The concept of volunteers – how far can it be developed?

As the welfare society is under pressure and especially the cultural services, we can notice that a fierce debate often takes place within the cultural service world. A debate which is about surveillance or finding alternative ways of running a qualified service.

In the United Kingdom the debate is most intense. It happens in the wake of The Big Society, which in its simplicity is about ”helping people to come together to improve their own lives. It’s about putting more power in people’s hands – a massive transfer of power from Whitehall to local communities.”

And in the same breath as The Big Society has been announced, they talk about closure of an incredible amount of libraries. Let me just come up with a few examples: In the United Kingdom around 10 % of all libraries are under threat of closure. In Oxfordshire within a three years period - 21 out of 43 libraries are proposed to be run in a combination with staff and volunteers. There is a clear tendency that many libraries will move their activity to Community libraries – often run by volunteers.

But is it only of the evil to have volunteers in the library sector? At a conference in Edinburgh this spring, Cath Anley – Head of Libraries & Archives, Kent County Council – succeeded in making me change my mind. In Kent they have a programme Time2Give which expresses that one of the main reasons for having volunteers is offering the volunteers to contribute and take over a new role in partnership with the educated staff. In Kent they had 1.639 volunteers in March 2010, who covered 28.343 hours a year – and at the library used the volunteers to do some of the jobs, they didn’t have staff for. They said that they were very much aware of the grey-zone between the educated staff and the volunteers and that the volunteers never would take over the key jobs for the skilled library staff. In Kent the volunteers read aloud in the children’s library, or they brought out books to the prisons – or some made the garden work.

In Kent they looked at the volunteers as someone who could add value or extend the service at the public library. And at the same time the volunteers could get a fulfilling “employment”. What characterizes a volunteer is that the volunteer does the “work” without being paid and does it out of charitable or helpful choice.

In other sectors as e.g. archives and museums we see that people are also volunteering in order to gain skills to advance their career – either to see whether they wish a career in that sector or to gain sufficient experience in their search for jobs. And this can raise some ethical questions – does it devaluate the job if the institution can find someone to do it for free?

Pro and cons. Not an easy case and how will it all work? Will all these new community libraries with volunteers take over a new role in partnership with the educated staff? Or will the library concept be watered down? I think we will see a very scattered picture. Some libraries will continue to work and be the meeting point in the community. Many of the closure threatened branches might have been totally closed in a couple of years and then villages in the countryside would be culturally abandoned.

The change in my mind was that you actually gave people new content in their life. They offer some hours a week at e.g the library to make charitable work – and achieve a better conscience.

It will be interesting to follow the situation in the UK. How will the volunteer concept be developed? Will the volunteers “just” be a substitute for the library staffs? OR will it end as in Denmark, where more than 200 branches have been closed during the last couple of years – with no library service at all? Right now we see actually another backlash in Denmark, where libraries are opened without any staff in evenings or week-end’s thanks to the technology. A new tendency as a result of heavy cuts for some years. Or as they do in the small Danish council Ikast Brande use volunteers to help the users with the computers, the self service automats, lending out material etc.
As a citizen and as library lover I think it is important to follow the situation very closely. There is a need for libraries in the future; Libraries that can help children, teens, grown up people in getting access to knowledge and information, supply guidance, be the meeting facility physical as well as virtual, where people can debate freely– only along that path can our society develop. Volunteers can help the libraries, they can be the library’s ambassadors and bring out the library thought to new target groups and they can work in close cooperation and under guidance by educated library staff. Volunteers can be of the good as well – they can enrich the public library service.

I know this is controversial and I am threading on shaky grounds. What do You think?
 

			Written by : Lise Soderberg Categories : community cuts volunteers Comments : Read comments   Write a comment