Volunteers dedicate over 1,000 hours to Library

Posted: Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 10:36 am

Although it's hard for most of us to imagine volunteering 5-6 hours a week on top of our busy personal schedules, it's nearly impossible to imagine doing this consistently, every week, for more than five years.

Yet that's what Janet Spray and Bob Hollinger have done year after year and, as a result, have contributed over 1,000 hours of volunteer service to Worthington Libraries.

Janet Spray

Janet's volunteer service started in 2001, several years before the Library had a formal volunteer program. It wasn't until 2003 that her volunteer time was actually recorded, and since then she has racked up over 1,900 hours working on the Worthington Memory Project and the Worthington News Index.

Prior to that, Janet worked on everything from removing rusty staples to transcribing thousands of pages of centuries-old documents for the Worthington Memory Project. Susan Allen, the library's Director of Technology Services, said, "Janet is always eager to do anything asked of her and does so with a smile."

Bob Hollinger

Bob started volunteering in 2005 for Worthington Libraries' Technical Services department, where he works primarily on interlibrary loans (ILL), a reciprocal program that gives patrons access to materials from participating libraries across the country.

Bob, who reached 1,000 hours of volunteer service in July 2009, is involved in all levels of the ILL process, from placing requests and sending out books to returning the books that our patrons have requested. Technical Services Manager Anne Reilly described him as "super reliable, conscientious and a pleasure to have in the department."

Both Janet and Bob have earned the library's highest volunteer recognition, the Sheila E. Vetter Award. Janet was the 2002 recipient, while Bob was honored in 2006.

Thanks to the hard work of Janet, Bob and every volunteer, Worthington Libraries is able to do more with less!

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