As we come to the end of the year, many of the things we’ve worked at planning all year long are coming to fruition. It is a busy time of year for the library as well as our patrons. But we, the staff at the library, do not do this alone. (There are only four of us after all!) We have a whole troop of volunteers that assist us in ways big and small. We’re going to talk about several ways you can help the library in a series of blog posts.
This week’s topic is: Volunteering.
Shifts as a volunteer are usually two hours at a time and are scheduled every evening to accompany staff members. As the year goes on and the seasons change, volunteers come and go. Some go away for college, some go away for the winter and some are with us all year ‘round. Other things impact a volunteer’s availability as well, with schedules going into flux as sporting seasons come and go, vacations are taken and sick days are needed. But without these wonderful people, we would have a hard time keeping the doors open every day.
So what do regularly scheduled volunteers DO?
Well, it’s a big help to have them shelve books, straighten, shift books as shelves look empty or are groaning under the weight of a full shelf of books. The children’s room can always use straightening! We print out a list of Holds, or requests, from patrons and the system says we have that item in our library. A volunteer can then go hunting through the library to find what is needed. (Not exactly like Indiana Jones, but pretty close!) Volunteers that feel confident in their tech skills can be taught computer work, such as checking books in and out, looking books up in the catalog for patrons, as well as a variety of other circulation desk tasks.
Some days, volunteers are literally doing whatever their Library Assistant (LA) tells them to, no matter how tedious or outlandish it sounds. It might not be related to helping patrons at all, but could include cleaning, cutting things out, putting stickers on books, set-up or clean-up of events, getting the mail, checking the return box for books, decorating for holidays, helping with book displays; the list goes on and on! In addition to all that, our more experienced and enthusiastic volunteers sometimes have tasks they know they can do whenever they come in, or they might have a great working relationship with a particular LA so they work on projects with that LA when they come in.