Staff celebrate a real turn-up for the books
Royal Borough: Library volunteers thanked for their service at event
A thank you event for the Royal Borough’s library staff was held at Maidenhead Library on Tuesday afternoon.
Food and soft drinks were available for staff to enjoy after a year of uncertainty amid COVID-19.
Furthermore, the future of some libraries across the Royal Borough were left in doubt as the council sought to make changes to the way they operated in February.
The mobile library was discontinued with the council replacing the popular service with a home delivery system.
However, many core services have remained.
Maidenhead Library, for example, offers a range of services such as IT Support for residents who may be unfamiliar with technology
to story time reading for younger children.
To thank the volunteers who continue to serve the libraries across RBWM, the council held a small event to say thank you to the staff for the important role they play.
Joiy Chan-Meeson, volunteering and resources officer, said: "The library gives young people lots of opportunities to learn how to communicate with the public.
“For our older volunteers, some
of them are retired, but they’re still interested in getting involved.
“They bring so many skills; we’ve got retired teachers, nurses, civil servants and they all enjoy helping out and sharing their skills.
“We want to absolutely thank our volunteers for all of the time they give to us. There’s quite a life [in the library], we are a very friendly place, and we do our very best to be responsive.
“Our volunteers are crucial parts of making that happen.”
Cllr Samantha Rayner, lead member for leisure and resident services, said: “A huge thank you to our volunteers, who, in the last eight months, have contributed 1950 hours of volunteering to the service – we couldn’t have done it without them.
“They are our residents, and we deliver the library service for them, and because they’re helping us on that journey it makes the libraries a much more stronger service.”