Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Rural Library Volunteers: pros and cons
Rural Library volunteers can be the lifeblood of the library. They promote community involvement, bring expertise and, best of all, are easy on the budget. They also go on vacation whenever they want, need time consuming training and are selective about the tasks they will do. We want to discuss and discover how the volunteer forces in rural libraries are used, trained, screened and all the pros and cons involved!
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At Portage Lake I was fortunate to have two volunteers. One lady was familiar with library work as she had done that while in college. The other fellow was not particularly experienced, though he'd certainly used libraries (including University libraries) before.
So the two people I'm thinking of had similar educations, but different traits and talents. Above all, there was a difference of purpose and attitude.
The man was hoping to hook up with a new job, because he was recently RIF'd and there wsn't an opening. He did sort of come and go at irregular intervals and he had certain tasks that he avoided, such as shelving.
The lady on the other hand, didn't want a job at the time, but had time available and was intereste din doing the work, though she needed to be home when her daughter returned from school. She was on time, on schedule and organized. It didn't take long for me to assign her a project. We were doing clean-up of call numbers in the children's section and I let her manage the project and do the work. I would run reports for her and then she would check the stacks, pull the books, make the labels, apply the labels and then re-shelve the items.
My point is that when I see someone that is capable, I like to give them something to govern for themselves, and in so doing, I believe the rewards for the person are greater, as they are for the library as well. I would hire that lady on the spot right now because she has demonstrated how effectively she works and communicates.
I would also say that this task was worthwhile, but didn't take a lot of training. About a half hour to go over the project's goals and the conditions to be corrected. Once the standards were understood, there were a couple of minutes of training on the label printer and that was it. The return on that investment was very high.
As for the other volunteer, he was around but he never did really commit himself to anything. He seemed to want to pick and choose tasks and didn't take a lot of interest in the projects at hand. He stayed around for a month or two, and then returned to New Jersey because job prospects were better there.
Dave, I so agree! I have one incredible lady whom I gave a similar task to. She comes in, gets to work and accomplishes so much!
I feel like my library staff is represented by your other example- you know, the ones that avoid doing certain tasks no matter what?
I agree so strongly with your comment that giving someone an area to 'own' creates such a satisfying result for everyone!
That is so wonderful that you both have had such a wonderful experience with a volunteer. Unfortunately it is a dying art around here. I wonder if the people who are out of work, and not finding anything will begin to volunteer. That would be a positive point to the economy.
When I was interviewing my rural librarian for our other class project, the librarian could not praise her volunteers loud enough. They do some amazing work and really are extremely dedicated people. Here is just one example of the many amazing things they do for this small library. Volunteers run their "Books to Bars &
Restaurants" program. This involves running books to various sites around town, finding donation books, labeling them, and maintaining the supply. This promotes the library and makes it visible throughout the community. They also maintain several other roving collections throughout town.
~Jurinda
Cool way to start a book discussion- over a beer!
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