April is National Volunteer Month and the Free Library of Philadelphia is especially grateful to the thousands of volunteers who have donated their time to help make our library system shine. Over the past year, more than 2,000 volunteers have donated more than 100,000 hours of their time thoughout all 77 departments and neighborhood libraries across our system. Their generosity has provided nearly $2.9 million of labor and support in meeting our mission to advance literacy, guide learning, and inspire curiosity.

Volunteers at the Free Library wear many hats: They assist with our award-winning Author Events Series; they give tours of the historic Parkway Central Library; they help with administrative tasks and physical efforts like landscaping neighborhood libraries; they lead informal conversation groups for individuals looking to practice learning and speaking English; and they help bridge the digital divide for older adults looking to master technology—just to name a few things! In short, we don't know what we'd do without our wonderful volunteers, so we want to say a very big THANK YOU!

The Free Library is always looking for volunteers who have a passion for service and a love of literacy and learning. Learn more about the many volunteer opportunities available at the Free Library of Philadelphia and read more about the volunteer services program in a feature story from our Off the Shelf magazine archives.