would you volunteer to keep your library open?

[carriedababi]

?

I don't think this thread is ageist
it's a fact that the majority of library users are children and over 60s
it's also a fact that libraries are the only place that provide large print books for free
you can't even buy them in bookshops or on amazon

By the way, amazing to see so many library staff coming out of the woodwork on here!

The ageist bit was the negative stereotypes that were creeping in earlier.
I use the library lots and would miss it hugely.
I would never have time to volunteer and would not do so on principal in this case, but I do think that volunteering is a very good way of being part of society ... as long as it is for extras, not essentials such as libraries.

No. I haven't got the time or the relevant qualifications in librarianship; it would be an insult to those who currently work in libraries to think I could just walk in and do their job.

The last time I visited (a Thursday eve) the only people in there were a couple of librarians, myself and 3 tramps who had come in for a quiet snooze out of the cold. Sadly I really don't know how much our library would be missed by most of the local population.

More chickens should volunteer.
More frogs should use libraries.

As in 'book book book'; 'reddit, reddit'?

Ok being an idiot here but what exactly is there to running a library that ISN'T stacking shelves with books and scanning books in and out of the computer?

From what I see at my local library any admin assistant with half a brain could do the job. Please do tell me what requires qualifications!

Presumably you are also brave enough to tell school teachers their holidays are too long and dustmen that they only work on Fridays?

You'll be needing that hardhat

Hardhat, think you are looking at the front end of a public library and with what the unqualified assistants appear to be doing. It's like saying that it is easy to run Tesco because you only need to stack shelves and scan goods at the tills.

hardhat, the frontline staff on the desk will be the library assistants (which ARE admin roles, I totally agree, involving doing the tasks you describe). The librarian role will be the more senior position: their tasks are many and include:

General management of the actual library building and its day-to-day upkeep - arranging contractors/building works/repairs and improvements etc.

Management of the staff including all recruitment and interviews, training, and other personnel issues.

Management of the frontline service on the issue desk including making sure staffing levels are appropriate; managing rotas etc. Dealing with customer complaints.

Management of the resources budget and all the stock ordering. So financial and planning skills come into play. You have to know your resources inside out, keep up to date with new trends and technology. You have to know your users really well to know what they want on their shelves so will be involved in maybe planning customer surveys etc

Management of the IT facilities (again including planning and budgeting, and day-to-day operations), so your IT skills have to be excellent. This includes the public use internet machines as well as the computerised library management system, which you will have to know inside out.

Cataloguing all the books and DVDs etc onto the library management system. so you have to know the Dewey Decimal system inside out and be able to categorise books in a set, standard way, from many different subject areas outside your own specialist knowledge. So your general knowledge has to be excellent too. As far as getting new books ready to go on the shelf the library assistants generally only do basic stuff like the labelling/backing/security tagging of the new books, and then the actual shelving. The end user doens't see everything that has gone into it PRIOR to that point.

Attending local area planning meetings etc.

There are a LOT of skills involved, believe me. A librarian is very different to a library assistant, even though people just tend to call everyone who works in a library a "librarian".

So anyone with management experience and qualifications could run a library/be a librarian then?

And further to my point about the skills needed, there is also a certain mindset that is necessary to work in a library. I have seen many temp agency staff come into a library who have no concept of the idea of numerical order or just the idea of putting things into appropriate categories or any sort of order. This despite explaning the Dewey Decimal system very slowly and carefully to them. Some people just don't "get" it.

Sorry i should explain im coming at this from the angle of working in finance and what you've just described doesn't seem to me to be too disimilar to most jobs i have held - particularly ones involving procurement etc

I think all public houses should b run by volunteers, they could all do 5 minute stints to self serve.

As for tesco they don't need volunteers - they have selfservice machines and soon they will have a robot to tell you where the pickles are kept

Hardhat, I agree that there are transferable skills involved in running a library. In fact, when I was doing my library degree we did many of our modules with the students on the business studies courses. However, there is no substitute for indepth knowledge of resources and cataloguing and classification. Maybe someone who has managed a book shop or even a supermarket would have some idea of how to categorise things, but the actual classification system used, the Dewey Decimal system, and the way of putting it onto the catalogue in the right way (using Anglo-American cataloguing rules, or AACR2 or whatever number we're up to these days!) is something that would have to be studied for a while first, I think.

