Library Worklife

Career Advancement

How Mentoring in the Library Profession May Help You

By Cecile Bianco

Mentoring is usually thought of as an older, seasoned worker helping a new worker to learn the ropes. The term comes from a story in Greek mythology: Telemachus, the timid son of Odysseus, was assigned a guide to help him through difficult times. The guide’s name was Mentor, and could appear in human form or in the form of the Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The concept stated to receive increased attention in the American business world in the 1980s and 1990s and has really taken off in recent years. In the classical sense, the person being mentored was called the protégé and the relationship between the two was long-term, perhaps for life. In the modern world, this has metamorphosed into short-term and situational mentoring. The person being mentored is often called the "mentee."

A definition of mentoring was given by Kram and Isabella in 1985:

Mentors provide young adults with career-enhancing functions, such as sponsorship, coaching, facilitating exposure and visibility, and offering challenging work or protection, all of which help the younger person to establish a role in the organization, learn the ropes, and prepare for advancement. In the psychosocial sphere, the mentor offers role modeling, counseling, confirmation, and friendship, which help the young adult to develop a sense of professional identity and competence.¹

It has been shown that mentoring is beneficial for the mentee’s career, to learn the politics of the organization, to be introduced to the system, to be guided through difficult assignments, etc. In a 1998 article, a mentoring program at the University of Delaware was described.² This program had been operating for five years at the time of the report. There were three tiers of mentoring: short term orientation (six months) of new employees (Level 1); assistance in promotion and career advancement of employees eligible for promotion (Level 2); and the most advanced (Level 3), mentoring for long term career advancement. Matching was done by the program’s coordinator based on her judgment. Level 1 lasted for 6 months, and had the following goals:

Orient the new librarian to the staff, and structure of the library.
Expand his/her networking base of people to include colleagues outside of his/her department.
Introduce him/her to the promotional process, professional activities and local professional associations.

The activities suggested to achieve these ends included introducing the mentee to each library department, explaining library policies, traditions and expectations, informing the mentee of services and activities in the local area, and arranging for the mentee to attend relevant university meetings as a visitor.

Level 2 was less structured and lasted from 6 months to a year. Its main goal was to assist the mentee with career advancement. The responsibilities of the mentor included all or any of the following:

Assist mentees in participating in conferences, committees and publishing opportunities.
Introduce mentees to colleagues, committee chairs outside of the university and inform them up with volunteer activities.
Assistant and critique the mentee’s dossier (This was the activity these particular mentees requested the most).
Assist with research technique.
Assist the mentee with "figuring out the system," such as who has what expertise.

Level 3 was the least structured and its duration was to be determined by the participants. Its activities included regular meetings, assistance with furthering involvement in professional organizations, assistance with publication, and possible referral to a mentor outside the system.

The results were good for the first two levels, and according to Munde, who wrote about this program, the second level mentees were all promoted!³

Why be a mentor? Many studies discuss about the benefits to the mentor. For example, at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science Program at Dominican University, the students in an introductory cataloging class were each given mentors—professional catalogers. The students would post their MARC records on the Internet and the mentors, catalogers, made suggestions for improvement. Kate Harcourt, one of the mentors, stated that mentoring was a positive experience for the mentors as they felt that it sharpened their cataloging skills.⁴

In an article written in 1996, Henderson discusses a mentoring project similar to the one described above.⁵ Students in a class called "Technical Services Functions" at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were each assigned two practicing technical services librarians as mentors for writing a term paper on issues facing technical services. At the end of the class, the students had learned much about cataloging and professionalism in general. The mentors were also asked about the experience and many reported that it was satisfying. They valued the experience for making them think in new ways about issues facing their libraries. It provided a good continuing education experience and made them feel connected to a wider library community. They were asked if they felt they had contributed to the education of a student and most said they had, with several saying the education was two-way. Finally, the mentors reported that the experience made them feel closer to the library school and have some feelings of nostalgia for their graduate school days.

Mentoring doesn’t have to always be one-to-one, between a professional and a student. Students can help each other and that is exactly how the mentoring program at the two universities in Western Australia was developed and reported on by Ann Ritchie and Paul Genoni.⁶ Twenty-three students met together with two facilitators in 11 two-hour, monthly sessions. The goals of these sessions included encouraging each other to be involved in professional organizations, share ideas, support each other’s career goals, learn mentoring and peer support skills, and encourage leadership development. The students gave presentations on the topic of their choice and received feedback from the facilitators. The facilitators modeled professionalism and mentoring for the students and mentoring skills, such as " giving and receiving feedback, supervision, goal setting, career planning and professional coaching. "⁷ In the end, it was found that group mentoring had a positive effect on career outcomes, that is, development of a curriculum vita, addressing selection criteria, interviewing skills, and exploring alternative methods of getting a job.

Mentoring may also be beneficial for the library profession as a whole because of the current and projected future rate of retirement of current leaders. Gail Munde suggests that libraries adopt a program of "organizational mentoring" to train librarians in leadership skills-skills they will need when the current leadership retires.⁸

The general consensus is that mentoring is a valuable tool for professionals to advance in their careers and to feel satisfied in their work life. The onus is on the individual librarian to volunteer his or her time for the good of the profession. It will probably also give the potential mentor some needed inspiration and meaningful interaction, and reduce the feeling of burnout. The potential mentor should have a positive attitude, a genuine wish to help others, and enough time to fulfill the responsibilities. Being a good listener wouldn’t hurt either.

Works Cited

K. E. Kram and L. Isabella, “Mentoring Alternatives: The Role of Peer Relationships in Career Development,”The Academy of Management Journal 28 no. 1 (1985): 110–32.
C. Wojewodzki et al., "Formalizing an Informal Process: Developing a Mentoring Program in a University Library [at the University of Delaware]." Technical Services Quarterly 15 no. 3 (1998): 1–19.
G. Munde, " Beyond Mentoring: Toward the Rejuvenation of Academic Libraries," The Journal of Academic Librarianship 26 no. 3 (May 2000): 173.
K. Harcourt et al., "Online Distance Learning with Cataloging Mentors: The Mentor’s Viewpoint," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34 no. 3 (2002): 293–98.
K. L. Henderson, "Electronic 'Keyboard Pals’: Mentoring the Electronic Way,"Serials Librarian 29 (1996): 141–64.
Ann Ritchie and Paul Genoni, "Group Mentoring and Professionalism: A Programme Evaluation," Library Management 23 no. 1/2 (2002): 68–78.
Ibid., 72.
Munde, " Beyond Mentoring.”

Cecile Bianco is an M.S. Candidate at Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science.