Volunteering

The Experience Catch 22 situation is an unenviable one, and one that I found myself in when I was first starting out in the profession.  I did approach my public library to see if there was any way I could help out, and gain some valuable experience along the way, but they quite rightly pointed out that they couldn't take work away from their paid staff, and get me to do it for nothing.  That is not a good message to be sending the funders, and one the profession still needs to keep in mind.  There are enough people in authority out there already thinking that libraries can be run by volunteers (just look at what's been happening in Britain).   However I was lucky enough to be asking at a time when the NZ government of the day (early 1980's) had a scheme where they would subsidise the wages of a worker who was taken on for special projects, and there just happened to be one going at the library.  6 months later, a permanent position came up which I secured, and the rest, as they say, is history.
At Dunedin Public volunteers are used to help deliver the books to the housebound clients; and at Westland District there are volunteers who come in and help out with the shelving and general tidying of the public area.  Their work is much appreciated, and it allows the paid staff to get on with their professional tasks, and the all important job of connecting the library user with the book/item/information they need.  I totally agree with Jo when she writes "volunteers should be recruited as a complement to, not a substitute for, paid and suitably qualified library staff".