| Thank You, Reference Librarians |
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| Written by Bookie Balogh |
 For the first time, the September Volunteer of the Month was a group rather than an individual. The powers-that-be decided that the entire group of people who give their time to staff the reference desk in SL should be acknowledged and honored. Hypatia Dejavu (real life: Samantha Thompson) told this reporter that they had been looking over the possibilities for a VOM. They very much wanted to recognize the work being done at the reference desk, but when they realized how much work was being contributed, and that it would be impossible to recognize everyone individually, they decided to make this a group recognition.
As an organized group, the reference service will be four years old in December, making it the oldest continually operating volunteer group in the CVL. According to Dejavu, “for many they're not only the first contact point with the library but also the first place many choose to volunteer.”
There is no such thing as an ‘average volunteer.’ Most are librarians, but many are not; all serve well and competently, and everyone’s effort is greatly appreciated. They tend to be middle-aged, but some are students and others are post-retirement. Most are in the continental USA, but many are from Europe and a few have been from Australia. There are currently 82 members in the group, with about half of them active at any one point in time. The desk is staffed about 42 hours a week, but Dejavu is always looking for more volunteers to provide even broader staffing of the desk. Reference is one of the core services of the CVL, and the head of reference is one of the three major stakeholders in CVL.
In the future, as more volunteers are available for reference, plans are to increase the roaming reference function, where volunteer reference staff ‘swoop down’ on people who are visiting the Information Archipelago, and ask if they can be of any assistance. Currently four people have taken on this function officially, although it is suspected that many reference volunteers assist people on an informal basis when they are inworld and meeting and talking with people. As Dejavu says, “Many people note that SL can seem very empty sometimes and it's really nice to have someone there to help and to talk to.”
The CVL administration is extremely grateful that the reference volunteers are willing to give their time and expertise to making the SL experience a better one. According to Dejavu, “They're an amazing group. I can't praise them enough. I think that the work they do as volunteers exemplifies what makes library people special. They give time every week for the joy of helping others.” Thank you, reference volunteers all!!
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