THE YEAR OF THE VOLUNTEER, 2001 - a celebration of the older volunteer.

What does an Austrian sports teacher with a pharmacist husband have in common with a retired English civil engineer with a librarian wife? Answer: they are both volunteers.

This year saw Suffolk Libraries & Heritage joining in an European exchange programme of volunteers. Under the auspices of the U.N. and the Institute for Social Infrastructure in Frankfurt am Main, volunteers from 8 European countries were invited to participate in 2-3 weeks of volunteering work in another country. Conferences held in the capital of each country set the scene, gave the background to volunteering in that particular country and prepared the volunteers for their work. Seminars at the end of the period received feedback in preparation for a full European evaluation.

Suffolk received Christi Stadier from Frastanz in Austria. Christi had been running a library in her small town (pop. 6,000) and also participating in other community work at the town centre, organising a reading group, bringing the elderly and the young together in innovative ways. In Suffolk, she became part of the Home Library Service under the watchful eye of Cliff Copping, the Ipswich area Home library Service manager. Christi observed the interviewing of new borrowers, helped the volunteers on several different routes around the county and participated fully in the work. (We were lucky she spoke such good English!).

We were also able to send her out for the day on a mobile library and to be part of an Open Day for volunteers in the Bury St. Edmunds area, during which she gave a talk about her Austrian work. The Volunteer Bureau gave her an insight into another aspect of local volunteer work, together with a morning with the WRVS, assisting with Meals on Wheels. Christi also spent an afternoon helping with children's storytime in Ipswich library.

On the social side, she took part in the CDG sponsored walk round 8 Norwich libraries; attended a film on East Anglian archives, a concert in Bury and experienced the delights of several Suffolk pubs and restaurants. She was also taken to Cambridge for the day, which coincided with Freshers Day and the great procession and was given a tour of Cambridge Central Library.

In Austria, on the flip side of the exchange, Greville Bickerton (yes, my husband the only volunteer who was able to go) spent a fortnight experiencing the library and volunteering world of Frastanz. Helping in the library, teaching primary school children English nursery rhymes, discussing the intricacies of how to play cricket with secondary school students, helping to run a children's toy market, organised and run by the children themselves, were just some of his experiences. He, too, was wined and dined by his hosts and driven up and down the Alps in the locality. He speaks with much affection of his hosts, as we do of Christi and many friendships have been forged.

What have we gained from the experiences? It is clear that the ethos of volunteering in Austria and the U.K. is quite different. Many of the Austrian essential services are run by volunteers, including all libraries except for the largest cities. They have no home library or mobile library service. The habit of both book buying and book borrowing does not seem to be as great a part of life in Austria and Christi was very envious of our libraries. She has taken many ideas back with her and will put these forward as new initiatives in her province.

For our part, Greville has returned with some very interesting ideas on providing services which link the elderly and the young together. These include reading groups, social events and delivery of library books. Such voluntary services help towards keeping the elderly in their own homes and relieving the pressure on social care services. He was also very impressed with the level of generosity of hospitality and friendship extended to him and we hope that Christi feels the same.

The full evaluation of the European exchange will take place in the New Year. The U.N. must decide whether it wishes to continue the experiment in the light of everyone's experiences. Whatever the decision, it is clear that a culture of volunteering is increasing in the U.K. Early retirements and redundancies during the last few years have seen a community of younger volunteers coming forward. Although there are obvious difficulties in management terms and care should be exercised that their work does not undermine that of the paid staff, their work should enhance the library service, as there are so many facilities we cannot offer with the current level of staff. Cambridgeshire has recently appointed 'Meeters and Greeters" at the Cambridge Central Library and Suffolk is using volunteers to assist with the Summer Reading Game for children. The L.A. will be producing guidelines on the use of volunteers in 2002. We hope that these will be useful and effective for future years.

My thanks to all those who helped make the exchange programme such a success. We all enjoyed it and gained from the experience.

Diana Bickerton
LA Eastern Branch

(Spring 2002 Easterner)