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
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
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
Adopt-A-Shelf Job List - Cedar Rapids Public Library IA This is the Job List for volunteers who "Adopt-A-Shelf" at the Cedar Rapids Iowa Public Library. A related document is the Adopt-A-Shelf volunteer… more	Job Specific Volunteer Training	Shelving	2020
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
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
GenerationOn Projects, Ideas and Resources Looking for possible library volunteer projects for kids, teens and/or families? Check out GenerationOn's projects and resources to get some… more	Millennials	Teens, family volunteering	2018
Can We Reject a Volunteer? What do you do when someone applies to volunteer and you realize they will not work out? How can we justify rejecting anyone who steps forward and… more	Interviewing Volunteers, Staff Training	Fire, reject, complaints	2018