Library Worklife

Volume 2, No. 5 • May 2005

Support Staff

Diane Fay—Outstanding Support Staff of the Year

Diane M. Fay, a long-standing champion for the ALA-APA, has received the Library Mosaics/COLT Outstanding Support Staff of the Year Award for 2005! Diane is the current chair of the ALA-APA Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers.

DIANE is a retired supervisor of the cataloging department at the Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Fay has made significant contributions to the continuing growth and development of library support staff around the country through active involvement on both local and national levels. As a member of the staff at Boston Public Library she served on the Change Team and the Strategic Planning Team.

Diane Fay served as Vice President/President-elect of the American Library Association’s Library Support Staff Interests Round Table (LSSIRT) and represented LSSIRT as a delegate at the 3rd Congress on Professional Education: Focus on Support Staff. The results have been positive, partly due to Diane’s tireless efforts to remind ALA staff and members of the value and contributions support staff make to the Association, the profession, and their individual libraries.

As LSSIRT President, Ms. Fay worked to see that support staff received recognition for their efforts. Her influence within ALA allowed her to get LSSIRT members appointed to several important committees, breaking ground for support staff to follow. She has served on various committees within ALA and ALA-APA, including chairing the ALA-APA Union Subcommittee and the Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers.

She has served as President of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees Council 93. Her extensive experience in labor unions has allowed her to provide valuable information to ALA-APA as they strategize ways to improve salaries for library workers. Ms. Fay has also served as a member of the board of the Friends of the Cotuit Public Library in Cotuit, Massachusetts and as a member of the Barnstable Democratic Town Committee.

For her efforts in promoting and organizing support staff, she has been presented with the 2005 Support Staff Award. She will also be featured in the May/June issue of Library Mosaics and will be recognized at the annual banquet of the Council on Library/Media Technicians conference, Chicago, Illinois, June 24, 2005. She will also receive a cash prize and a plaque describing her achievements.

http://colt.ucr.edu/awards05.html - STAFFAWARD

Linda A. Dobb—Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff

The winner of Library Mosaics’ and the Council on Library/Media Technician’s 2005 award for Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff is Linda Dobb, Executive Vice President of Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. The award is presented annually for outstanding service to library support staff.

Dobb was selected for her dedicated work on behalf of support staff at both local and national levels. As Executive Vice President and former Dean of Libraries and Learning Resources, she has given active and ongoing support to library paraprofessionals and remains involved with both local and national support staff organizations. She has encouraged support staff to attend conferences, has brought programs to the University, promoted benefits of membership in state/national organizations, encouraged participation of staff with University Libraries by rejuvenating the Classified Staff Council and has provided funding for staff to attend meetings and conferences. She has been working on a grant that would offer a BS degree program at Bowling Green State University to follow up on the library services AAS degree programs being offered in Ohio.

Dobb supported the Academic Library Association (ALAO) Support Staff Interest Group (SSIG) serving as keynote speaker and assisting with workshops and initiatives around the state. Linda was recognized by the ALAO-SSIG as the 2004 Ohio Library Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff.

She has also been involved and committed to the leadership of Ohio Library Support Staff Institute (OLSSI). As workshop facilitator, Linda was instrumental in the planning of the Institutes, securing grants, and holding focus groups. Additionally, she serves on the OLSSI Steering Committee. Linda is a past-president and board member of ALA’s Library Administration Management Association.

Dobb’s letter of recommendation described the quality that best epitomized a truly noteworthy supporter of support staff: "Linda is a people person! She values the uniqueness of each person she comes in contact with and she treats everyone fairly."

For her efforts in supporting and encouraging support staff, she has been presented with the 2005 Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff award. She will also be featured in the May/June issue of Library Mosaics and will be recognized at the annual banquet of the Council on Library/Media Technicians conference, Chicago, Illinois, June 24, 2005. She will also receive a cash prize and a plaque describing her achievements.