Pitch In:
Why Volunteering Helps Everyone
by Julie A. Macksey
and J. Michael Homan
Julie A. Macksey is a retired information specialist active in volunteer work in the San Francisco Bay area. She keeps in contact with friends and colleagues from her 40-year career in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and was an active SLA volunteer throughout her career.
J. Michael Homan is the Director of Libraries for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a past-president of the Medical Library Association, and a past director of the Western Michigan Chapter, Special Libraries Association.
Get Out There 
Michael Homan and Julie Macksey, a current librarian and a former librarian, respectively, entered the world of volunteerism cautiously. But now both are converts to that world. In this article, Homan and Macksey share their own experiences and illustrate how volunteering can benefit you.
One Story: A Retired Librarian
by Julie Macksey
The scenario is something that many retirees are probably all too accustomed to. A retired worker (in this case an information specialist with 40 years of work experience) found that being a grandmother and participating in the golf, bridge, and luncheon circuit left much to be desired.
But in this case I was the retiree looking for something new. Deciding that volunteering might be a good option, I went to the local volunteer exchange, a Time Dollar Institute organization that gives barter value to each hour of volunteer work contributed by participants. The organization quickly found a role for me. My computer skills helped me become a database manager for the organization and do searches for members without a computer. My writing skills were used for publicity pieces for the local newspaper and my oral presentation skills were tapped for speeches at a variety of venues. A TV producer at a community access TV station asked me to participate in a program about alternative economies.
My retirement community has a very active computer club. I serve as a volunteer in their e-mail room where we send e-mail for the residents, make five cent copies, and answer computer questions. When e-mail replies come in, we print them and call the recipients. The mission statement of the computer club is: "Residents helping residents to improve computer knowledge and skills, and to enhance the use and enjoyment of computers."
This is a tall order and the club carries out its mission with great success. The computer club's goal is to promote and teach seniors to use computers for a variety of derived benefits. Benefits, particularly through use of e-mail and the Internet, include staying in touch with family and friends, maintaining contact with the modern world, participating in social activities, reinvigorating the aging personality and aging brain, and using a computer to help recover from the effects of stroke and other physical impairments.
The community has also established a program with the public library. The Contra Costa County Library System offers Internet access to holdings of the entire system. It is possible to search the database by keywords, names, titles, or subjects and to put a book on hold and designate the library desired for pick-up.
Our local public library, one of 23 members of the county system, took the program one step further by joining forces with a group of volunteers who make a weekly run to the public library to deliver returned books and to pick up books ordered for our residents. E-mail room volunteers place orders and holds for those residents who do not have Internet access. I developed an illustrated manual for novices about how to negotiate the library database. Occasionally an e-mail room patron will ask for an Internet search and, if we have time, we accommodate.
We also have a relationship with the campus of the local adult education center, which is nearby. Our computer club has negotiated a working partnership with the center in which it furnishes an office and two classrooms for the club's computer classes and seminars. The classes, scheduled in advance, are open to all adults in the school district and are taught by professional instructors. The classes are hands-on using a PC or Mac computer. Club members handle registration of students and provide volunteer teaching assistants (TA's) for the class sessions. A free beginner's workshop is held each Monday morning for those who have never used a computer. A volunteer, aided by TA's, teaches the novice basic computer skills. The classes are also a good place to get advice about how to buy a computer, go online, etc.
Arrangements have been made with a local Internet service provider (ISP) to provide the members Internet connections at reduced rates. Club volunteers developed a free, illustrated e-mail instruction manual that is distributed to the members at Internet installation time. The club also has a team of volunteers who make house calls when members run into computer problems that cannot be resolved by a phone call to the classroom office. Members can attend a free two-hour workshop. They are invited to bring in their questions, watch demonstrations and learn how to better use their computers.
Another Perspective: A Library Director
with Untapped Volunteer Skills
by Michael Homan
The challenge of a new job and a new community motivated me (a working library director) to seek out a variety of volunteer opportunities. I thought volunteering would let me see the community from a different perspective and expand my circle of acquaintances and friends. But I did not immediately see the benefits of community volunteerism.
Luckily, there was a good example of volunteerism for me to follow in the Mayo Clinic patients' libraries located at each of Mayo's two large hospitals in Rochester, Minnesota. A volunteer staff of over 70 individuals extends the permanent staff of the patients' libraries by providing a great variety of assistance to hospitalized patients and their families. We provide everything from Internet assistance to delivery of traditional materials to the bedside. These dedicated volunteers not only support the mission of the library, but also remain vitally connected to the community and to an institution they value.
If volunteers at patients' libraries provided an apt organizational example of the importance of volunteers to an organization, my new friends in the community provided personal examples of volunteerism and delivered the final prod to get me involved. The first opportunity came when a friend decided to step down from coordinating a church-sponsored bimonthly dinner at a local halfway house and agreed to mentor the new coordinator. Another opportunity came when a friend suggested that service on a local foundation board responsible for raising funds for a local agency supporting community housing for the developmentally disabled might be rewarding. Skills that library directors use everyday including leadership and organizational ability and written and oral communication turned out to be the untapped volunteer skills that I could offer. The initial feelings of "Oh no, I won't possibly have the time" and "What on earth would they want with a library director?" were quickly dissipated by acceptance, support, and mentoring.
