Jill Rossi has been volunteering with the Austin Public Library for more than 20 years. She spends her time volunteering in the Customer Access department, helping with centralized shipping where she helps staff get library materials ready to be distributed to all the branches. This is no small task, since the Austin Public Library – in addition to the Central Library and the Austin History Center – has 20 library branches, a Recycled Reads bookstore, an upcycling facility, and a Mobile Library fleet that includes a Bookmobile, a Book Trike, and a Bike Trailer all of which share books and other items from the collection, information, and online resources with the community.

In helping to supply all these locations with Library materials, Jill has helped by receiving new items which includes unboxing, verifying receipt of ordered items, labeling them with call numbers and locations, attaching and activating security, and applying mylar covers. She then helps with sorting the materials to be sent out to branches. There is no library material processing activity that she has not participated in.

Paul Lopez is the volunteer coordinator for the Austin Public Library. He says of Jill, “She has been an awesome asset and reliable volunteer! She has been volunteering in the department longer than some of her library colleagues have been alive – that’s how valuable she has been to APL.”

She knows the ins and outs of her role and can spot a problem and knows when to ask a question. She has handled so many items in the collection that it’s safe to say she might have touched more materials than anyone else in the system!