Thing 22

Volunteering

I haven't done any volunteering in libraries before, I was lucky enough to get a full time job as a Library Assistant in a public library before doing my Masters degree so didn't need to volunteer to gain experience of library work. I have done some volunteer work in the past when I was at university studying for my BA - I helped out at my old first school for approximately 3 years as part of a scheme called the Millennium Volunteers. This was a good experience, at the time I was wondering whether I should study to become a primary school teacher. I enjoyed the time I spent at the school, I helped one day a week with using computers. I helped the same teacher for the period of time I was there and she taught Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 students over the three years which meant I worked with a variety of ages of children. Even though I enjoyed it, I decided that teaching wasn't for me! I think volunteering is a good way of finding out whether or not you enjoy something and hopefully it is of benefit, however I'm not sure I agree with volunteers taking over day to day running of libraries. Some in our local areas are open a few hours each day and run by volunteers. Admittedly, these libraries are small and do not have that many visitors but I think it demoralises staff and surely it is tricky to manage volunteers as they are not paid to be there? However, on the other side I imagine a lot of these smaller libraries may not open at all due to the costs involved if we did not have volunteers willing to keep them open for working for free.