All About Teen Volunteers

This summer, I was tasked with being in charge of the teen volunteers. If you've ever worked in (or visited) a public library in June and July, you've probably been at least peripherally aware of teen volunteers working there. They are incredibly important to making the Summer Reading Program happen because it is, as I lovingly refer to it, the children's librarian Olympics. We are constantly running, programming, craft-prepping, and helping patrons at a wildly accelerated rate. We couldn't do it if it weren't for those amazing teenagers who need community service credit to graduate high school (and/or are just good people who want to help out) (and/or couldn't find a paying job and their parents want them doing something over the summer). Whatever the reason, we're thrilled to have them.

After our system's volunteer coordinator forwarded me all 30-odd applications, I sent out two emails. The first was to people who had never volunteered here before, asking them to come in for an interview. I set aside a couple of Saturdays and scheduled four teens per hour. I saw each of them for 10-15 minutes, during which time I asked them a few questions to get to know them better and find out where they would be best suited to work in our library. I didn't turn anyone away; simply presented them with the forms to get their badges and welcomed them into the program. I consider the interview more of a formality than a necessity; it gives the kids job experience and gives me a chance to meet them one-on-one before the summer starts.

The next step was to organize a mandatory orientation. I had one on a weekday evening and the other on a Saturday morning, and let all 35 volunteers know that attending one or the other was a requirement for participating in the program. Orientation included individual introductions, icebreaker games, popcorn reading off a PowerPoint to make learning the rules a little more engaging, and then standing up for a high-energy shelving activity lead by the manager of our pages. At the end, one of our other children's librarians ran a Jeopardy-style trivia game about the rules we had discussed earlier in orientation.

The best part of orientation was inviting any staff member who wanted to attend. This had not been done in the past, which caused a bit of a disconnect between non-youth services staff and the volunteers. This year, several managers and librarians from other departments attended, which was great for both sides to get to know one another.

Once everyone was oriented, I made schedules for the SRP desk, weekly storytime helpers, and one-time program assistants. Some of the scheduling was done manually in Excel, and for other parts of it I used SignUpGenius.com. Something new that I implemented this year was a daily reminder email sent out to all teens who would be working the next day. I found this cut down on the kids forgetting their shifts or being late.

Possibly the biggest bummer of facilitating teen volunteers is keeping track of discipline. We did have several instances of volunteers having their phones out during programs or desk shifts, which can become a disciplinary offense if it happens a lot. The bigger infractions were being late or missing a shift without calling; we made it clear that two no-call-no-shows equals termination, and there were two instances of this over the summer. In terms of discipline, our entire department learned that we will need a more consistent flow chart for next summer. 

The best part was pinpointing the volunteers who exhibited leadership skills and having the bility to give them more to do. For example, three of our most dedicated volunteers were my assistants during Theater Day Camp, where they often lead games and acting lessons while I only supervised. I loved seeing these young people blossom into leaders!

An important end-of-summer ritual is the teen volunteer thank you party! All three of our children's librarians worked together to plan the party complete with food, gifts, and activities for the kids to enjoy. The party was held after-hours in the library, and they got to run wild in the empty stacks for a scavenger hunt! After that we had dinner and a karaoke party in the Program Room.

I am excited to say that overseeing the teen volunteers is something I will continue to do throughout the 2018-19 school year, so I might be posting updates about our year-round volunteers periodically!