Merton Libraries hosted a thank you celebration to mark the excellent contribution volunteers have made to its service.
Merton library volunteers 2014
Recognising the outstanding contribution that volunteers make on a daily basis to improve library services, the celebration saw over 300 volunteers being awarded certificates of recognition. The Mayor of Merton, Councillor Agatha Akyigyina presented special certificates to the volunteers who won awards for volunteer of the year, outstanding contribution, young volunteer of the year and volunteer team success.
The Mayor of Merton Councillor Agatha Akyigyina and Councillor Nick Draper present Carolyn Choong with the Highly Commended award for 10 years service and with the Outstanding Contribution Award
Volunteers undertake a wide variety of roles in Merton Libraries including meeting and greeting, supporting children’s activities, helping customers use the IT facilities and helping to promote libraries in the community.
Over 300 volunteers have contributed their time to one of the seven libraries in Merton over the last year with 37,193 hours of volunteering being completed, the highest in any London library service. The initiative is a partnership between Merton Libraries and the Volunteer Centre Merton (VCM) who are part of Merton Voluntary Council Service. This volunteering model has proven to be very successful and previously won the Team London ‘Building Stronger Neighbourhoods’ award for best practice in volunteer management and was also recognised as a Volunteering England good practice model.
Mayor of Merton, Councillor Agatha Akyigyina, said: ‘It was great to see so many volunteers being awarded for the value they add to our library service in Merton. I commend everyone who has given their time to our libraries and helped make them a great place to visit, well done.’
Cabinet member for community and culture, Councillor Nick Draper, said: ‘Merton’s libraries are one of the top in London for customer satisfaction and visits and this is down to the tremendous relationship between our army of library volunteers and our fantastic permanent library staff. Thanks to them and to the inspired leadership of our central libraries team, we have kept all our libraries open with extended opening hours, while at the same time costing residents less than any other library service in London. I want to give a big personal thank you to every one of our volunteers and staff members at Merton Libraries.’
To find out more about volunteering opportunities in Merton Libraries, visit www.merton.gov.uk/libraries.
Photos from the celebration can be viewed on our Flickr page.
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