If you were to ask people why they volunteer at the library, many may spout the lofty ideal you hope for, but it is often much more prosaic. It is a person who was laid off and wants something to do while looking for another job. It is a teenager who needs volunteer hours for a school club. It is a retiree who wants a reason to get up in the morning. It is a widower who has one day a week where he can see and talk to people and feel of value to someone again. The library provides these volunteers with direct benefits that make their lives better. Don’t take this lightly. This is just as important as the benefit someone receives from attending a more traditional library program like a book discussion, storytime, or cultural program. People need to be needed.

Each volunteer can bring a special gift to the library. Sometimes people are perfectly happy to sanitize storytime toys or put books in order because the rest of their week is busy and loud. Sometimes they make it their personal mission to keep romance books in order so everyone can find what they want quickly. You may be lucky enough to be the recipient of a retired school librarian who can pitch in reading stories or helping with summer reading when your children’s staff is spread thin. Sometimes volunteers are special needs people from the community who find that their abilities mesh well with some of the activities of the library. Sometimes volunteers are leading programs or providing to the library their expertise from years of work.

This is truly a gift. People who spent years in data entry or finance become the volunteers who spend hours on the library’s digitization project or tirelessly look for grant opportunities. Retirees can often be the best volunteers. Just because they stopped working every day doesn’t mean they don’t want to use the knowledge they had from many years on the job. Teenagers who start volunteering because they need service hours for something can frequently become the potential pool of job applicants for entry level jobs like paging. What a gift to know about a person’s work ethic and temperament before the hiring process begins.

Library volunteers are truly a gift. Treat them well and they are the best ambassadors the library could ever have. Just as library administration will talk with the staff about new programs or initiatives to gain buy-in and understanding from the staff, it is advisable to do something similar with volunteers. It isn’t necessary that they are privy to all the information a paid staff member would get, but if you are making a major change at the library, tell them about it before it happens. If they understand and buy into what is happening, they can be your most effective representatives in the community. Oftentimes people will give them more credence than paid staff because volunteers are choosing to be at the library. They can address misunderstandings or misapprehensions with correct information or simply provide the name of someone a concerned community member can talk to. When a library volunteer can say, “I don’t know the answer to your question, but Sally at the library who is there when I volunteer can help you out. Why don’t you come when I’m there and I can introduce you?” That is a powerful message to your community.

Remember: what you give to the volunteers is just as important as what they give to you. Respect and appreciation for what they do goes a long way. You may never know what positive impact you have on your library volunteers, but they will definitely have a positive impact on you and your library.

The post The Benefits of Volunteers first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Typically when libraries start volunteer programs, they are looking to capitalize on the work that these people can provide to the library which then allows paid staff to work on other projects. However, some libraries with unions do not allow volunteers or have very specific jobs that can be assigned to them. Depending on the size of the library, there can be a paid staff person whose whole job or even part is to manage volunteers. How much staff time is being spent on training volunteers, managing their schedules, and depending on how integral to library workflow, finding substitutes when they can’t be there? Volunteers may not have the same level of commitment that paid staff members do, so the volunteer coordinator can often be found doing the “volunteer jobs” that must be done to keep the library working, even when there isn’t a volunteer to do them.

Volunteer management can take a huge portion of the coordinator’s time, but it is important as well. While it’s easy to see management as getting a list of projects together and telling a volunteer “go and do this,” often it isn’t that simple. It may mean getting projects ready so the directions are clear or are prepared in a way to accommodate a volunteer’s possible physical or mental challenges. That takes time. However, sometimes the amount of time it takes to prepare for a particular volunteer can make them not a good fit for the library. Just because a person volunteers to help doesn’t mean they have to be used. At the same time, what if a library becomes too dependent on volunteers? Is there a succession plan for either getting new volunteers or replacing those who stop volunteering?

It is the coordinator’s job to set behavior expectation for the volunteers. Sometimes volunteers will want to do just what they want to do and not the tasks assigned. Gently guiding and refocusing behaviors can be tricky. Are volunteers able to use all of the staff areas or are some areas really just for paid staff? Can volunteers stop and chat with staff members while they are working, and when does this become a problem for staff not getting their work completed? Sometimes volunteers, when they are working with or near paid staff can be privy to information that should be kept within the library. Are volunteers being taught about discretion and professionalism in the library? What happens when a patron complains about a volunteer’s behavior? Having behavior expectations, protocols, and disciplinary procedures in place before there is a question can be quite helpful in the long run.

Volunteer morale is a huge component of a volunteer coordinator’s job as well, and that can often spill into keeping an eye on the morale of the staff that volunteers interact with. Making volunteers feel like a valuable part of the library team is critical. Just as managers of paid library staff check in often with their employees about library and sometimes non-library related items, volunteers need to be treated the same way. Making volunteers feel valued as both humans and helpers takes time. However, when volunteers disagree with something relating to how the library is being run or organized, how is this handled? Tactfully managing these issues with the volunteers so they feel valued but not at the expense of the paid staff who could feel demoralized is a challenge. When a library finds a volunteer coordinator who can manage these challenges, it is a real gift for the library and its volunteers.

This is not to say that there shouldn’t be volunteers in libraries. This is a way to look critically at the challenges of library volunteers and prepare for them long before they ever happen. In the next article we will look at the many benefits of library volunteers.

The post The Challenges of Using Volunteers in The Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What Exactly Do They Do?
Here are a few examples of what volunteer coordinators do to help the library run smoothly:

Recruit volunteers. The most obvious job of the volunteer coordinator is also the most difficult. Not only do they have to find people who are willing to spend free time working for no pay on tasks that are often repetitive and possibly physically straining, but they also have to be able to read personalities well enough to match their recruits with the best-suited departments. This requires exceptional organization and people skills, as well as good communication with all of their coworkers to keep up with the needs of individual sections and branches.

Field volunteer requests. Related to recruiting, volunteer coordinators also exercise good judgement, tact, and multi-level scheduling to handle requests from other organizations who want to volunteer as groups or individuals who have to complete required volunteer hours for court or school. The coordinator must know how many hours a group or individual needs and whether there will be enough work for them to be truly useful by their deadline.

Organize orientations and celebrations. Volunteers need to know what they’re doing and that they’re appreciated when they do it. The volunteer coordinator handles both events, running orientations on a regular basis to make sure all volunteers can start with the necessary knowledge, throwing annual parties to make them feel appreciated, and presenting awards as individuals meet service milestones.

Regularly check and record progress. Tracking individual volunteers’ hours and their fit with their specific department takes exceptional organizational skills. The volunteer coordinator can tell at a glance who has passed a service goal, who needs to move to a different area, and how to diplomatically let them know when things aren’t working out.

Organize and track employee volunteer opportunities. Volunteer coordinators are also in charge of any volunteer opportunities sponsored by their employer for fellow employees. Along with advertising the information to coworkers, they connect with other volunteer coordinators at participating venues and keep track of any hours their colleagues might log. Volunteer coordinators are multi-faceted employees who juggle many different talents to merge the library and community in mutual help.

The post I’m Not Actually a Librarian: Volunteer Coordinator first appeared on Public Libraries Online.