Training Materials | Get Involved! Resource Clearinghouse

Learn more about best practices in volunteer recruitment and engagement, and how to get the results you need.

NOTE: These are examples from public libraries and should be reviewed and modified to ensure fit with local policies and culture.

Title	Keyword	Tags	Year
Writing Accurate & Useful Volunteer Position Descriptions This one hour Get Involved webinar was presented on March 25, 2020 by Jennifer Bennett, CVA, Senior Manager of Education and Training with… more	Engaging High Impact Volunteers, Capacity Building	Position Descriptions, job descriptions	2020
Writing Accurate & Useful Volunteer Position Descriptions - Slides These slides were used in the March 25, 2020 one hour Get Involved initiative webinar: "Writing Accurate & Useful Volunteer Position Descriptions… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	job descriptions, Position Descriptions	2020
Volunteer Ethics & Risk Management: Should You Bring Volunteers In? This blogpost on ethics and volunteer liability and risk management was prepared by Toby Johnson during the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020. It serves as… more	Staff Training	Risk Management, liability, Liability Waiver	2020
Social Media & Blog Content Guidelines for Staff & Volunteers - CMBCL, OR This document is used by Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Libraries to provide guidelines for staff and volunteers who are assisting with community… more	Engaging High Impact Volunteers, Job Specific Volunteer Training, Staff Training	social media, blog	2020
Engaging Pro Bono & Skills-Based Volunteers Webinar This one hour webinar was presented for a library audience by Jennifer Bennett, CVA, Senior Manager of Education and Training at VolunteerMatch on… more	Engaging High Impact Volunteers	Skilled Volunteers, Pro Bono, Webinar	2020
Online Book Sales & Research Training #1: Bookbinding Styles - Mesa AZ The Mesa Public Library in Arizona utilizes volunteers to support their huge online booksale operation. This Training Outline is one of three shared… more	Job Specific Volunteer Training, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	online booksales	2020
Want to Write a Volunteer Program Annual Report? Here's How to Start VolunteerMatch blog guest post by Elisa Kosarin. This post originally appeared on Twenty Hats. Your volunteers tell a compelling story. It’s time to… more	Capacity Building		2019
Skills Based Volunteering Toolkit - Common Impact Since 2000, Common Impact has supported nonprofits in effectively utilizing skills-based volunteering to build internal capacity to better serve the… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	Skills Based Volunteers	2019
Playing by the Rules: Creating an Effective Volunteer Handbook. This one hour archived webinar was presented by Jennifer Bennett of VolunteerMatch in conjunction with the 4 state Get Involved: Powered by Your… more	Volunteer Handbooks	policies, handbook	2019
Walking the Walk: Engage Library Volunteers in your Volunteer Engagement Program This 1-hour webinar by Jennifer Bennett of VolunteerMatch (recorded on August 29, 2019) focuses attention on how to engage volunteers in the work of… more	Engaging High Impact Volunteers, Capacity Building	Skilled Volunteers	2019
Do's and Don'ts of Supervising Library Volunteers This July 2019 article from Public Libraries Online provides an excellent overview of working with volunteers in large and small libraries.	Capacity Building, Staff Training	supervision	2019
Arizona's Buckeye Library Shares it's Experience with Get Involved In this 6 minute video, Krista Cornish, Buckeye Library's (AZ) Volunteer Engagement Coordinator shares her library's experience and best… more	Capacity Building, Engaging Staff and Unions		2019
Controlling Complaint Conversations This quick read provides quick tips to being a better listener and sorting through ‘provable facts’ from emotions and hearsay when a volunteer… more	Staff Training	Complaint, problem, unhappy	2019
Beware of These 6 Trends Lurking in Your Volunteer Program This brief article from November 2019 delineates troubling trends about volunteer engagement programs gleaned from the most recent Volunteer… more	Capacity Building		2019
Shelving with Dewey - Illinois This 1 hour self-paced course from LibraryU, a program of the Illinois State Library and the regional library systems is archived by WebJunction. It… more	Job Specific Volunteer Training	shelve, book shelving, shelver	2019
Recruitment Success Story - Flagstaff Arizona In this 4 minute video, Claudine from the Flagstaff library talks about her successes in finding a volunteer to serve as her assistant volunteer… more	Capacity Building, Engaging High Impact Volunteers	online booksales, Book sale	2019
Volunteer Appreciation Guide is Volunteer Appreciation Guide is a free resource developed by Wild Apricot to offer tips and advice for volunteer programs just getting started… more	Capacity Building	recognition	2019
Bibliography on Volunteer Engagement Bibliography and Web Resources on Volunteer Engagement.	Capacity Building, Staff Training	Baby Boomers, bibliography, Lehn	2018
VolunteerMatch Re-Posting Tutorial Reposting is THE MOST IMPORTANT step you can take to get your opportunities noticed on VolunteerMatch. Why? Because VolunteerMatch searches are… more	VolunteerMatch Tools and Resources	VolunteerMatch	2018
Revitalizing Library Volunteer Engagement One hour archived recording of a WebJunction webinar: Library volunteerism is evolving. Gone are the days of looking for tasks to keep your… more	Engaging High Impact Volunteers, Engaging Staff and Unions, On-line Volunteer Recruitment		2018