We have more volunteers than people who actually do work. This is not to be denigrating to anybody, because I think that people volunteer with the best of intentions. They probably enjoy it. Like I said, I think that people volunteer with the best of intentions to do work. Especially in a virtual volunteering system, it's not like volunteering in a physical library, where you meet people, and talk with people.
People volunteer at their library because they want to help it out and because it's a social outlet.
We don't have that social thing for people who are volunteering to answer questions. We also make presentations at conferences, and we talk about the service and let the audience know that the opportunity exists to volunteer, and gain experience doing digital reference. We collect business cards and give people passwords to the system and get them trained, and then some of them actually come in and volunteer. Yes, in the perfect situation volunteers would spend a month or two answering IPL questions and learn what it's like, and then go off and set up their own service in their own institution. It is perfectly good for the mission of the IPL for people to come and be active for a little bit and then disappear, because that's probably a good thing.