Libraries booked with volunteers
Laura Sturza
With a boom in library use that library officials attribute to a
down economy and the interest generated by the new Buena Vista Branch
Library -- Burbank librarians can use all of the help they can get.
Volunteers assist the city’s busy staff with duties that include
mending damaged books, delivering books to the homebound,
fund-raising, signing people up to use the Internet and restocking
audio-visual items.
“In the new building, we have three to four times the business
that we had in the old building,” said John Coultas, the supervisor
at the Buena Vista Branch Library. The library system’s other centers
are the Central Library and the Northwest Branch Library.
With the new library’s DVD collection increasing from 100 to 900
items, volunteers are helping to get the materials back on the
shelves more quickly so they can be checked out again, Coultas said.
Volunteer coordinator Naomi Aronoff said the 52 volunteers at the
city’s three branches worked 3,500 hours in 2001 contributed the
equivalent of 87 weeks of full-time work.
Lillian Saunders, 86, starting volunteering at the Central Library
more than 15 years ago. She began by entering books by subject into
the computer and tutoring in the literacy program. Now she checks in
books that were delivered by other volunteers to homebound people.
“Since I retired, I want to be useful as well as enjoy myself,”
Saunders said. “I enjoy to be among books, and the contact with the
other people who work at the library.”
Other library volunteer opportunities are available. The literacy
program pairs tutors with people seeking help with their reading
skills. People also assist with fund-raising activities through the
Friends of the Burbank Public Library, which runs the bookstore at
the Buena Vista Branch.
Through membership fees of $5 to $10 annually, book sales and
other contributions, the Friends group raises about $25,000 each
year, President Howard Rothenbach said. The group helps the library
pay for special programs and materials. They contributed $75,000 to
the new library for books, and $45,000 to pay for the tree that is
the centerpiece of the children’s room.
For more information about volunteering or joining the Friends of
the Burbank Public Library, call 238-5580.