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Volunteers and Partnerships

Volunteers and Partnerships. By Alan Long, Newton Free Library. Why are volunteers so great for libraries? They help to fill in the gaps in workflow and keep our libraries operational. Many bring a great work ethics and often have flexible schedules

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Volunteers and Partnerships

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  1. Volunteers and Partnerships By Alan Long, Newton Free Library

  2. Why are volunteers so great for libraries? • They help to fill in the gaps in workflow and keep our libraries operational. • Many bring a great work ethics and often have flexible schedules • Others are versatile and willing to be on call to help our library needs • Some even have special talents or skills they contribute to our libraries • Overall it’s great to get this type of community buy-in to help our libraries run smoothly!

  3. What works well with volunteers at Newton? • Helping with programing - greeters, programs aides etc. • Homebound Deliveries - making weekly trips to homebound patrons and facilities • Processing holds - we receive on average 20 bins of holds a day so we need all the help we can get! • Shelving Material - this is mostly done by pages at Newton but when we run into staffing issues volunteers can help. • Paging Lists - similarly to shelving material when we get in a crunch we might ask some of the more savvy volunteers to help us with the paging list. • Shelf Reading!!! - we’d be lost without the help of volunteers in shelf reading

  4. What doesn’t work? • Not all volunteers are created equal - this is a challenge for all libraries. On an volunteer application everyone might look like a good candidate but in reality some are not. • Others might be end up being to young, not responsible enough or just not really as interested to volunteer as they thought they were. • Scheduling volunteers - creating a schedule that works for you and your volunteer can definitely be a challenge. Especially initially as you may want to be present when your volunteer begins at your library (even after training) in case they have issues/challenges.

  5. What doesn’t work cont. • Retention - retaining good volunteers is very challenging for a variety of reasons. Often times people volunteer when they are temporarily unemployed, students on summer vacation and others only temporarily all of which can come to an end quickly. Spending time and effort training volunteers only to lose them is very frustrating.

  6. Solutions to some of the things that don’t work (or at least work arounds!) • Creating a sound vetting process including: • A robust application (linked through your website). • Thorough interviews helps to better define your volunteers skills, eventually make for a better placements and might allow you to avoid taking on volunteers that won’t work for your library. • Setting clear guidelines about the tasks you are looking for volunteers to perform helps avoid a lot of problems and disappointing them later.

  7. Solutions cont. • It’s ok to say no! Not every volunteer is right for your library. Keep their application and let them know you’ll contact them if something changes. • Unfortunately when it comes to retention this is something that’s very unpredictable and unavoidable but creating a question(s) on your volunteer application that ask for someone’s long/short term availability definitely helps. • If needed don’t be afraid to set age limits for volunteers, both a high and low number.

  8. Try to match volunteers with a task suitable to them. Examples: • If you get a volunteer with limited mobility try to find a more stationary task with less movement. Tagging materials, greeting patrons, aiding in programs etc.. • For someone that wants more activity consider a task like shifting material or checking in material, processing holds, home deliveries or doing a paging lists. • For a volunteers who wants a more solitary task consider shelf-reading or shelving material or tagging.

  9. Training - • Different types of training might be necessary to successfully train volunteers: • Some might need more one on one training - having them work on a task initially with a staff member can be helpful. • Others can be trained as a group - shelf-reading, shelving or special projects can be good to train as a group. • Have liaisons to help you with training - you can’t be everywhere at once so get staff to help in supporting you with it.

  10. Tasks for volunteers • Shelf Reading - we’ve employed an “adopt an aisle” method in which we give individual volunteers an isle or a section to keep shelf read. • Tagging Items - any type of tagging, re-tagging, adding additional tags or even de-tagging. This can be done in the stacks or in Material/Technical Services or another space. • Helping with programs - take advantage of a hidden talent or specialty a volunteer might have or utilize them as a directional greeter. • Mending material • Withdrawing material

  11. Shifting - this is obviously dependant on your library needs but it is especially helpful in the summers when student and teen volunteer help is high. • Shelving material - depending on your library this can be very helpful in filling the gaps in getting material shelved swiftly. • Paging Lists - If you run multiple paging lists a day this it’s very helpful to have volunteers to help with this task. • Be creative! Every library has projects that are unique to their library. Utilize volunteers any way you can to help.

  12. Partnerships - • Another great opportunity that can really help your library with tasks and staffing are partnerships! • At the Newton Free Library we have a partnership with the Elliot House in Needham which is part of the Clubhouse Coalition of Massachusetts - https://www.massclubs.org/massachusetts-clubhouses • Working with Elliot House has been absolute amazing for the Newton Free Library as we’ve utilized this partnership for around 20 years!

  13. A Clubhouse is an employment and recovery center that offers people with mental health conditions hope and opportunities to achieve their full potential. • Through our partnership we’ve been able to utilize transitional employees (TE’s) as part time library pages • Elliot House helps with all the training and will fill in if TE’s are sick or have to be absent from work. • At any given time we have two transitional employees working 9-12 hours a week (at minimum wage) for 9 months at a time. At the end of the 9 months we can either hire the TE or move on to another. This gives the library some flexibility in case a placement doesn’t work out.

  14. Transitional Employees if hired become supported employees and still receive check-ins and support from Elliot house staff. • Currently they make up about 50% of our paging staff which is 10 part-time employees! • In the end even if we don’t hire a TE they get valuable experience which they can use on their resume for future job opportunities.

  15. Contact Info: Alan Long Assistant Supervisor of Material Services NEWTON FREE LIBRARY along@minlib.net Zak Attenborough Employment Coordinator Elliot House ZAttenborough@riversidecc.org www.elliothouse.org

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