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.

Playing Catch-Up.

Dammit, I’ve let things slide again. I see CPD 23ers now have until 30^th November to finish if they want a certificate. Ok, I’m going to make a real effort to catch up and get my certificate. (How shallow!).

Because I’m late I can do Thing 17 in the correct place which is handy as this fits in very well with the Folio course on e-learning which I’m doing for work. This could be a big help.

I’m really excited about Prezi – I think this may be the tool to use as my submission for Folio. I’ve started to work on an introduction to a finding the Evidence Workshop.  It’s really quite different for me as I am fundamentally a text/audio learner and, if I’m not careful, teacher.   I think it could be brilliant at incorporating all types of learning. (Not that I’m really convinced by VAKL, but it can’t do any harm.)

The idea of having a visual CV out there on the web is intriguing. How does this differ from simply having a CV on a jobsite or my LinkedIn profile? For me the question of where the division should be between personal and professional is raised again. Many of the CV presentations start with personal details about where and when they were born and incorporate personal photos  – not something I’d choose to include in a written CV. 

In any case, are the UK library community ready to do their recruitment via social networking? Probably not, judging by the responses from the Cilip Council candidates to a question on the use of social networking.  http://communities.cilip.org.uk/forums/t/23088.aspx

I think you’ll need to be logged in to Cilip to see that.

I was really shocked how low the level of awareness was from the candidates although I would probably have been in a similar category before undertaking CPD23.  I think this raises a real issue for Cilip. The candidates are mainly, as you’d expect, in mid to late career.  If they cannot communicate with the new professionals using their preferred methods the outlook for Cilip as these young information workers progress is bleak.