Why Should You Volunteer?
by Michael Holman and Julie Macksey
Volunteerism is a little like mentoring. Both are most often learned by example through parents, friends, and colleagues and the process becomes a state of mind that is good for the volunteer and the agency or organization needing assistance.
For librarians volunteerism can provide an absorbing second, third, or fourth career with virtually limitless opportunities. Seeing the expression of joy on the face of someone you just helped will always be the source of a great high for any volunteer!
For the volunteer who cannot or prefers not to volunteer onsite, The Virtual Volunteering Project is a possibility. Launched in 1996, the project makes it possible for people who cannot volunteer onsite to volunteer through the Internet. The health science area has taken a keen interest in the volunteer workforce and the economic impact of volunteers over the years under the leadership of the American Hospital Association (AHA). The AHA sponsors the American Society of Directors of Volunteer Services, which publishes a journal and holds an annual conference. The AARP (AARP) website (www.aarp.org) hosts a series of well-designed pages related to the importance of volunteering including a guide to volunteering and links to a variety of organizations offering opportunities to volunteer. The Corporation for National and Community Service officially represents three important national service initiatives: AmeriCorps (the domestic Peace Corps), Learn and Serve America, and the National Senior Service Corps. The corporation's website (www.cns.gov) allows searches at the community level for volunteer opportunities and is a good starting point when looking for a volunteer or national service experience.
Librarians who have spent hours in literature research, association committee meetings, budget preparation, manuscript preparation, speaking engagements, etc., may find that skills learned or honed through these activities can also be put to good use in a volunteer role. The intangible benefits are many. They include getting to know a community and its needs, meeting people with similar interests, staying "connected" to the community, feeling a sense of accomplishment and well-being at the local community level, enhancing a sense of purpose, and, for those still in the workforce, acquiring essential training and mentoring for the post-retirement volunteer years.
A hidden value to the profession is the promotion of librarianship by librarian volunteers through their community volunteer work. How better to represent the best in librarianship than through involvement in community volunteer work that makes a difference in someone's life?
A Quality of Life Issue
The salubrious effects of volunteerism and its relationship to quality of life, health status, and longevity are becoming more widely appreciated. The United Way's State of Caring Index includes 32 indicators that rank different states on a "most caring index scale." The 32 economic and social indicators measure the quality of life at the national level and at the state level. Interestingly, one of the indicators is the average number of hours a state's residents volunteer. Other indicators include education, health, safety, and financial well-being. The United Way believes that commitments of time and resources to civic activities (including volunteerism) are a significant indicator of quality of life.
Books such as Dean Ornish's 1998 publication entitled Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Health Power of Intimacy and Allan Luks' 1992 book entitled The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others have helped to popularize the notion that helping others helps you as well. This area is under active investigation with a growing number of studies in sociological, psychological, nursing, and medical literature. A recent article entitled "Volunteers' Experiences Of Becoming Arthritis Self-Management Lay Leaders: It's Almost As If I've Stopped Aging and Started To Get Younger," concluded that there was a positive health-related value in volunteering. Another article from the psychological literature entitled "The Unintended Consequences Of Volunteerism: Positive Outcomes For Those Who Serve," concluded the college student volunteers in the study had benefited in areas of self-knowledge, academics, social awareness, personal growth, self-esteem, and personal efficacy.
Readers interested in exploring the literature of medicine, nursing, and psychology can search the MEDLINE database via PubMed and use "volunteerism" as a keyword or "voluntary worker" as a subject heading.
Conclusion
The wobbling of the major stock indexes, the slowing economy, the already critical shortage of skilled workers, and the unprecedented growth of the older population soon to be further expanded with the retirement of the baby boomer generation is causing great debate. Is this something to deplore or to welcome? People in their "third age" are already being used to help ameliorate both societal and business problems. Are additional volunteers really needed? A White House public service announcement on November 20, 2001 thanked the American people for their generosity since the September 11, 2001 tragedy. The announcement encouraged Americans to find more ways to make a difference in their communities through a range of volunteer and giving opportunities, including through the Corporation for National and Community Service.
While the effect of the baby boomer generation on volunteerism is unknown and the true economic value of volunteerism and its health-related benefits are still being debated and researched, the White House has made it abundantly clear that it is a good thing for the country. United Way, AARP, SLA, and countless other volunteer organizations would agree. Librarians, retired or still working, have an important role to play. 
To learn more about the benefits and opportunities in volunteering, listen to Michael Homan and Julie Macksey at SLA 2002 in Los Angeles.
For More Information:
· The Time Dollar Institute http://www.timedollar.org
· Friendly Favors http://www.friendlyfavors.org
· University of Texas, Austin. LBJ School of Public Affairs. Virtual Volunteering Project
http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/index.html
· American Hospital Association. American Society of Directors of Volunteer Services
http://www.aha.org/pmgs/asdvs.asp
· American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) http://www.aarp.org/volunteerguide
· Corporation for National and Community Service http://www.serve.gov/serv.html
· The United Way of America. The United Way State of Caring Index
http://www.unitedway.org/stateofcaring/index.cfm
· Ornish D. Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy.
· Luks A. The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others.
· Hainsworth J, Barlow J. Volunteers' Experiences of Becoming Arthritis Self-Management Lay Leaders: "It's almost as if I've stopped aging and started to get younger!"
· Primavera J. The Unintended Consequences of Volunteerism: Positive Outcomes for Those Who Serve. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community.
· National Library of Medicine. PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
· White House Public Services Announcement http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases /2001/11/20011120-2.html
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