Librarian Peer Mentoring:Let Me Help You With That!

Jessica Adamick Paulina BorregoRachel Lewellen Annette Vadnais

• Why Mentoring Matters

• UMass Amherst Libraries

• History

• Logistics

• Mentoring Program Wiki

• Being a Mentee

• Being a Mentor

• Being both a Mentee and a Mentor

University of Massachusetts Amherst Librarians’ Mentoring Program

Evolution of Mentoring

Benefits to the Mentee

Benefits to the Mentor

Benefits to the Organization

University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries

Timeline

January 2008 February 2009

Goals

• Sharing skills, experience, and expertise

• Providing support• Expanding organizational

perspectives

• Developing contacts • Enhancing workplace

satisfaction and retention

Open to:

• New Librarians• Librarians

seeking guidance • Exploring a

career in librarianship

Logistics

• Voluntary • Rolling basis• Mentoring Committee• Confidentiality• Matches• Duration• Supervisor

Support

• Release time

• Mentoring Check-in

• Administrative support • Creates a culture of

mentoring

Being a Mentee

Being a Mentor

“Mentors are people who help others to reach their potential.”

Jane Cranwell-Ward, Patricia Bossons, and Sue Gover, Mentoring: A Henley Review of Best Practice (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), xiii.

Being a Mentor

…[my] mentors succeeded in doing what I, at first, did not know I needed – connecting me, as a librarian, to the larger community and culture.

…. instead of saying “Here’s what you should do,” she was more likely to say, “Let’s think this through together.”

Working with [my mentee] helped me to see what enormous gains can be made when colleagues allow themselves to trust each other, and to share ideas.

Being a mentor to [….] has been an absolute joy for me. I have gained much wisdom from our conversations and I often wonder who is really the mentor and who is the mentee? …. I look forward to our ongoing friendship throughout our lives."

Each of us has something unique to give to our colleagues. My participating in this structured mentoring “program” helped me to recognize that in myself; it’s something I now accept, gladly, as a professional responsibility.

Despite my early doubts, I found my mentor/mentee relationship with […] to be challenging and inspiring.

Simultaneously being a Mentee and a Mentor

“Mentoring is an ongoing process in which individuals in an organization provide support and guidance to others who can become effective contributors to the goals of

the organization.”John C Daresh, Leaders, Helping Leaders, 2nd ed.

Librarian Peer Mentoring:Let Me Help You With That!

Questions?Comments?

What’s Your

Mentoring Story?

jadamick@library.umass.edupborrego@library.umass.edurlewellen@library.umass.eduavadnais@library.umass.edu

Photo Credits

Slide 1: State Library of New South Wales / Theatre Royal chorus, Tamarama Beach, ca. 1938 / by Sam Hood Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries:

Slide 2: Library tower with other elements of campus / Buildings and Grounds / Item # RG150-0004683Slide 3: Faculty Groups / Library Staff 1934-1961 / Item # RG120-0006234Slide 4: Goodell Library / Buildings and Grounds / Item # RG150-0006233Slide 5: Library Staff 1934-1961 / Faculty and Staff / Item # RG120-0006250Slide 6: Library Staff 1934-1961 / Faculty and Staff / Item # RG120-0006247Slide 7: Book processing / Library Tower / Item # RG150-0004718Slide 8: Goodell Library / Buildings and Grounds / Item # RG150-0004399Slide 9: Goodell Library / Buildings and Grounds / Item # RG150-0004408Slide 10: Move in to Tower Ca. Summer 1973, Main floor / Library Tower / Item # RG150-0004660Slide 11: Volunteers from Football team carrying boxes of light bulbs in library stairwell during Mass Transformation,

1986-87 / Library Tower / Item # RG150-0004705Slide 12: Cindy Olken standing in library, pulling book out of stacks / Olken, Cindy, Student Trustee (1969/1970) Amherst Campus / Item # RG110-0003566Slides 13-18: Mentoring Program Wiki / http://www.library.umass.edu/wikis/mentoring/doku.phpSlide 19: Move in to Tower Ca. Summer 1973, Main floor / Library Tower / Item # RG150-0004665Slide 20: Librarian / Library Tower / Item # RG150-0004724Slide 21: Reflections on MentoringSlide 22: Goodell Library / Buildings and Grounds / Item # RG150-0004422Slide 23: Goodell Library Addition / Building and Grounds / Item # RG150-0004475Slide 24: South face of The University Library, [1970's] / Library Tower / Item # RG150-0002037

Allen, T. D., Lillian T. Eby, L. T., Poteet, M. L., Lentz, E., & Lima, L. (2004). Career benefits associated with mentoring for proteges: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), 127-136.

Bell, S. (2013, April 24). The next generation may not want your mentoring. Library Journal.

Gibb, S. (1999). The usefulness of theory: A case study in evaluating formal mentoring schemes". Human Relations, 52(8), 1055.

Freedman, S. (2009). Effective mentoring. IFLA Journal. 35(2), 171-182.

Goodyear, M. (2006). Mentoring: A learning collaboration. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 29(4), 52-54.

McDonald, J. (2002). Mentoring: an age old strategy for a rapidly expanding field: A what, why, and how primer for the alcohol and other drugs field. Adelaide, SA: National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), Flinders University of South Australia.

Zachary, L. J., & Fischler, L. A. (2009). The mentee's guide making mentoring work for you. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Zimmerman, E. (2013, June 10). The modern mentor is a listener, too. The New York Times.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.

References