Working as a Volunteer at the OPL

Last winter, I really wanted to utilize some rare free time by getting back into volunteering. Being a lifelong lover of libraries (I still possess every library card I've had since I was a child), I wanted to volunteer at an Ottawa Public Library branch. I proposed a publication-focused writing group at the Rosemount branch and it was the best thing I have done this year. The library staff is so helpful and just a joy to work with, especially Kelly at the Rosemount branch. The people I met through the writing group were kind and inspiring, so much so that we still keep in touch with each other about our writing. I started the Rosemount Writing Collective with the goal of providing a welcoming space for people who are working on specific writing projects. As the volunteer "leader", I did not provide any writing advice. All we did two times a month was get together at the library, write, and share our writing with each other. It had to have been the magic that libraries all over the world are imbued with that made the experience so memorable for us all, as we really didn't do anything special. Libraries hold the space for ordinary people to dream bigger and hope for better things.

I'm not volunteering at the library this fall due to work obligations, but I am excited to go back to doing it. I want to walk in and see the comforting, familiar faces of the staff. I want to see patrons of different kinds, some reading and some resting because they know they are in a safe space. I want to go back and be a part of bringing some meaning to the lives of those who come to the library, and my own. Until then, I will keep checking out all the wonderful media the OPL provides for the community, and lingering a little longer by the shelves in the hopes of taking some of that library magic home with me.