LIBRARIES TODAY: Caroline Cunningham

Welcoming Back Teen Volunteers

by Caroline Cunningham —

Teen Librarian, Mamaroneck Public Library

Caroline is a new librarian, earning her MLS degree this past winter. Previously she worked as a teacher’s aide in a special education middle school. Caroline started her job in the middle of a pandemic. Working at a public library with no patrons for the first four months was definitely unexpected but a great learning experience. Caroline partners with the local community counseling center, the surrounding school districts, and nearby libraries for events, workshops, and programs including coordinating a tour of the library for ESOL students. This past summer was the start of welcoming teen volunteers back into our library since before the pandemic. This was also my first year working as a full-time teen services librarian at Mamaroneck, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I knew summer would be a popular time for teens wanting to volunteer at the library, but I did not think I would get as much interest as I did.

As the summer months approached, the frequency of emails and phone calls I received about volunteering started to rise quickly. One of the nearby school districts requires all of their students to complete a certain amount of volunteer hours to graduate. We developed a plan for volunteers coming into the building as well as those not comfortable coming into the building.

We offered virtual community service. Teens could earn one hour of community service for writing two book or movie reviews, creating a ten-title book list on a specific topic, making a book talk or creating a book trailer. We used these on our website, the teen blog, and social media pages to help as many teens as possible.

We had so much interest that we decided to create a training program before starting. We require each participant to attend a one-hour training session to go over the procedures, rules, expectations, possible activities, and information about the library. We ended up creating two training sessions to accommodate everyone. Scheduling and coming up with tasks for almost 30 volunteers to come in on a daily basis was no easy feat. You should have seen my Google Calendar!

The activities ranged from shelf reading, or going through donated books, to bigger things like doing various administrative tasks in our business office, or helping to run a children’s program. When teens filled out the volunteer applications, we asked about their interests and delivered assignments accordingly. We were not going to assign them to help out with a children’s program if that wasn’t one of their strengths. Again, we wanted to make this experience a positive one for us, as well as the teens. If they were excited and happy about what they were doing, it created a positive environment to work in.

After so many months without seeing a patron at the library because we were closed, it was amazing to see so many teens coming in to volunteer. It not only was successful for us, but they were constantly asking for more time, willing to do anything, and putting in so much hard work and some of them didn’t even need hours. It made it a great experience for us, too. They learned skills they can transfer to their first job, or other aspects of their lives.

We continued our volunteer program through the fall months on a smaller scale. We understand the need for volunteer opportunities in our community, and how important this experience has been for our teens.