Isolda Hogg, 55, was signed up as a volunteer at The Old Library by a friend. Ten years on, she is still there - and is one of its longest-serving and most dedicated volunteers.
Before... "My husband, three children and I moved here in February 1996 from the Far East. The plan was to stay here for a few years on our way back to England, but in 2000 my husband started up his own company... so here we still are.
It all changed when... "I was playing tennis with a friend in February, 2001. I hadn't even heard of The Old Library… then it was in a Portakabin in Jumeirah, behind a villa that was used as an art gallery. My friend had signed up as a volunteer and said, ‘You're not doing enough. I'm going to sign you up for a shift, too.' She wasn't someone you'd argue with, so I agreed.
"The library only opened from 10am until 12pm, and from 4pm until 6pm. We didn't have many people coming in... it was easy. I enjoyed it.
"By May 2004, we knew we would be moving to Ductac [Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Centre] and there was talk of upgrading the manual filing system to a computerised one. They were desperate for people to help with bar coding and cataloguing books. My youngest was finishing school and I had more time on my hands, so I offered to help.
As a result... "I started doing more shifts and, in the break between opening hours, we would bar code. Although there were several of us helping out, we had about 14,000 books to catalogue. It was quite a job... we worked exceedingly hard.
"We opened at Ductac in October, 2006, and went live with the computerised system the following April. In the months leading up to the system change, we were coming in from 8am until 6pm every day, including Fridays.
"My family were a bit miffed, but I am one of those irritating people who, if they start something, just wants it finished, so I persevered. When we went live with the new system, we had some teething problems. We were learning on the job and we were lending books out to the wrong people... It was a learning curve.
"We soon realised our fantastic new location meant we had a higher demand, and we had to meet it. We decided to open from 10am until 6pm, six days a week. Suddenly we needed a lot more volunteers. The volunteer co-ordinator was leaving and I was asked if I would take over. I had some reservations... my computer skills were very basic. So I teamed up with Joanne, who is good with computers, so we could do the job together.
Since then... "I have been volunteering from 8am until 6pm, Sundays to Thursdays - bar a few hours on Thursday mornings when I play bridge. Two teams of us do book buying one Saturday a month, and occasionally we have to go in on a Friday, too. But I love it. I've gone from having a spoilt expat life of tennis, coffee mornings and a lot more bridge to doing something I really feel is worthwhile. To see a child excited over a new book, or an adult say they always find books they like... it's lovely.
Moving on... "Now we have nearly 20,000 books. We are trying to upgrade our software, get things on to email, and put our catalogue of books on to the website.
"We have just under 2,000 family memberships, which puts the real membership at about 4,000, I suppose. When we moved to Ductac we had 400 members and just one man who came in regularly. We get a lot more men coming in now… and we even have a male volunteer.
"We have students volunteering for their Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and old volunteers coming in for a catch-up. Mums bring in their children for story time... we watch them grow up and go off to school and then mum is bringing in the next sibling. It's a living community... and it's real teamwork to keep it all going. I'm sure at some point one of the younger volunteers will like to take it over. But until then, I'm happy to do it."
If you would like to volunteer, visit www.theoldlibrary.ae.
Got an inspirational story to share? Email aquariusedit@alnisrmedia.com.
