Volunteering and the rise of the intern

I am going to cover 3 aspects of volunteering – to gain experience, use of volunteers in libraries and volunteering in a professional association

One of the things mentioned in Bronagh McCrudden’s: ‘Would you work for free? Unpaid work in the information profession (and how to make it count)’ is that information work is invisible.  It did strike me that this is a bit like that other women's job -- housework. I think this is actually a difficult case to make in a time when other professions are also looking for people to work without pay, but it is still an interesting parallel.

I've seen quite a few intern posts coming up in the @UKLibraryJobs stream on Twitter. I'm pretty sure that in better economic times these would have been paid posts. It makes me very sad for the (usually) new professionals who take up these posts because they are desperate. A really pernicious thing about the intern culture is that it discriminates against those who need to work to live. It keeps young people dependent on their parents for much longer than in previous generations. However it appears that many people do make volunteering work for them as 2 out of 3 people in McCrudden’s paper had a successful experience. And I know that many organisations will get good use out of volunteers in their libraries but still – if it’s worth getting done shouldn’t it be worth paying for?  

If I am ever unemployed again, I know I would consider a volunteer post to keep my skills up-to date – if I can afford it.

So the converse of librarians working as volunteers is the use of volunteers to run libraries. One of the things that slightly shocked me about the Cilip  Council candidates was that they were all a bit mealy-mouthed about the use of volunteers in libraries.  Not a single one said that they were outraged that this government and many local councils seem to think that anybody can run a library. They were all very careful to talk about the great contribution made by volunteers which is no doubt true. Of course, if all the volunteers are unemployed librarians trying to gain experience then hey – why pay anybody.

A less controversial way of gaining experience as a volunteer is to work for one of Cilip’s groups or another professional organisation. While in work I have volunteered as a mentor and I plan to volunteer to do something for one of the professional groups I belong to.