A volunteer-run library has a particular shape. Different people cover different days, nobody does it full time, and most volunteers are not technical. The library only works if the system is simple enough for any of them to pick up, and if they can all share it cleanly.
Two decisions make or break that, and both are about access.
Give every volunteer their own login
The instinct in a small library is to set up one account and share the password. It is easier to start, and it always causes trouble later.
A shared password means you cannot tell who did what, you cannot remove one volunteer's access without changing everyone's, and a single login often cannot be used by two people at once. When someone leaves, the only fix is a password reset that locks everyone out until they are all told the new one.
Separate logins solve all of it. Each volunteer signs in as themselves, you can add or remove one without touching the others, and several can work at the same time. This costs nothing in a tool built for it, and saves a recurring headache.
Keep the system simple enough for anyone
Volunteers are not trained librarians, and a tool built for trained librarians will defeat them. Anything that assumes MARC cataloguing, fines processing or a configuration step before you can lend a book is too much.
The jobs a volunteer actually does are small: add a book, lend a copy to someone, take it back. A good small-library system makes those three things obvious and hides everything else. The less there is to learn, the more reliably the rota runs, because the Tuesday volunteer does not need the Thursday volunteer to show them anything.
Borrowers stay simple too
In a high-trust library where the librarian knows everyone, borrowers do not need accounts. A borrower is a name attached to a loan. That keeps the desk fast for whichever volunteer is on, and means there is nothing for a borrower to register for before they can take a book.
If a borrower later wants to see their own loans from home, you can give them a read-only login, but it is never required and never lets them change anything.
Running a volunteer library with Your Book Nest
Your Book Nest is built for the volunteer rota. Each volunteer gets their own login to the same library, so there is no shared password and no all-or-nothing access. One person can own and set up the library, others sign in as themselves, and you add or remove a volunteer without disturbing the rest.
The day-to-day is deliberately small: add a book, lend a copy, return it. No MARC, no fines, nothing to configure before you start. Borrowers are just names until you choose to give one a read-only login. It is free for up to 100 books, and the home page is a live demo any of your volunteers can try with no sign-up.