'I enjoy being a young volunteer, I communicate with the public and children - it's fun. I am gaining communication skills and it boosts my confidence.'

We support and encourage volunteering.

We help librarians and others offer great opportunities to volunteers in their local area. These include volunteering opportunities in libraries, Chatterbooks reading groups in schools, Reading Activists events in young people's centres and the Six Book Challenge literacy programme in prisons.

Volunteering is not about replacing professional jobs, but complementing them. For example, last year nearly 4,000 volunteers (of which 3,000 were young people) helped librarians give children taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge fantastic reading experiences.

Volunteering is great for libraries and others running reading programmes because they get:

• Extra capacity to deliver activities
• Support for specific projects
• Stronger community links

Volunteering on reading projects is great for volunteers because they get:

• Opportunities to make a positive contribution to their community
• Training and accreditation opportunities
• Greater confidence, social skills, employment opportunities and literacy and IT skills

Volunteering is great for readers because they get:

• Opportunities for one-to-one support for reading and IT activities
• Opportunities to get involved in delivering library services in an equal and reciprocal partnership with professionals

To find out more about our work with volunteers please contact Sue Jones.