Abstract
D. Litt. et Phil.
The drastic reduction of funds allocated annually to public libraries has
caused a serious shortage of financial and other resources. At the
same time, various policy documents published in recent years
emphasise the importance of public libraries for the development of
South African society as a whole. Public libraries will therefore have to adapt and extend their services to cater for the needs of the communities they serve and to take their
rightful place in the development of these communities. Using members of the local communities as voluntary workers is a proposed solution to the problem of providing extended services and remaining within budgetary limits. Research on designing an effective programme for using voluntary workers in public libraries was therefore imperative. The research was undertaken, firstly, on the basis of an intensive literature study and, secondly, by conducting an empirical study by means of structured
interviews with a number of librarians in public libraries. The interviews were conducted after completion of the literature study. The purpose of the interviews was to determine whether the use of voluntary workers according to the proposed programme was
supported by librarians in the public library sector. The opinions of respondents were subsequently analysed and objections to the use of voluntary workers were identified. The predetermined guidelines set on the basis of the literature study were followed to eliminate these objections. It was found that none of the objections to the use of voluntary workers could be sustained if the guidelines on designing and implementing a voluntary workers' programme were followed. Every possible resource was utilised to design a structured programme for recruiting potential voluntary workers from different communities and using them for rendering essential and extended services. The
guidelines indicated that public library management should, first of all, determine the relevance of using voluntary workers by means of internal and external needs analyses. Should it be found that the aid of voluntary workers is relevant for rendering various services, a co-ordinator should be appointed to design and implement the
voluntary workers' programme. It is suggested that the programme should be developed and implemented as follows,The co-ordinator, as the manager of the programme, will be responsible for compiling a policy, procedures, recruitment and
selection strategies, a training schedule and a budget. These tasks may be delegated to other staff members so that they could play a role in training, supervising, motivating, evaluating and giving recognition to voluntary workers. Finally, the co-ordinator should evaluate the effectiveness of the programme on the basis of data gathered from supervisors, voluntary workers and relevant community members.
The report on the findings should then be made available to all roleplayers.
The programme should subsequently be adapted and improved
according to the findings published in this report. The researcher therefore recommends that voluntary workers should be recruited on the basis of the structured voluntary workers' programme and used for rendering essential and extended services.