Are you a new librarian or library school student with lots of unanswered questions about the profession? Are you a veteran, card-carrying librarian and YALSA member wanting to share the knowledge you have gained over the years? Well, then, you’ve come to the right place.
As an ALA Emerging Leader, I am one of just over one hundred new librarians selected to work on various projects for ALA. My group is designing a mentorship program for YALSA and AASL. We will design the program, present it at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington D.C. in June, and after that, it’s up to YALSA and AASL to decide whether or not to implement the program.
Since no librarian works in a vacuum, we are seeking some feedback. This will both strengthen our final paper and presentation and offer YALSA and AASL some real-life feedback on some possible responses to a mentorship program.
I ask that you simply answer the following questions (or at least the ones that apply to you) and send your answers to me at sarah.krygier@gmail.com by Monday, April 8.
Here are the questions:
1) If you are new to young adult or school librarianship (in the field for less than five years or still in library school), how interested would you be in having a mentor to orient you to your profession and to your professional organization?
2) If you have been a librarian for longer than five years, did you have a mentor? Do you think you would have benefited from participating in a formal mentoring program?
3) If you have been a librarian for longer than five years and active in either YALSA or AASL for three years (active means any and all of the following: participation in association listservs, blogs, etc.; attendance at association conferences; participation on an association committee, board or official member group), how interested are you in sharing your knowledge with a new librarian?
4) What are your general thoughts on mentorship programs and their place in the field of libraries?
Thank you so much for your help with this! I will be sure to let you know if and when this program gets off the ground so that you can be involved! You can even track our progress on ALA’s Emerging Leaders Wiki.
Sincerely,
Sarah Krygier
Emerging Leaders 2007
http://professionalteen.blogspot.com
(posted by Beth Yoke)
