Our first orientation of the new volunteer recruitment campaign was held Monday at Davidson Library. We had 17 volunteers, a great group indeed! Complete with a local TV station there doing interviews of me and new and current volunteers.
We reviewed many things but one topic of discussion was the "Imaginary A". The imaginary A that librarians place in the author name of McDonald (and all other Mc's) so it would become MacDonald. It seems that some of our branches differ on this phenomenom. Some do it and some don't.
Another scenario; the smaller the branch the less space it has to hold collections.
So their system may be different from a regional library which has more space. As we try to merge a volunteer workforce with a professional workforce these details, oddities become challenges. We have lost 50% of our professional staff so every minute is crucial. They would prefer to have volunters trained by me; a centralized volunteer training has been requested. However, I wonder how many other "Imaginary A's" are in our system, in the way we organize things. A universal training becomes less and less viable with each branch idiosyncracy.
The way in which we do things so that we can recieve volunteer assistance is crucial. A consistent and customary way in which all books are shelved would allow for centralized training and/or for volunteers to be shared among 2-3 libraries in the same area.
We are one system with 20 branches. These branches reflect the culture and demographics of a neighborhood. Striking the balance bewteen consistent and different is so hard! Have you encountered this situation? Do you have centralized training?
Please share your story, thoughts and ideas.
