Nottinghamshire County Council need more library volunteers

People aged 14 and over only have until 20th May to apply to be a volunteer with Nottinghamshire County Council to support this year’s Summer Reading Challenge in county libraries.

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.

17 year-old Jasmine Rand is looking to volunteer for the second year running and has encouraged other people to find out more about getting involved this summer.

She took part in the challenge last year, giving 14 hours of her time over six weeks to take part at West Bridgford Library. Jasmine, from Trent Boulevard, is currently studying her AS-levels at Rushcliffe School in the 6th form.

She said: “I wanted to do something constructive in the summer holidays after completing my GCSEs and had done a lot of revision for my exams at the library. The Summer Reading Challenge gave me the opportunity to put something back and I enjoyed building skills such as talking to all sorts of people in public during my volunteering role.

“I used to take part in the Summer Reading Challenge as a child so it was great to be able to help others last year and I am keen to take part again this summer. It is a great opportunity so well worth people finding out more about it and getting involved.”

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 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 24th July and 3rd September.

Application forms are available at: 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: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/summerreadingchallenge or follow #SummerReadingChallenge on Twitter.

Visit Nottinghamshire County Council’s website on the link below where people can find out more and apply to be a volunteer: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/volunteering/