1. +
Part 3
Volunteering in
your Country

2. +
Good Practice for Managing Volunteers
 Devise mini-projects with a definite life-span
 Prepare tailored job descriptions for recruitment of volunteers
 Take into account the volunteer’s requirements as well as the institution
 Evaluate the extent to which volunteers can be offered training and, in
some cases, responsibility
 Make sure relevant staff members are are available for shadowing and
supervision
 Log what volunteers do and the hours they commit (e.g. via a signing in
book)
 Evaluate volunteer performance through written reports and formal
meetings
 Outline any training needs and assess the contribution of volunteers

3. +
What should institutions offer their
volunteers?
 The opportunity to contribute
 Induction and training sessions
 A manageable workload and appropriate responsibility
 A sense of belonging and appreciation
 Confidentiality of personal information
 Insurance within the workplace
 Refund expenses incurred for transport and food (often dependent
upon number of hours worked)

4. +
Legal Obligations for Institutions
 Reimbursement
 Health and Safety
 Insurance:
 Data Protection
 Copyright
 Complaint’s Procedure
 Risk Assessment
‘Volunteers: Your Legal Obligations’ Museum Practice, November 2010:
http://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-practice/volunteers/15112010-volunteers-legal-
obligations

5. +
Working with Volunteers –
adhering to UK Legislation
Institutions must consider the following UK
legislation when recruiting and working with
volunteers
Equal Opportunities Policy
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Children Act 1989
Disability Discrimination Act 1995

6. +
Volunteering Online –
Crowdsourcing Projects
What is crowdsourcing?
‘The act of taking a job traditionally performed by
a designated agent (usually an employee) and
outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large
group of people in the form of an open call’
Jeff Howe, Wired Magazine

7. +
Types of Crowdsourcing Projects
facilitated by Cultural Institutions
 Correction and Transcription: E.g. correcting and/or transcribing outputs
of digitisation
 Contextualisation: E.g. adding contextual knowledge to objects
 Complementing Collections: E.g. pursuing objects to be included in an
exhibit or collection
 Classification: E.g. gathering descriptive metadata related to the objects
in a collection
 Co-curation: E.g. collaborating with non -museum professionals to create
exhibits
 Crowdfunding: E.g. pooling money and other resources together to
support efforts initiated by others
(Oomen, J. Aroyo, L. (2011) Crowdsourcing in the Cultural Heritage Domain: Opportunities and Challenges)

8. +
Examples of Successful Online Volunteering
Projects in Cultural Institutions
What different types of crowdsourcing are
reflected in the following examples?
 Old Weather (National Maritime Museum, National Archives
etc.) http://www.oldweather.org
 UK Soundmap (British Library) http://sounds.bl.uk/Sound-
Maps/UK-Soundmap
 What’s on the Menu? (New York Public Library)
http://menus.nypl.org
 Citizen Archivist (American National Archives)
http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/