Trumpèd volunteer

Beryl makes the mistake of telling her superiors that a young lad has asked if it's possible to spend a couple of hours every Saturday doing a bit of voluntary work in the library. Ah well...

• Is he doing it as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme? No? Ah...
• He's not doing it as school-organised work experience? Dear me...
• There are better ways of starting a career as a librarian. Voluntary experience doesn't really count at library school.
• We'll have to check with Humane Resources to see how we stand with volunteers.

Ball kicked into the long grass.

A few points:

• We don't have any of these questions when volunteer tutors come in to do Silver Surfer sessions.
• Nor when volunteers do local studies work.
• A lad who volunteers to get some Saturday work onto his C.V. rather than loll around watching telly or hanging around street corners should be supported.
• Who gives a flying stuff whether or not voluntary work counts for anything in library school? There are other audiences out there in the job market, many of which proffer better prospects for hard work than do library school.
• Is it any wonder front-line staff get their work done in secret?

Sigh...