From Hands to Insights: Elevating Volunteers from Helpers to Evaluators in Library and Cultural Institution Activities

Abstract

In the context of the general inadequacy in the evaluation of activities held by libraries and cultural institutions, we have explored a volunteer recording team relying on "Operation Stars"(a city-wide cultural volunteer service project).

By reshaping the role of volunteers, we have transformed them from activity helpers into evaluators capable of producing in-depth insights.

Volunteers are embedded in the activity sites in three capacities:

(1) As participatory observers, they continuously write observation notes to record and present the real process of the activities; (2) As embedded investigators, they obtain first-hand reader satisfaction data through questionnaires and interviews; (3) As continuous recorders, they have followed up 648 activities in total, carried out image and text recording, and constructed growth archives that goes beyond quantitative data. These observation notes and growth archives meticulously depict the real situation of community cultural activities in Guangzhou, identify the highlights and experiences that were not fully recognized in previous evaluations, and provide valuable and in-depth evaluation materials for libraries and cultural institutions.