Almost 35,000 hours of volunteering was completed in Merton, the highest in London.
Merton Libraries hosted a thank you celebration last week to mark the excellent contribution volunteers have made to its service.
The event, which took place during Voluteers Week, saw over 200 volunteers being awarded certificates of recognition by the Deputy Mayor of Merton, Councillor John Sargeant.
The celebration recognised the outstanding contribution that volunteers make on daily basis to improve library services and make them more reflective of the communities they serve.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the thank you celebration event for Merton Libraries’ volunteers,” said the Deputy Mayor.
“I commend everyone who has given their time to our libraries and helped make them a great place to visit, well done.”
Over 700 volunteers have contributed their time to one of the seven libraries in Merton, with 34,745 hours of volunteering being completed, the highest in London by over 10,000 hours.
The success of their approach has led to a pan-London campaign called Love Libraries Love Volunteering, with 13 other London boroughs already taking part.
Cabinet member for community and culture, Councillor Nick Draper, said: “Merton’s libraries are in the top five in London for customer satisfaction as evidenced in the Public Library User Survey results this year.
“I believe that this is down to the tremendous synergy between our army of library volunteers and our fantastic permanent library staff.
“Thanks to them and to the inspired leadership of our central libraries team, we have kept all our libraries open with extended opening hours, while at the same time costing residents less than any other library service in London.”
To find out more about volunteering opportunities in Merton Libraries, visit www.merton.gov.uk/libraries.
Photo courtesy of My name’s axel, with thanks.
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