Meeting a Need: Piloting a Mentoring Program for History Librarians

UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Brittany O'Neill (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/

Abstract: Mentoring is a mainstay of librarianship. Professional organizations can offer specific guidance for librarians through mentoring programs. This article describes the development and assessment of a mentoring program for history librarians by the Academic Librarians Committee of the Reference & Users Services Association’s History Section. The study examines the findings from a survey of participants. Respondents indicated overall that the program was beneficial. Mentors and mentees who interacted through web conferencing tended to report higher satisfaction. The responses suggest improved practices for future iterations of this program, including evaluating the process for pairing mentoring matches, creating an onboarding process, providing more structure for communication, and considering the potential of peer mentoring. These findings could be applied to other mentoring programs for librarians.

Additional Information

Publication
https://doi.org/10.5860/llm.v36i2.7524
Language: English
Date: 2022
Keywords
mentoring, history librarians, professional organizations, library science

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