LIBRARIES have been at the forefront of Dorset’s Big Society long before David Cameron even started to extol the virtues of the idea.

Volunteers can currently be found at three of the county council’s libraries, extending their opening hours up to six hours a week.

At Beaminster 13 volunteers provide five extra hours, at Burton Bradstock 10 volunteers provide six extra hours and at Puddletown 15 volunteers provide four extra hours.

The initiative has been closely monitored by many other councils, all keen to see how the idea works in practice. And with savage funding cuts looming and the government’s enthusiasm for the Big Society idea, this interest will surely grow.

Tracy Long, Dorset’s library services manager, said: “Library services has always had a very long history of using volunteers. Back in 2006/7, when there was all the discussions around closing libraries, we came up with the option of communities taking on the responsibility for the building and extending the opening hours with volunteers.

“There are lots of different models as to how you can use volunteers. We looked into the various options and decided that this model of using volunteers to extend already existing hours was the right one to take to staff and trade unions.

“Because of the way we use volunteers in Dorset we do attract interest from other library services that are also currently exploring the options as to how they can deliver the service more efficiently."

At Puddletown, volunteers receive training but are not allowed to use the library computer system. They focus on re-shelving books and finding books to send to headquarters.

Mike Chaney, who heads the team of volunteers, said: “We could see the logic of closing our library from the council’s point of view. The trouble of servicing it and circulating all the books and so on, it’s a bit of a chore for a small community.

“But the point we were making is that the villages suffer if you remove all the community facilities. We have one pub left, at one time we were under threat of losing our post office, village life is very much under threat. This is a library but also has a social benefit.

“We thought originally we would work alongside librarians but instead the library is either open with a professional librarian or with volunteers – they don’t overlap. We are not, in any sense, replacing trained staff.”

One Puddletown resident who benefits from the service provided by volunteers is Heather Bull, a frequent visitor to the library with seven-year-old son Oliver.

“Because of my disability, I can’t always travel around to other libraries,” she said. “Besides we know most of the people that volunteer here and it’s nice to catch up.

“This place is a meeting place as well as a library. It’s really important socially for a lot of people. I can almost guarantee that there will be somebody here that I can talk to and that would go for a lot of elderly people too.”

The idea has undoubtedly worked well at Dorset’s smaller libraries but would the scheme work in larger ones?

Derek Henderson, of the Friends of Colehill Library, said: “We know from our experience in the past that there are all sorts of obstacles in the way.

“Three years ago, the question arose and we got over 100 people interested in volunteering. When we started to explore how they could be used the county council came up with all kinds of requirements in terms of health and safety.

“If this Big Society is going to work and if we’re going to rely more and more on volunteer involvement then somehow that issue has to be addressed.

“People we talk to want to get involved but it has to be made easy for them. They won’t do it if it’s a hassle. And so many services are already reliant on volunteers, where are the extra ones going to come from?”