(Apologies for crossposting)

Many thanks to those who replied to my request for information about the
role of volunteers in libraries.  I received six responses from NHS
libraries, 1 from HE, 4 from charities, and 2 others.  Overall, the
background provided is quite helpful.

Issues that were identified included recruitment, motivation, retenton,
level of skills, training and reliability; as well as the tensions that can
arise because of mismatch between volunteer expectations and the library's
needs and/or conflicting perceptions of the volunteer's role in different
parts of the organisation (ie Library and HR).  Also, some issues may emerge
when a qualified library professional is appointed to a facility that has
previously been staffed by volunteers.  From the replies received it also
looks as if the nature of duties undertaken by volunteers in charities can
be somewhat different from those performed in NHS libraries.

Tasks
One of the charities was seeking to recruit volunteers, another was planning
to do so. But librarians working in charities sent examples showing that
they would involve their volunteers in some of the following : cataloguing,
monitoring loans to branches, writing summaries of books and journal
articles, literature searching, dealing with photocopying requests;
shelving, filling envelopes; filing; annual stock check; developing a
database of enquiry statistics (planned).

NHS libraries mentioned using volunteers to staff services to patients,
literature searching (presumably past practice as the person has moved to
paid library work) and book processing, labelling journal boxes, shelving,
barcoding, checking books in using a manual system, interlibrary loans,
staffing the library on Saturday mornings (also past practice, not
successful and now discontinued).

Recruitment
Employment project and other schemes 1;Trust Voluntary Service
Co-ordinator/Dept  2; Volunteer bureau 1; LAR Vacancies  1

Reasons for becoming a volunteer
Social activity - need an 'environment that is friendly and provided chats'
Rehabilitation -  the librarian will need to give sensitivity, encouragement
and support
Seeking route to paid employment - may have expectations about training and
skill development; may find that mundane tasks that need to be done do not
match their expectations
Keeping occupied.  Doing something meaningful and worthwhile. Several of you
mentioned having volunteers that were retired, including some who took early
retirement.

Longterm vs shorterm
One of you reported a fairly high turn over in volunteers.  But one of you
had held on to your volunteers for a decade.

How many hours did they work ?
Ranging from a 'couple of hours' to 7 hours  per week.  But not everyone
gave information on this.

Supervised vs unsupervised
Not too many said.  One mentioned leaving volunteers unsupervised for a part
of a session; another provides close supervision. Also - variable
supervision depending on task.

Successful stories from both the library's  and the volunteer's point of
view included...
The solo librarian who was approached via the Trust's volunteer service and
has now had 4 hours of help per week with interlibrary loans for two years.
The volunteer was from an academic background and may have found a library
setting attractive.

The charity that has a retired qualified librarian who devotes one day a
week to clearing a backlog of cataloguing; and a retired member of
non-library staff lending a hand with basic essentials like shelving - (both
under the 'close supervision' of an information assistant).

The NHS library that has retained the same two volunteers for 10 years.
They were appointed via the Trust's Voluntary Service department and spend a
couple of hours per week labelling boxes, processing books, and also use a
manual sytem to retun loans.

The volunteer who was extremely good in one NHS library and moved on to a
paid post in library work elsewhere.

Unsuccesful stories included :
The well-intentioned Saturday morning volunteers in one pre-automated  NHS
library.  The regular staff had to pick up the pieces on Monday morning.

The department recruiting the volunteers that raised unrealistic
expectations that the library could not fulfil.

Problems with volunteers not bothering to report at agreed times or leaving
as soon as they had arrived.

Short stays - the volunteer only stays for a short period of time but the
library has to invest a disproportionate amount of resource in training them

Having to schedule rotas around the volunteer's preferences (or their pets)
rather than the library's needs.

Placement schemes sending volunteers who lacked the basic skills required.

Librarians' feelings about volunteers
It would be fair to say that some of you have strong views about the role of
volunteers.  These views reflected a mixed spectrum -ranging from being
positive, being intrigued,  being realistic because there were good times
and bad times, but also to being weary and frustrated.

Questions that remain unanswered -  how widespread is the use of volunteers
in NHS libraries?  If the number of replies is any sort of index, then the
scale is very limited. But as I used to have to write in my projects for the
OU - this was a very small sample (indeed...) so it's simply impossible to
tell.

One thing is clear, however - although volunteers can make a positive
contribution,  it's important to make sure that we don't unfairly exploit or
use them as substitutes for paid employees.  Guidance offered by those who
responded to my e-mail included the importance of devising clear task
descriptions, awareness of volunteer needs and aspirations, and never
underestimating the amount of energy, time and effort that is required to
support, train and develop volunteers.  All of which sounds like sensible
advice.  I think we should also look to the LA - or I should now say CILIP,
for a steer on this.

But - finally -  something  tells me that there is a delicate balancing act
lurking in the library - volunteer-interface with all of its challenges.
Going down this route may work for you but it is something to be thought
about and planned for very carefully .....


Janet Fraser
Grampian University Hospital's NHS Trust
New Library
Dr Gray's Hospital, Elgin IV30 1SN
Tel 01343567538 / x67538 Fax 01343 599203
Visit our virtual library at http://www.dghlibrary.org.uk