My kneejerk reaction to this Thing is to post something along the lines of 'I can't afford to work for free, I have a family to support etc'. But when I thought about it a bit more I realised that I have been doing just that for many years, just not in a library context. Since I graduated in 1999 I have worked as an arts administrator for a local literature festival, set up a creative writing website, written features and reviews for poetry journals and arts blogs, proofread journal issues and sifted through slush piles, and of course written and performed poetry. All for free. I don't think of it as volunteering to get experience, though, so much as using my spare time to work on things that I love. And much as I love being a librarian, I've never loved it enough to take an unpaid position. Or maybe I've just been lucky enough not to need to.
My feeling is that it's better to take a low-paid position in a workplace or area that you're interested in and then put yourself forward for higher things than to work completely unpaid, but I've certainly encountered the 'lack of experience' Catch-22 in applying for professional positions and can see how volunteering could help break out of this. I think for myself I've just been unambitious/patient enough to hold out, but then I've been fortunate enough to have jobs that I really enjoyed even if they weren't advancing my career at any great pace.
Photo by CommunityFriend on Flickr
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