There are many opportunities to volunteer at the Houston Public Library!
Join the Board of Trustees:
The HPL Board of Trustees (BoT) meets on the last Monday of each month, except July and December, at 7 p.m. in the main library. The BoT consists of 4 to 8 Trustees that are elected from the library members who are at least 19 years of age and 1 District of Houston appointed representative. Each Trustee must sit on at least one Board Committee – Building, Finance, Fundraising, Personnel, Policy/Planning or act as the North Coast Library Federation representative on the federation Board of Trustees. Committee work is minimal. Regular Board meetings typically last less than one hour. Our Annual General Meeting is held in February and is followed by a brief regular meeting to elect officers and appoint committees. For more information on becoming a Library Trustee, please drop by and ask for the informational pamphlet: So You Want to Be Library Trustee, or ask to speak to our Library Director, Sara Lewis.
Pages & Circulation Clerks:
Students interested in gaining work experience are welcome to apply for the position of volunteer Page. This entails re-shelving materials that have been returned by patrons and moderate cleaning duties such as dusting and tidying shelves. Pages may also be asked to assist with displays in the library, organizing special collections, and may be trained to assist with processing new material and/or basic circulation duties. To apply, please stop by the library and request an application form. (We do not accept resumes.)
Anyone interested in learning how to be a Circulation Clerk is welcome to apply by requesting an application form in person. (We do not accept resumes.) Circulation Clerks are responsible for accurately checking material in and out to patrons, registering new patrons and renewing memberships, collecting fines and other front desk income revenues and recording them accurately and re-shelving materials that have been returned by patrons. Volunteer Circulation Clerks may be trained to assist with processing new materials for circulation, process Inter-library Loan and Interlibrary Connect requests and process new materials for circulation. Trained volunteer Circulation Clerks may be given the opportunity to enlist as paid, on-call staff members to cover for holidays and sick leave as required.
Please note that all volunteer Page and Circulation Clerk positions are scheduled so that we can ensure there is ample work ready for them. As with paid staff positions, volunteer Pages and Circulation Clerks must submit a complete HPL application form and be interviewed prior to starting work. Application forms are available upon request at the front desk.