Managing Library Volunteers

This hands-on guide to recruiting, training, managing, and recognizing library volunteers is packed with ideas that will help you to both start from scratch or reenergize the system you already have. It is a must-have for any size or type of budget-savvy, proactive library.

This practical guide is designed for several uses: to help the new volunteer director; to lead the inexperienced as well as the seasoned volunteer manager to sample forms, policies, and procedures; and to form the basis for customized volunteer programs. Examples are easy to use and understand, with strategies appropriate to any size library. The book allows budget-conscious libraries to show the monetary value of volunteers and how such "free" time and talent can enhance services and help libraries gain maximum use of tax dollars. RBB
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This book supplements the scanty and not-so-recent literature on managing volunteers in libraries, notably Bonnie McCune and Charleszine "Terry" Nelson's Recruiting and Managing Volunteers in Libraries: A How-To-Do-It Manual (Professional Media, LJ 11/1/95) and Sally Gardner Reed's Library Volunteers Worth the Effort! (Professional Media, LJ 5/15/94). Driggers and Dumas are practicing public librarians who helped organize what is now known as the Colorado Volunteer Managers Council, a group of staff who coordinate and manage volunteer programs in libraries. This volume grew out of the group's discussions and accumulated knowledge. The authors offer practical advice on the many aspects of a library volunteer program, including legal and risk management issues; recruitment, interviewing, and selection; training; recognition; program evaluation; and record keeping. Sample statements, applications, job descriptions, contracts, and other documents are especially useful for comparison or in establishing a coordinated volunteer program. This solid, comprehensive treatment on effective management of volunteers is suitable for most library collections and especially recommended for public libraries. Lyn Hopper, Chestatee Regional Lib., Dawsonville, GA
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