Closing Date: Friday, 31 May 2013
12 month volunteer placement with Harare City Library
Damage to the education sector in Zimbabwe over the past 10 years has affected urban literacy levels and the nation's reading culture (Urban ZIMVAC 2011). The lack of a good and easily accessible public library facility only serves to maintain this vicious cycle. Harare City Library is a very important yet neglected public service. It is the foremost public library in Zimbabwe's capital city and serves students of all ages and incomes, researchers and members of the public from all walks of life. As the volunteer senior librarian, your role aims to support the development of Harare City Library as it seeks to develop its services for the people of Zimbabwe.
What does the role involve?
In this role as senior librarian, you'll be working with Harare City Library, and its 4 suburban satellite libraries, to provide development support and advice. To do this you will:
plan and manage a programme of library services in the city of Harare, including financial and people planning
make recommendations on plans, policies and programmes for consideration by the Library Management Committee
develop a professional staff team through recruitment, training and implement a process of regular reviews
co-ordinate the library's services with those of other local library authorities and services
seek and obtain grants and other sources of funding for the library
work with community organizations to enhance the services and activities of the library.
Skills, qualifications and experience required
You'll have a university degree in Library and Information Science, or a recognised equivalent, with 5 years professional library experience in a senior administrative capacity. You'll have good working knowledge of public library administration, library operation regulations, customer service, budgets and people management. You'll have excellent communication skills, with the ability to share recommendations with a wide variety of people in a sensitive and flexible manner. You'll be a skilled people manager, able to advise, train and coach others as they build on existing professional knowledge. You'll have problem-solving skills and be able to adapt professional expertise to a context where understanding of markets and infrastructure are limited.
And the rest....
You'll be based in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, and will travel around Harare to visit the four other libraries connected to the City Library. We'll ask you to commit to at least 12 months to make a sustainable contribution to our development goals. In return, we'll provide you with extensive training before your placement, and our financial package includes a local living allowance, return flights, accommodation, insurance and more. When you return to your home country, we'll support you to resettle.
How to apply:
To find out more about volunteering with VSO visitwww.vsointernational.org/volunteer and apply using the following reference ZI0778/0001/0001 in your application. On average it takes a minimum of 4 months to go through the application process so apply now for departure in 2013.
