Volunteering Opportunities

Thanks to our volunteers for making the library a great place for everyone! Volunteering for your local library is a great way to get involved in the community, stay up-to-date on events and activities in your area, and show your support for the important role libraries play in our lives. There are many ways to get involved, from joining the Elmworth Community Library Society (which meets quarterly to provide local support and guidance to Library staff and activities), to more casual / task oriented roles, like:

Transcribing Book Descriptions:

As we purchase new books to add to our collection, we promote them to our patrons and community by posting a photo of the book’s cover as well as the description from the back cover / inside dust jacket. We do this in hopes that it makes patrons aware of books that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise have sought out. This job involves accurately typing those descriptions into an email, and sending it to us to cut & paste the text into Facebook posts. Volunteers are welcome to use the patron computer at the Library for this, or bring their own laptop / chromebook if they prefer. Scheduling for this is VERY flexible, with each book only taking 5-10 minutes (depending on typing speed & accuracy), spend your recess getting two books transcribed or schedule a few hours in the evening and churn out a dozen, it’s up to you! Contact the Library Coordinator to make arrangements.

Weeding the Collection:

There’s only SO MUCH room on our shelves, so as we purchase NEW items, we also have to discard some of the older / less popular books to make room. This job involves pulling the books (from a list that will be provided) off the shelves, setting them in a designated DISCARD box, and then crossing them off the list. This helps make processing the discards (actually removing them from our computer system, crossing out barcodes, and stamping them as a ‘DISCARD’) a little less time-consuming for our staff, as they don’t have to physically FIND the items individually, just pull out the DISCARD box and start processing. Scheduling for this is VERY flexible, contact the Library Coordinator to make arrangements. (Opportunities to assist with the actual PROCESSING of these discards MAY be available to volunteers with excellent attention to detail & computer skills).

Shelf-Reading:

It takes a lot of work to ensure that our shelves remain organized so people can find what they’re looking for in the place it should be. This task involves choosing a shelf and then slowly working your way through it ensuring:

-          All books have their spines facing out (so their details can be seen)
-          Any books in particularly bad condition (falling apart, soiled, stained, smelly) are removed
-          All books are IN ORDER:

- Fiction sections should be organized ALPHABETICALLY by
  - Author’s LAST NAME, and THEN (for authors with multiple titles / series):
  - Series Name & Book Number -OR- Titles (ignore ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘and’)
- Non-Fiction sections should be organized
  - NUMERICALLY by the Dewey Decimal Number, and THEN
  - Alphabetically by Author’s Last Name

Scheduling for this is very flexible, contact the Library Coordinator to make arrangements.

Michelle Gillis, Library Coordinator
Phone 780-354-2930
Email librarian@elmworthlibrary.ab.ca