The main purpose of school libraries is to support teaching and learning activities in each school and the libraries also provide educatory role by managing the data and developing multimedia materials needed for education.
This study is aimed to improve the service of school libraries with suggesting the efficient ways of managing the volunteer librarians.
For this, we reviewed 200 questionnaires from 25 elementary schools which utilize the voluntary service to bolster the short of professional librarians in Gwangu from Oct. 5thto Oct. 16. Survey subjects were volunteers’ personal back-ground, service types they are providing, satisfaction level (of volunteers), and ask their suggestion on how to make best of the volunteer works.
Most of the volunteers were parents of attending students of the school and they are participating the volunteering work with the hope that they can guide their children to develop a reading habit or to share the educational information among volunteers. Survey also shows that more budget allocation for utilizing the volunteer works is needed along with the expectation that the volunteering will have positive effects.
From the analysis, this study suggests efficient ways of managing the volunteer librarian works as below.
First, there should be continuous investment in libraries facilities. Of course, we cannot deny that there has been quantitative growth with the investment but still volunteers feel inconvenient to use some facilities.
Secondly, more information on educating and forming a quality reading habit should be provided as most of the volunteers are parents. They have high willingness to participate in programs in which they can get more information so seminar or lecture can be good options.
Thirdly, facilitate the interaction among the volunteers. Many participants were enrolled through the recommendation of other volunteers and they are looking forward to having active interaction amounting parents. Providing more chances of meeting among volunteers such as reading club through which volunteers can gather and promote fellowship can facilitate the volunteer works and allure more volunteers.