by Belle Peñaranda
Volunteers who visit the Council's resource library at the James Lee Community Center might assume that librarian Jill Zetts is a paid part-time staff member. After all, she is here many days, quietly working to keep the library in order. It's probably a surprise, then, to discover that Jill is actually one of our most dedicated volunteers. She has clocked an amazing 1,231 hours in just over 3 years here at LCNV—that is an average of 34 hours a month. According to the 2009 Virginia average hourly value of volunteer time of $20.93/hour, Jill has saved the Council about $28,000!
Born and raised in Wyoming, Jill has called Northern Virginia home for the last 30 years, Falls Church specifically for the last 20. She and her husband Mark have two children: Andrew, who is in his third year at Virginia Tech studying mechanical engineering; and Valerie, who will be attending her first year at Villanova to study nursing. Jill herself was an electrical engineer in a time when there weren't many women in that line of work. However, when her children were born, she stopped working to raise the family. "I like to do things one at a time. I'm proud to say that I am not a multitasker," Jill says with a smile. In her spare time, she enjoys embroidering baptism bibs for her church and reading.
I talk to many potential volunteers on the phone each week, but I vividly remember the first time I spoke with Jill on the phone in the spring of 2007. I'd only been at the Council a few months at that point, and had not yet recruited a librarian, so this was new territory for me. Jill struck me as a soft spoken but articulate woman. She displayed an impressive degree of initiative right away, setting up a time to come see the library, which she did-and then proceeded immediately to get to work.
Jill comes in to the library, which boasts close to 2,000 titles, about 2 or 3 days a week. On a typical day, she keeps track of books that have been checked out, puts new acquisitions on the shelf, updates the online catalog (www.librarything.com/catalog/lcnvlibrary), and makes phone calls to volunteers with overdue reminders.
"The former LCNV librarian, Jane [Larsen], used to say that you need a bit of a compulsive personality to do this," Jill jokes. "It's hard work keeping track of so many titles, and you have to do everything manually. But I love volunteering here. This is such a nice place to come in and work."
If you think you would enjoy working in the LCNV library, please contact me at volunteers@lcnv.org. Jill would be delighted to meet with you and introduce you to the library. Jill, Carol Smith (another volunteer librarian), and the Council would love to have your help.
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