Be a volunteer

If you are available to donate your time to our book sales or projects, Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA) can use your help. We rely on a team of over 300 volunteers to run our bookstores, sit on our Board of Directors, sort books, and otherwise help us perform our work as a fundraising friends group.

We are lucky to have an incredible team of dedicated, passionate volunteers who want to give back to the libraries that they love.

If you’d like to join our team, contact Marie Petersen with your availability and we can talk about how you can help.

Friends' Bookstores and Book Sales

Most of the Friends work with book donations to sort, shelve, and sell books at our stores and special sales.

Our first bookshop opened in 1984 in downtown Ottawa. Our Friends’ Volunteer Bookshops are operated by local committees that report to the FOPLA Board of Directors and are located all over the city of Ottawa. 

Self-Serve Ongoing Book Sales are located in the east end of Ottawa and serve a largely francophone community. The Friends carry out all the regular operations of a bookstore in a smaller space where customers pay for book purchases at the circulation desk. The processing, sorting, stocking, shelving, and banking are done by the Friends, and Library staff collect payment for books during regular library hours.

There are two types of Specialty Book Sales carried out by the Friends. The Mini-Mammoth Used Book Sale is held monthly throughout the schoool year at the James Bartleman Archives and Library Materials Centre and we sell collectibles and rare books at two of our bookstores.

Local Committees

Local committee representatives communicate with each other and act as a liaison between board members and bookstore managers. They share ideas, plans, and successes, and oversee the bookstores in their districts.

Board members

The Friends’ Board of Directors carries out and coordinates advocacy efforts, performs financial services for Local Committees, and allocates funds raised towards any activity or program that it deems appropriate.

The Friends currently have board members with the following titles:

• President
• Vice-president of Operations
• Vice-president Advocacy and Public Relations
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Member-at-large
• Past-president

Please let us know if you’d like to share your expertise.

“I love working with the other volunteers. We take pride in managing our community’s Friends store, and we get a boost when we see how much money we’ve raised for the library.”

“Why do I volunteer with the Friends? I wanted to volunteer somewhere for a few hours each week… and I love books!”

Volunteer applications:

• Bookstore

• Committee or Board

Volunteer Handbook

Volunteers needed:

Book sorters in Nepean:

The Friends of the Ottawa Public Library are looking for volunteers to sort and pack books at the Central Archives and Ottawa Public Library Materials Centre (100 Tallwood Drive). If you would like to volunteer to support the Ottawa Public Library and are available Mondays, Tuesday, or Fridays between 9am and 5pm, please contact Shirley Felker at TallwoodFOPLA@gmail.com.

Some lifting is required. Knowledge of books or online selling is an asset. Willingness to participate in monthly Saturday sales is appreciated.

Board Members:

Available positions:

• President
• Vice-president Operations
• Vice-president Advocacy and Public Relations
• Local Committee Representative – Ottawa (1) and Greenboro (1)