Do you love books?
Do you find yourself at the library often?
Are you looking for an opportunity to use your talents and expertise, to make new friends, or to learn new skills?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the Lancaster Public Library is looking for you to join our corps of dedicated volunteers! By sharing your time and talent you can make a big difference in the quality of library service in your community.
Explore our current volunteer opportunities (below) to see where you could help us better serve our communities.
Get Involved
Volunteer Application-Lancaster City branch
Volunteer Application-Leola branch
Volunteer Application-Mountville branch
Thank you for your interest in volunteering at the Lancaster Public Library; it would be great to have you join our team!
Volunteers must be at least 16 years of age or older, and all volunteers over the age of 18 must submit a Criminal Record Check and a PA Child Abuse History Clearance, as well as a fingerprint-based Federal Criminal History background check. If you have lived in PA for 10 consecutive years, rather than pursue the fingerprint based background check, you can sign a Disclosure Statement.
Please read the Letter to Prospective Volunteers to learn about the volunteer application process. For more information about required volunteer certifications (mandated by state law and our policies), please see our Volunteer Certification Procedure.
If you have questions, please contact Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, Leigh Kaliss, at 717-394-2651, ext. 101.
Current Volunteer Opportunities
We welcome and value the many contributions our Lancaster Public Library volunteers make each year. In 2015, our downtown library volunteers contributed more than 6,400 hours of time and talent!
Our volunteer opportunities range from teaching computer or ESL classes; assisting with children, adult, and teen programs and events; to shelving books, CDs and DVDs, and more. Whether you have a few hours a week or month, or if you’d like a more flexible commitment throughout the year, we welcome your help.
Summer Program Assistants
Animal Olympics, story times, bug catching and keeping, drumming, dance parties, crafts and more — you could even be the Hungry Caterpillar! We’re looking for volunteer program assistants June through August. Choose at least three programs (1 ½ – 2 hours each) that best fit your interests and schedule.
Computer Tutors for Adult Learners
Join our experienced volunteer tutors who teach vital computer skills to adults. Tutors work in pairs with up to 10 students per class for four-week sessions on Intro to Computers, Word-Levels 1 and 2, Excel-Level I, and Intro to Google. We currently hold only evening classes, but would welcome tutors with daytime availability!
English as a Second Language (ESL) Literacy Classes
To better serve our diverse community of learners from all over the world, we are looking for volunteers with previous ESL training to help with our beginner and advanced group literacy classes, Saturdays, 11am to 12:30pm. Help our team of experienced instructors develop the conversational skills of our adult students from Cuba, Nepal, Bhutan, Congo, India, and Bosnia, just to name a few.
VOLUNTEERING AT OUR LEOLA AND MOUNTVILLE BRANCHES
For current volunteer opportunities at Lancaster Public Library branches in Leola and Mountville, please contact Lissa Holland, at 656-7920 (Leola) or 285-3231 (Mountville).