Employment skills can't be effectively developed in the classroom, but
volunteer-based training and experience have had an effective impact on instilling
employment skills in graduates, increasing their career prospects, and learning
how to organize their academic and social life more effectively. As a result of the
volunteer mixing the learning experiences and practical experience resulting from
the volunteer tasks in the library, which contributes to the acquisition of many
necessary skills needed for learning and work. In this context, this research aims to
study the volunteer program in the academic libraries and its importance in
providing the volunteers with the necessary skills to meet the needs of work
requirements ,and how they can be used to fill the gap in professionals in
academic libraries in order to meet the library's need to provide effective services
on and off campus.
The researcher used the descriptive analysis method to study the
volunteer program in the academic library at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal
University describing qualitatively and quantitatively. The research community
consisted of the volunteers in the academic library - And it was carried out in the
academic year 2017/2018. The total number (34) volunteers, who responded to
the search instrument correctly, of (54) volunteers; Up 63% of the total number of
volunteers this year.
The results of the study revealed that the highest experience and skills
gained during the participation in the library volunteering program were: (Skills of
searching for information sources, communication and customer service skills,
teamwork skills, social skills and human relations skills) which needed for work.
This study can be considered as a guide to explain the role of academic libraries in in
providing volunteers with the practical, scientific and life skills required to meet
the needs of the work. As well as benefiting from them in filling the gap of
professionals to improve the services of the academic library in the university. Finally the researcher concluded with a set of recommendations and suggestions based on the
results of the research.