Volunteers

The Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library is a group of like-minded individuals who are dedicated to:

• The promotion of literacy;
• The encouragement of individuals to develop themselves and their potential by reading;
• The betterment of our communities by developing future generations to meet future challenges, foreseen and unforeseen; and,
• The love of books, and people who also love books.

These aims are achieved by raising funds that enable JMRL to promote and provide programs which encourage members of the community, particularly the young, to read; and to develop additional and alternative library services within the branches of our regional library system.

The principal fund raiser of the Friends is the Spring Book Sale. All of the items sold are donated by the generous communities in which the library branches are located. Without those donations there would be no book sales.

Throughout the year some thirty volunteers and a small staff employed by the Friends sort, price and store the donations. Those simple-sounding functions have, over the years, grown into a mammoth task. For four weeks, before and during the Spring Book Sale, over two hundred volunteers handle the various tasks required. The smaller weekend-long October Holiday Sale takes less effort, but still relies heavily upon volunteers.

See:

Volunteering for the Spring Sale

Volunteering Year-Round

Time Commitment

The amount of time devoted to the Friends is up to the individual volunteer. A statement of interests, skills, and time available allows an individual to be assigned tasks. The Friends will do its best to place volunteers appropriately, but it may be impossible to fill specific requests for assignments. Some volunteers come in almost daily, others once a week, others when they can. We try to be flexible, but expect that a commitment, once taken, is fulfilled, or that in fairness to all, ample warning to the contrary is provided.