HIT #2> 9-12 adult volunteers in media centers

[Doug Hyde <HYDE@UWSTOUT.EDU>]

Part II of many HITs "Adult Volunteers in 9-12 Media Centers"

I rely on my adult volunteers to do pretty much all of the following:
        book shelving
        periodical checkin, filing, maintenance
        book processing
        fiche filing
        shelf reading
        special projects:  pulling book checkout cards when automating
                circulation, stack shifting, bar-coding collection, pulling
                shelf-list cards for weeded books--etc,etc.
I could not imagine life without my volunteers.  Training them (70 total,
about 40 regulars) is a pain, but I have many repeats for years, and they
are invaluable.

Shannon Acedo

====

I use adult volunteers quite successfully for book shelving
and filing, checking in and maintaining the magazine collection,
and clipping and filing for a very actively used vertical file.
The volunteer who does the vertical file is also a school
committee member, which has proven to be very valuable when
library programs are being considered.  She does additional
work at home, scanning a variety of newspapers for valuable
articles to clip for our file.  Our school soon intends to open
the library in the evenings or on Saturdays and it will be
staffed by adult community volunteers.  I have also used adult
volunteers to "strip" the collection when we added our 3M security
syste--and expect to do so to barcode for automation soon.  We
have also had them help with data entry for our statewide catalog,
which will provide most of the records for our automated catalog.
I prefer to use student volunteers whenever possible, because it
gives them a sense of ownership in the library.  But where greater
care or judgement is required, our adult volunteers have been
extremely helpful and have also produced a pool of trained substi-
tutes when I have to be absent from the library for conferences and
such.

Deborah M. Locke

====

Hi!  I am the Media Coordinator at a Catholic high school (college prep,
1050 students) and I have a full-time professional as partner.  At the
beginning of last year we found ourselves, for the first time, with a slew
of parent (mother) volunteers.  We held a meeting for all and set up a
schedule, which most adhered to with a religious fervor.  They were
wonderful!  What did we have them do?  The shelved, read shelves, cleaned
and cleaned some more (you know how dusty computer screens get?  and
shelves?);  they kept our want list up-to-date, they edited MARC
records and keywords, indexed the cover stories for the news magazines,
created a database for state and federal equipment - you name it.
There was a time when we actually had to say "We really don't need you this
week," and that was fine, too.  Oh, and they helped with the vertical file
clipping and filing articles of note.  And so on.  And they really seemed
to enjoy all this.  Ironically, many of these are coming in now that
their youngest are in the school.  Perhaps they have more time.  Two
of them are now serving on our Library self-study committee and have
already contributed significantly to that work.  We are respectful
of their time, so we don't take them for granted.  I can, however, say
that we have been able to do a lot of things that we would never have
had time for otherwise.  And I can say that it is possible to have too
many so tread carefully.

Kari Inglis

====

I have some wonderful adult volunteers -- three who keep coming even though
their children have long since graduated.  They do everything from watering
plants, checking in new magazines, maintaining the vertical file and the
SIRS notebooks, filing all the microfiche,taking inventory, sending overdues,
making change for students, working at the circulation desk to inputting
data for computer databases.  We love our volunteers!

Jan Tonsing

====

My parent volunteers in my media center (grades 9-12) are
invaluable because they help us process new materials, produce
displays and bulletin boards, monitor the circulation desk,
input data into the computer, and collect monies during our
annual Book Fair!

Mary Stallings

====
"Th-Th-That's all folks!"               Porky Pig (Mel Blanc)

Doug Hyde                       hyde@uwstout.edu
Library Media Specialist        menomodh@llwisc.ll.pbs.org
Menomonie School District