For a motor-mouth like me, this was a big deal. It was tolerable at home (although the cat wasn't convinced I was really one of his people). It was weirder at work: I couldn't change my voice mail greeting, had to answer the phone whispering "This Jey. I have laryngitis", and couldn't take part in informal over-the-cube-wall chats. But it was worst going out in public. I avoided to going shopping, even to the grocery store, and used self-check-out so I wouldn't have to try to talk.

In other words, it was an isolating experience, and made me feel conspicuous and uncomfortable. It gave me more empathy with those who, for reasons of disability, language, etc., have barriers to communication in their everyday lives - especially when those barriers aren't going to go away like my laryngitis did.

It also made me think about the importance of finding and using your voice, whatever it is. It may be speaking, writing, singing, painting, cooking, or gardening. It may be acting as the enthusiastic leader or the energetic follower. It may be speaking up for those who can't speak for themselves, or bringing up the difficult topics when no one else will.

And it may be acting as the positive person who brings encouragement and hope during tough times.

We all have opportunities to find and use our voice in our libraries and our personal lives. We're lucky to work in a field that values diverse voices.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you and hearing your voices at the SSD conference next week!

SSD breaks ground on Youtube!

Greetings fellow support staff. Please take 1-1/2 minutes out you schedule and click on the attached video link. It just might be the best investment of your time you make today!

Feel free to contact me if you have questions, comments or interest at cathyz@deschuteslibrary.org

Thank you,
Cathy Zgraggen
Deschutes Public Library

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEnThh1sIow

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.

"What a Good Idea!"

Here at Eugene Public Library we have a fun, helpful practice of morning and evening P.A. announcements. Remember from your school days those reminders that let students know about upcoming events? Well, here staff receives a musical reminder that the library is opening in 5 minutes (action stations!), including "Here comes the sun" and currently "Morning has Broken". And about 10 minutes before closing the public is alerted with a song to start packing up and checking out materials . Staff can make suggestions about songs to use and periodically the songs are changed. We've had Sound of Music's "So long, farewell" for example and right now it's "Happy Trails" which sets some people laughing and sends public and staff off lighthearted.