Volunteer Info - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Thank you for your interest in volunteering for the 2009 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, to be held at UCLA. The Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: Bring together the people who create books and the people who love to read them. The Festival was an immediate success and has become Southern California's major literary event. The fourteenth annual edition of the Festival of Books will be held on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26, and we would love to have you join us as a volunteer.

Last year over 130,000 people attended the Festival, which featured almost one hundred ticketed author events, children’s storytelling, poetry readings, book signings and nearly 500 exhibitor booths. The Festival’s success has been due in part to the generous assistance of volunteers who welcomed attendees, assisted with registration, staffed author events, supervised book signings and much more.

Volunteers will receive free parking, shuttle service from the parking lot, and lunch.
We will provide t-shirts for volunteers to wear and keep after the event. (Please wear khaki, or beige pants or shorts.)
The majority of volunteer activities require being on your feet for most of your shift. Please wear comfortable shoes.
Volunteers must be 18 years of age or older. You cannot bring children under the age of 18 with you during your shift.

You may sign up for as many shifts as you wish for one or both days. If you're flexible as to when you can work, sign up for multiple shifts and check the box indicating you'll work any ONE of the shifts indicated. If you'd like to work multiple shifts, check the box indicating you'll work ALL shifts selected.

If you are a volunteer with strong leadership qualities, you might be interested in our Bookworm program. This program rewards volunteers who demonstrate leadership and commitment above and beyond the norm. Bookworms will be selected from those volunteers who agree to serve as Area Captains for an entire day of the Festival. Bookworm roles include managing panel rooms, taking charge of Information Booths, supervising volunteers at Booksignings and other leadership activities. In addition to receiving a special shirt to wear at the Festival and other perks, Bookworms will be recognized in the Festival of Books program. While most Bookworms are veteran volunteers for the Festival of Books, we will still consider your interest if you are a first-time volunteer. If you wish to be considered as a bookworm for the first time, in addition to filling out the online application linked below. please email a resume that tells us a bit about your work experience. If selected, you will be notified by mid-March.

You may also indicate if you're interested in working Registration (which requires arriving 90 minutes early for a shift), or being an Author Escort (which requires patience, strong legs, a knowledge of the campus layout, and the willingness to stay as long as 2 hours beyond your scheduled shift ending time, in case the author is still signing books). All of our other volunteer assignments are assigned onsite on the day of event - no need to pre-select!

Note: We now have over a thousand volunteer signed up for this year and have reached capacity. At the present time we are no longer accepting sign-ups to volunteer for 2009.

However, if our staffing needs increase, OR we have a number of volunteers notify us that they must cancel, we WILL notify anyone on our volunteer waiting list of the opportunity to sign up for this year.