Perth's smallest bookstore gets almost 300 volunteer applications after social media plea blows up

A call for just four volunteers at one of Perth’s smallest bookshops has attracted almost 300 applications after the plea blew up on social media.

London Court Books , a completely volunteer-run second-hand bookshop operated by the Museum of Perth and located in Perth’s iconic London Court, put out a call for new volunteers on August 7 after four positions became available.

The response to the post reached far across Perth, with the Facebook post getting more than 1100 likes, almost 100 comments and more than 350 shares.

Perth History Association chair Reece Harley said the organisation had expected only a handful of people to respond but instead had an “overwhelming response”.

“We were hoping to get a couple more volunteers but have received over 290 applications,” he said.

“Bookshops are a pretty interesting business. It’s a little bit hard to run them these days with the popularity of online reading and people being so busy with work.

“But we really think that there is a very passionate community of book lovers, and it just seemed appropriate for us to establish a bookshop in London Court.”

The huge response has prompted the bookshop to look beyond its original four vacancies, with applications being invited for other opportunities to volunteer with the bookshop and the Museum of Perth, such as cataloguing books, back-of-house operations, online sales or volunteering at the Museum of Perth’s gallery.

“We’ll be letting people know if the shifts are available and letting them know that we’ll be keeping their names and details on our volunteer list for when future opportunities come up,” Mr Harley said.

Mr Harley said the response showed how strongly people connected with the idea of working in a bookshop.

“I think everyone’s probably harboured the idea of a simple life, reading and selling books and working in a cute little shop like London Court, surrounded by all that history and all of that character,” he said.

The shop currently has about 20 volunteers, ranging from retired teachers and engineers to university students, with some volunteering for a single three-hour shift a week and others working multiple days.

The tiny shop is stocked entirely with books donated by the community, with volunteers also responsible for cataloguing and processing donations, managing online sales, building shelving and keeping the shop running.

Mr Harley said the shop had become a respite for people from the busy CBD.