April 15th through the 21st is National Volunteer Week! During this week, we like to give a huge “Thank you” to our volunteers. Our library and patrons benefit greatly from our volunteers and they are involved in ways the public may not know. Here are some of those ways they help:
Recording Studio
At NCLBPH we have two recording booths to produce our talking books and magazines! We have multiple volunteers operating in teams of two, a monitor and a narrator, so we can convert traditionally printed text into an accessible format for our patrons!
Reviewers are a crucial step to the local production of talking books & magazines. Volunteers who review listen to our narrators’ recordings, checking for accuracy. Once the material is reviewed, it’s returned to the monitor & narrator for corrections. This way, we’re certain our library is producing quality accessible reading material!
Mailing
The mailing area is one of the busiest areas for our volunteers. Our volunteers help the library operate by preparing our mailing materials such as newsletters, brochures, and applications. On normal days, we may one or two volunteers working in that area, but when it’s time send out newsletters, we could have up to five volunteers working as a team to take on such an enormous task!
Circulation
The way volunteers help NCLBPH’s circulation department is by properly inspecting books returned by patrons. They check if the cartridges were turned into the right box or if they were in the box, if any patrons sent a note, and they check for any damages!
Friends
NCLBPH’s Friends group is a major part of operations for the library! They financially support NCLBPH’s mission augmenting the state and federal funding. The Friends group doesn’t help our library for money, but instead to secure accessible reading for all! You may learn more about the friends clicking the link below!
Volunteer Recognition
Volunteer week is a great way to recognize all volunteers, and though we constantly thank our volunteers we also hold a recognition meal in their honor for the services they provide for us. You may see photos from some of the past recognition dinners and lunch in the links below!
2017 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nclbph/sets/72157688932205216/with/37344253596/
2016 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nclbph/sets/72157676088815730
2013 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nclbph/sets/72157642344279724/with/13148432944/
2012 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nclbph/sets/72157632140532998/with/8233302892/
2009 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nclbph/sets/72157622999438370/with/4185136782/
If you are interested in donating your time and effort to our library and its mission you may click the link below to find out how you may begin volunteering!
https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/outreach/volunteer
books reach different areas on North Carolina. Our circulation staff re-shelves, pulls, and inspects every book that comes in. Without their efforts, our library wouldn’t be able to serve our patrons. Looking deeper in to what their duties are, you’ll see primarily five staff members are arriving at the library at 7:30 AM and pulling the books our patrons requested from the shelves, and if books are leaving that means more books are returning. The books that have returned are sorted into boxes. From there, the staff and volunteers inspects the returned cartridges to make sure the right book was put back in the right case, if there are any damages, if the cartridge has anything unwanted in there, and the occasional letter from a grateful patron. After the books are inspected they are checked back in and re-shelved. Our circulation staff members take turns driving the delivery truck to and from the post office to either drop off materials being sent to patrons or pick up crates of materials returning from patrons. The materials we have in our warehouse include, talking books, braille books, large print books and descriptive video.
The Final Four has become the only 2 BARD Madness entries remaining! Here are the contenders!
