Library volunteers

Volunteers have been the lifeblood of the Library in recent years, rescuing valuable at-risk collections and making so many things possible. In early 2004 a number of volunteers joined the Library’s long-time sole volunteer, Sunday Brent.

The volunteers’ projects grew out of staff frustration with the disastrous way that the Library’s photographs were housed - in shoe boxes, folders, envelopes, filing drawers or sitting in loose piles in seven or more different locations. Too many years of understaffing and other priorities. Since then we have had a number of teams and individuals working on a variety of projects. They have amazed and gratified the staff who have, because of their help, been able to concentrate on other things.

The Photographic Team

Evelyn Shervington and Gwenda Levy, and sometimes Rosemary Blakeny have painstakingly sorted through thousands of photographs and negatives and rehoused them in subject based archival folders. They have documented and barcoded them and prepared them to the point of cataloguing. Friends of The Gardens pilot funding digitised some of the images.

When further funding and server space become available, this photographic collection of the history of the three Gardens and the Domain will be available online through the Library’s catalogue.

The Art Team

Margot Child and Pamela Bell waded through a mass of material, sorting, documenting them and rehousing them in archivally-sound boxes, sleeves and folders. This included many small collections and individual works, as well as the massive collection of botanical illustrations of Margaret Flockton, Mary Maiden and others. Funding will be sought for digitising these images and making them available in the Library’s catalogue.

Oral History

John Pearce, has developed the oral history project from the ground up and recorded many interviews of past and present staff, of people who lived within the grounds and other volunteers working at the Gardens. Working with Dr Barbara Briggs and Tony Martin (Research Associates) the oral history project will continue to grow with more interviews, an audiovisual presentation and contributions to the 2016 history of the Gardens.

Individual Volunteers

Many individuals have also done extraordinary work. Diane Calder has provided invaluable assistance in a very wide variety of ways, including the compilation of an integrated journal list, between employment elsewhere over many years. Lois Stewart has also been a stalwart volunteer coming in once or twice a week to do the shelving and other basic chores, including sorting out many years of Trust brochures and newsletters and storing them in archival folders.

Many other volunteers have given us many days of their time to undertake a host of small tasks and projects, assisting staff or freeing staff to work on urgent essentials and the bigger picture projects that have transformed the Library in recent years.

Many of our volunteers have been ex-work experience students gaining more experience before finding work and occasional visitors coming in whenever time is available. Collectively they have undertaken partial stocktakes of the journals, reshelved journals after the upheaval of the back corner project, replaced archivally unsound file boxes, reshelved and cleaned the rare book collection, completely overhauled the contents of two plan presses, relocated the contents of 28 filing cabinets, reboxed part of the microfiche collection, covered new books, covered old leather bound volumes to hold them tgether and stop the cascading red rot. The list of tasks undertaken is endless!

Register your interest

Recruitment for specific Botanic Gardens Trust programs occurs at different times of the year and any vacancies will be listed on this website as they arise. In the meantime we suggest you consider registering your interest with the Judy Blood, our Librarian, listing your particular field of expertise or skills (e.g. librarian qualifications, library experience, typing skills, photographic skills, conservation skills, etc.) and the kind of assistance you are interested in providing. Some of the projects and tasks which need work are listed on our Projects page.

Lois
Lois Stewart