Public Libraries and Their Communities: Roles of Volunteers

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Public Libraries and Their Communities Roles of
Volunteers

• Fiona A. Black and Becky Harris
• School of Information Management
• Dalhousie University

2
Scope and agenda

• Context and related research
• Study goals
• Methods
• Results
• Implications

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Context and related studies

• Libraries as public places in their communities
• a place where social interaction between a wide
  diversity of people can happen, in a central
  location easily accessible to all, with a spirit
  of inclusivity and community, and a high degree
  of user control (Leckie Hopkins, 2002)
• Volunteers in BC libraries labour context
  (Curry, 1996)

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Libraries in communities

• The Canadian public library is the most heavily
  used public community facility with more than 150
  million visits per year. More than any other
  cultural and sporting events combined.
• Source Statistics Canada

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Canadian Public Culture

• Canadian libraries contributed significantly to
  public culture in 19th century (Lamonde, McNally
  and Rotundo, 2005)
• Many aspects of todays public culture rely on
  volunteer input
• Potential emerging roles of volunteers in
  libraries (e.g., technology training)
• Potential differences in volunteer roles in urban
  versus rural libraries

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Economic role and volunteers

• Direct and indirect economic benefits
• Services to businesses are direct benefits of PLs
• Volunteer contributions fit into the indirect
  benefits category
• E.g., volunteer support critical for
  acculturation of new immigrants as productive
  members of community

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Gap in national data

• National data gathering excludes libraries as an
  easily identifiable location of volunteer
  contributions
• National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and
  Participating (NSGVP)
• Includes museums, archives and art galleries, but
  not libraries
• National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary
  Organizations (NSNVO)
• Excludes tax-supported public libraries

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HR context of study

• Related issues
• 8Rs Study on Human Resources in Canadian heritage
  industries
• Even in Alberta (20m additional, qualified,
  funding in 2006) public libraries in Canada face
  very tight funding
• Canadian public libraries are expected to play a
  crucial role in community development and
  acculturation of new immigrants many services
  relating to these may be performed by volunteers

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Study goals

• to investigate the nature, quantitatively and
  qualitatively, of volunteer work
• to examine the administrative support for
  volunteer work regarding HR policies and
  procedures, recruitment, training, etc.
• to examine volunteer works relationship to the
  work performed by paid staff
• to determine volunteer contributions to
  traditional and emerging roles of public
  libraries
• to explore urban / rural differences

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Methodology

• Survey of related research in library literature
  and volunteerism literature
• Development and pretest of pilot study
  questionnaire
• Online survey of Canadian public library
  administrator sample, urban and rural, (n148)
• Average response rate 57

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Designing the Survey

• Geared closely to respondents (senior
  administrators)
• One question per screen
• 10-15 minutes to complete
• Room for comments

• Sections (questions)
• Policies (7)
• Volunteer contributions (10)
• Labour agreements (9)
• Human resources (6)
• Strategic planning (5)
• Demographics (3)

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Survey screen capture
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Response rates by province

• Alberta 37
• British Columbia 58
• Manitoba 40
• New Brunswick 80
• Newfoundland Labrador 40
• Nova Scotia 75
• Ontario 54
• Prince Edward Island 100
• Saskatchewan 63

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Preliminary findings

• 99 of respondents libraries use volunteers
• Proportions of unionized staff (FTE) to
  volunteers (head count) varies widely, e.g.,
  2004, 120475
• Challenges of defining volunteer contributions
• Friends of the library and volunteers overlap
  considerably, but they are not the same thing in
  our library system. Booksale preparation and
  booksales themselves critical for fundraising
  are not counted in any volunteer hours we report.

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Nature of volunteer work

• Question What roles do volunteers play in your
  library? Please check all that apply.

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Selected volunteer roles

• Standard role

• Books on wheels (in North Vancouver) serving
  those who cannot travel to the library

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Selected volunteer roles

• Standard role

• Fundraising
• Friends groups are the principal agency of
  library fundraising
• Not all libraries have friends groups

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Selected volunteer roles

• Emerging services technology assistance

20
Selected volunteer roles

• Emerging services role ESL literacy tutors

21
Selected volunteer roles not identified

• Emerging role
• Attracting non-typical user groups through hiring
  volunteers in the same demographic group

22
HR policies

• Question Does your library have a policy (or
  policies) relating to the use of volunteers? If
  yes, what factors does the volunteer policy
  address? Please check all that apply.

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Recruitment of volunteers

• Question How do you recruit volunteers? Please
  check all that apply.

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Rural / urban divide?

• Definition of rural (Stats Can) population of
  less than 10,000
• Some distinctive differences, e.g., reduction of
  available volunteer staff in agricultural sector
  currently
• Range of volunteers potentially available in
  urban centres
• Many libraries serve both urban and rural
  responses regarding differences vary widely

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Some implications

• Traditional versus emerging roles
• Relationship to mission of libraries
• HR planning within and across libraries example
  re 8Rs
• Relationship to real and imagined role of
  professional and support staff example from
  policy

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• Questions? Comments?