My first library role was as a volunteer for my local Playcentre that I attended with my children. I hadn't even thought of it as a career step, just something I could and would enjoy doing. It was followed by another role for the regional library, for which I received an honorarium and lost my dining room table to piles of books I'd taken home to prepare and write out catalogue cards (remember the labour required to add another subject heading?).
The roles stood me in good stead when I applied for my first salaried role as a library assistant before starting the MLIS. Probably my experience and qualifications as a Playcentre supervisor working as a volunteer with young children also helped me win the role in a school library with much older children.
Post-qualification, to my surprise, I went into a senior librarian role. Admittedly, alongside my volunteer and library assistant experience I also had an IT background and website management experience when it was not so common.
Playcentre is an organisation of volunteers so the roles did not compete with paid staff and could not devalue the profession. I suppose the small honorarium in my second role was a recognition that the role was important and perhaps counts as paid work. The other regional volunteer librarian was a qualified librarian, also receiving a small honorarium.
I think a volunteer role for a specific project within an organisation that does have paid staff may be a good way to get experience without devaluing our profession in the current economic climate. Volunteering for a charity would not devalue the role of professional staff either unless the charity had many other paid staff.
I am investigating local volunteer opportunities either to get more recent and different face to face library experience as my latest contracts have not been in a library, or for something to move my career in another direction entirely as funding for library services is reduced...
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