Mind Over Mentor

Recently, I have been hearing a lot about the concept of mentoring, causing me to give some thought to my entry into academic librarianship and where I am now. I found that starting out was a series of really hard knocks. I'm not sure whether our student participants will want to hear this but, in general, library school provided a kind of cushion that I don't think prepared me for what would happen when I left.

First of all, I am completely in support of the mentoring programs that take place in library schools. In fact, I was very involved in developing Dalhousie's Professional Partnering programme and running it through the CLA student chapter. But, while I benefitted greatly from the contact I had with my professional partner, I eventually graduated and moved halfway across the country, making significant continuation of that relationship very difficult. Further to that, the Dalhousie professional partners take on new student partners each year (or every two years) and that occupies a lot of their time. While I know I could always call on my past partner for advice and support, it's not quite the same as having someone nearby.

I have spent the last few years feeling a bit in limbo because I really wasn't sure what to do with my career. I've had lots of ideas about where I want to go, but not much direction about how to get there. I hear lots of useful talk about "mentors", but how does one actually find such a person? It's pretty difficult to walk up to someone with years of administrative experience and say "Will you be my mentor?" the way you would walk up to a store window with your mother and say "Can I have a puppy?". Talking about mentoring is all well and good, but how do we make it happen once we leave the library school bubble?

It strikes me that our library associations could have a significant role to play in helping facilitate these kinds of relationships for new professionals. It would be nice to somehow identify senior librarians who are interested in and capable of working with new professionals to help them find the right path. While I often hear about workplace mentoring programs, I see a few potential problems with that model, things like a lack of experienced managers to go around and a possible appearance of favouritism that could ultimately harm a burgeoning career.

I would also love to see our associations playing a role in connecting experienced researchers with new and enthusiastic professionals who are interested in 'learning the ropes' in this arena. This could foster national and even international collaboration and increase production of solid professional literature.

So, my question is: how can we connect those new professionals who are looking for direction with the senior administrators who are willing to take on the challenge? And, in the meantime, how do you find someone you respect to play that kind of role? Even if you get up the confidence to pose the question, is it too much to ask? And, for any of the seasoned professionals out there, how would you react to being asked?

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CLA Library Research and Development Grants

CLA is offering Library Research and Development Grants totalling $1,000 to their members.

The objectives of the grant are:

• To support theoretical and applied research in the field of library and information services.
• To encourage and support research undertaken by practitioners in the field of library and information services.
• To promote research in the field of library and information services by and/or about Canadians

Deadline for submission of proposals is February 28th, 2007 !
For more information please visit http://www.cla.ca/awards/grants.htm

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EBLIP: Call for Editorial Advisors

Evidence Based Library and information Practice (EBLIP) is seeking 15 people to join its Editorial Advisory Team.

Applicants should be knowledgable and experienced in research methods, critical appraisal and the evidence based model of practice.

EBLIP's international Editorial Advisory Team consists of information professionals representing numerous areas of librarianship. Individuals from all library and information areas, such as school, public, corporate, academic, archival, systems, etc., are encouraged to apply. Advisors are expected to review approximately 4 manuscripts per year. Manuscripts include original research and Evidence Summaries. This is a two year committment.

Interested persons should send their resume, along with a list of 5 areas of interest/specialization no later than Friday, November 17th to Lindsay Glynn (lglynn AT mun DOT ca).

About the journal:
Published quarterly by the University of Alberta, this peer-reviewed, open access journal is targeted at all library and information professionals interested in an evidence based model of practice. By facilitating access to librarianship research via original research articles and evidence summaries of relevant research from the library literature, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice will enable librarians to practice their profession in an evidence based manner.

Please visit the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice web site (http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP) for further information about the Terms of Reference for reviewers, topic areas for papers, submission guidelines, scope, contacts, etc.

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A Shift towards Social Software

Underlying many of the recent entries and comments in this blog is this pervasive belief that in order to remain relevant to an increasingly technologically-advanced patronage, librarians need to rework and rethink their services. That is not to say, though, that we need to revolutionize our practices; rather, we simply need to marry modern information technologies to traditional, user-centred library philosophies (which is, alas, not as simple as it is Herculean). The question, then, is twofold: 1) what technologies should we – a pronoun that vaguely refers to, in this instance, all librarians – adopt, and 2) once we adopt these new technologies, how should we solicit the participation of the library's patrons?

1. Now, Reader, I am currently enrolled in a course that discusses the use of social software (i.e., blogs, wikis, etc.) in libraries, and, without fear of being biased, I am beginning to think, after some initial reticence, that such systems are an ideal means of bridging the gap between the library and the virtual and technological patron. Blogs, wikis, and online social networks (e.g., MySpace) are ideal because they inherently represent and foster collaboration, participation, and most importantly, community. Moreover, they effectively deconstruct the geographical limitations that separate remote users from access to the library and its collection. Social software, then, can, in an ideal time and place, enhance the librarian’s ability to satiate the technical needs of the patron(s).

2. But, the difficulty lies in the establishment of a social software system that incites active participation from the user community. It is one thing to set up a library blog, but it is another to foster a participatory community. So, how can we do such a thing? Alas, I do not know, but we can, Reader, take a look at some select libraries to see how they are currently using these technologies. The Lamson Library's blog catalogue is quite interesting; it seamlessly merges – stylistically and aesthetically – the library catalogue into the familiar domain of the web 2.0, which potentially eliminates much of the frustration information-seekers encounter when they attempt to navigate consistently unfriendly library catalogues. Moreover, the Butler WikiRef, which is an extension of Butler University Libraries, uses a wiki for mainly reviews, but it is open to everyone, (non-)student, which can greatly increase the scope and participatory-nature of the library community.

Yet, we must also be mindful of the individuals who cannot easily access the Internet and participate in these new resources. So, how can libraries effectively use these social software technologies? That, I suppose, is the question.

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Our Role as Academic Librarians

I'm involved in an interesting discussion at my workplace about our role as academic librarians and how we are perceived by the rest of faculty, the institution, and even our own coworkers and bosses.

The other librarians and myself are working on changing, or at least tweaking, our services as instructors in the library. Much of our discussion revolves around how we are moving away from BI and replacing it with IL sessions that foster critical thinking, problem solving, and higher level library research practices. We're finding, however, that other instructors in our institution have traditionally perceived the librarians as nothing more than tour-providers or babysitters to their students for an hour or so. Our IL instructors have made some inroads with a few programs, but even those that 'buy-in' will only go so far.

Another aspect of this problem is internal. As we strive to elevate our instruction to students (which will undeniably result in increased prep and instruction time) we are also being directed to offer basic computer instruction to the students and programs (you know, how to use Word, how to use a mouse, etc.). I can't quite reconcile this dichotomy, and strongly question how we can change these perceptions if we take one step forward and three steps back in our instructional role.

And so we struggle with our own perceptions and try to resolve the issue of our value to the institution and of our goals. I'd like to hear from others who are dealing with this issue of the perception of our role as academic librarians - and I know there are a lot of you out there!!

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