Virtual World Language Resource - Austin Public Library TX
Austin Public Library Teen Virtual Volunteer Program - Stephanie was in the middle of recruitment for summer volunteers when the libraries closed due to the corona virus. She changed the interview questions to reflect the need for virtual volunteers and kept notes on the interviewees’ interests and skills. There was concern about the need to keep staff busy during telework, so she designed the volunteer assignments to function more like a teen program that would create work for staff. They already had functioning teen councils and there has been a lot of interest in teen-led programming, so she expanded on ideas that staff were already excited about.
To find supervisors, she emailed youth services staff with her ideas and asked if they had any projects to add. 8 staff members were interested in supervising, with 29 teens to place it came to 3-4 teens per supervisor. Interview notes about interests were used to create this role and these additional teams:
- Video Content Creators - https://getinvolvedclearinghouse.org/position-descriptions/virtual-teen-video-content-creator-austin-public-library-tx and bonus Planning Template for Teen Craft and Gaming Videos – https://getinvolvedclearinghouse.org/position-descriptions/planning-template-virtual-video-content-creators-austin-public-library-tx
- Bibliocommons Book Reviewers - https://getinvolvedclearinghouse.org/position-descriptions/virtual-teen-bibliocommons-book-reviewer-austin-public-library-tx
- Distance Puppet Show - https://getinvolvedclearinghouse.org/position-descriptions/virtual-teen-puppeteer-austin-public-library-tx
- Art and Lit Mag (loosely based on this: https://www.jocolibrary.org/teens/elementia
The teens work about 4 hours per week on their own schedules. They collaborate using Microsoft Teams, which is where orientation is be hosted and all documents live.