Ealing's libraries and volunteers!

Something i spotted when trawling through Ealing Council's proposals for outsourcing its library services;

"14.7 The Library Service has also been selected as one of the ten London Boroughs to participate in the Mayor of London’s (Love Libraries) Team London Programme to develop best practice in working with volunteers in London’s libraries. Participating Boroughs were selected for their readiness to deliver a volunteer programme, a commitment to supporting best practice volunteering and willingness to contribute to a lasting legacy to help more people volunteer in their local library."

Team London is Boris's 'Big Society' venture and the 'Love Libraries' programme aims to

provide 2,000 volunteers with the opportunity to become 'library champions'! It talks of working with

a consortium of at least ten library authorities, who are the ten?, and its partner orgaisations include;

Association of London Chief Librarians, The Reading Agency, Volunteer Centres, London Borough

of Merton and the London Chief Culture and Leisure Officers Association.

It talks of a supporting role but as we all know this is far from the whole story, in many library

authorities volunteers are being used instead of professional and experienced library staff to run

libraries!

Very worrying!