Nottinghamshire County Council appeal for library volunteers

The county council manages an annual summer holiday library challenge where children are encouraged to read up to six books and earn rewards on the way.

It is a great way to boost children’s literacy skills during the holidays and is part of a national campaign managed by The Reading Agency.

Last summer was the most successful challenge in the county with 10,000 children taking part and more than 100 volunteers gave up some of their spare time - a total of 1,618 hours - to support the campaign and help children discover the pleasure of reading.

The county council manages an annual summer holiday library challenge where children are encouraged to read up to six books and earn rewards on the way. Volunteers are needed to help children discover the pleasure of reading and it is a great way to boost literacy skills during the holidays and is part of a national campaign managed by The Reading Agency.

Last summer was the most successful challenge in the county with 10,000 children taking part and more than 100 volunteers gave up some of their spare time - a total of 1,618 hours - to support the campaign.

The county council has now formally launched its volunteer search for this coming summer and people have until May 20 to register their interest. It is looking for people aged 14 upwards, to be able to commit around 12 – 15 hours (averaging around two to three hours a week) between July 24 and September 3.

Coun John Knight, Committee Chairman for Culture at Nottinghamshire County Council said: “Last year Nottinghamshire enjoyed its biggest ever response from young children and their families to the Summer Reading Challenge so we are keen to build on that success.

“We also had a great response from people who were keen to volunteer their time and support children who were taking part. Again, we are keen to build on this and hoping to hear from people who want to take part this year.”

The following libraries are recruiting for Summer Reading Challenge volunteers:

Forest Town Library, Hucknall, Kirkby, Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, Mapperley Southwell Library, Sutton, Warsop Library.

Trainee teachers, young people seeking to develop their CV and employability skills and many book lovers within local communities have benefited from the volunteering opportunities in recent years.

The tasks involved are:

• Sharing their own enthusiasm for reading by listening and chatting with children about the books they read during the challenge

• Explain to children and their parents/carer how the challenge works

• Helps register children for the challenge and hands out stickers and rewards when they complete various progression stages

• Keeps the challenge records up to date by completing and filing registration cards.

Those who are selected to take part will receive full training before starting and colleagues will also be on hand to answer questions.

Benefits include gaining new skills and confidence and experience of working with children, meeting new people and working as part of a team.

Volunteers will also be able to claim for reasonable travel costs to and from the library and will receive a certificate for taking part which will be useful to add to their CV.

The theme of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge is Mythical Maze which challenges children aged four to eleven to find their way around a labyrinth that introduces them to fantastical creatures from the world of legend and mythology, collecting stickers of each character along the way.

Fill out an application form and send it to back to us by Tuesday 20 May.

Application forms are available by visiting www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/libraryvolunteers or you can contact Carolyn Gallagher on 07944 428 951 or email [email protected]. The closing date is Tuesday 20 May.

Find out more about the Summer Reading Challenge by visiting www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/summerreadingchallenge or follow #SummerReadingChallenge on Twitter.