The idea of a volunteer doing the tasks of the professional librarian is mind-boggling. It just wouldn't work. You'd need a full-time person for a start.

One of the things I've not liked about libraries for a while is the fact that the library assistants aren't qualified. I know they have not been hiring qualified staff in order to save money.
I've had library assistants look at me blankly when asking where a particular, not obscure section would be. We had to learn the dewey decimal system to be a school library assistant in Year 8.
I was a little aghast at how one pronounced Jung the other day.
Am I expecting too much?

I've noticed this over the years, I wonder how many others have noticed it, and lost a little faith, visited a little less often.

Then visitor numbers go down etc.

I totally agre, TimeWasting. I think I mentioned further up that I now have a non-professional library assistant post in a school. When I see what the previous (non-qualified) post-holder did in terms of spelling mistakes or just bizarre subject classification of books then I am reminded why ALL library staff should be of a certain educational standard.

Libraries are places of LEARNING. It doesn't give a good impression if the library assistants come across as thick, but unfortunately, usually such roles are low paid and quite often parrt-time and who in their right mind would choose to do that job if they'd spent 3 years getting a degree and had a good educational background? I personally do it because it fits in perfectly round my children's needs, plus I absolutely love working with the school kids at my place of work. My boss is great also and there are other pluses. My boss knows she is getting bloody good added value from me in terms of my experience and qualifications considering the money I am on.

I would also take my current job again in a flash if offered it because there ARE no senior library jobs. And you take what you can get in this climate.

I'd like to know what the breadwinner in the OP's household does and then go and offer to do their job for nothing so their employer could make them redundant.
Oh, but I can't because I have a full-time job managing a specialist HEI library. Damn.
I wonder how much it will cost to train all the two-hours-per-week volunteers, and CRB them, and provide cover for when they can't turn up for their shift.
@slowshow - re e-books, our supplier is poised to roll them out in Kindle format so we are going to try them out then. I agree that the bloody things are massively oversold and overrated, personally.
I'd say to everyone on this thread who thinks it would be "nice" to do a couple of hours a week in a public library, singing to babies and helping dear old ladies choose Catherine Cooksons - we do also get spat at, verbally and physically abused, punters try to nick or vandalise the stock, you are summoned to dislodge flashers from toilets... It can be a lovely job but it is also quite stressful. Because it involves dealing with the public. All the time.

Well. No choice here anyway. The consultation has been done (ha!) and gloucestershire are going ahead with their cuts. Our library will close. My dh will likely lose his job.

No. Not to add more people to the 2.5 million already unemployed, who are supposed to be employed soon by the private sector .
Please go and use your libraries lots!

I live a a very beautiful World Heritage city which also has some of the most socially and economically polarised communities in the UK. My first ever job (over 30 years ago) was with our local library service.

This city is one of the most expensive places in the country to live, but ONE THIRD of adults of working age who live here have no qualifications whatsoever. There is no "affordable" or social housing available anymore.

Libraries are incredibly important - everyone should have the opportunity to access information.

Information is power.

Yes I would volunteer. I am a full time (very mature) undergraduate, with a teenage child with SN and an extremely aged parent to care for, and I already do voluntary work as part of my degree course.

agghhh nearly too angry to read this thread, am in danger of kicking in my television everytime i hear mention of Big society, such a load of cobblers, has Dave man of the people, thought where all those currently employed, providing the services he wishes us to volunteer for, (by the way am I meant to leave my children with the nanny, whoops i don't have one, have foolishly frittered away all my money on food and fuel bills, silly me), are meant to go, onto the ever increasing dole queues..., hmmm massive unemployment and therefore poverty does not a big jolly society make me thinks. leaves muttering... so no can't volunteer on principle even though libraries closing would make me cry, a big society of poor illiterates. nice one dave