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CUL Mentorship Program

Kornelia Tancheva

Did you know that currently there are forty-two participants in the mentorship program at CUL?

Have you been to one of the various panels and discussions for mentors and mentees so far this spring?

Would you like to know what is still to come?

Are you curious about the program itself?

If so, read more…

The mentorship program at CUL, administered by the Committee on Professional Development (CPD), began in 1998 as a program that informally paired new professionals with more-experienced librarians and archivists to foster a sense of belonging to Cornell and to help new librarians succeed as professionals. Between 1998 and 2002 more than thirty librarians participated.

In 2000 the CPD conducted an evaluation of the program and gathered information on other library mentorship programs. In 2002 co-chairs Angela Horne and Michael Cook gave a presentation on the CUL Mentoring Program at the 2002 Spring Conference of the Western New York/Ontario Association of College and Research Libraries. The program’s history and guidelines, as well as literature and presentations, can be found online.

In fall 2004, after analyzing the evaluation results, the CPD began work on reviving and reshaping the mentorship program. The major changes included:

  • close collaboration with CUL Human Resources to ensure administrative continuity and sustainability,
  • working with both librarians and other staff who are interested in making librarianship their profession,
  • expansion of the content,
  • moving toward a “communal” understanding of the program.

The reconceptualized content resulted in three different mentorship “tracks”:

  • Orientation Track for new librarians and for staff interested in librarianship as a career,
  • Promotional Track for assistant librarians and senior assistant librarians who are up for or close to promotion,
  • Publication and Research Track for professionals interested in expanding their publications and research or improving their presentation skills.

The call for participation resulted in twenty-one mentor/mentee pairs in all three tracks.

Although the individual, one-on-one mentoring dimension of the program is still a very important component of mentorship, the CPD also felt that the program needed social cohesion. Consequently, the CPD focused on the communal aspects of mentoring by providing learning and social opportunities for the participants as a group. Since the initial orientation meeting for all participants in January 2005, there have been three large-group discussions or presentations on different topics:

Promotional Panel
In February Susan Markowitz, from Library Human Resources, and four recently promoted librarians—Eli Brown, Leah Solla, Elaine Westbrooks, and Richard Entlich—discussed respectively the administrative guidelines and their personal experiences of going through the promotion process. The informal discussion illuminated some of the challenges in the process and offered strategies for overcoming them.

Research and Publication Panel
In March four of the most well known CUL researchers with extensive publication records—Ross Atkinson, Phil Davis, Anne Kenney, and Nancy McGovern—shared their thoughts and experience in research and publication with the mentors and mentees. Questions that were addressed included how to identify research-worthy areas, how to balance research and the demands of one’s day-to-day job, whether there is an overwhelming proliferation of library science literature and publications, etc.

Career Stallers and Stoppers
In April Linda Gasser, from Organizational Development, presented on strategies that result in failure or success on the job and some factors that may have a negative impact on career progression and success. She also offered strategies and suggestions for avoiding or better managing these factors.

One more presentation on statistics for librarians and, specifically, sampling is planned for May. Phil Davis will discuss the theory and practice of sampling using real library examples. The spring semester will culminate with a social event for all mentorship program participants.

The Committee on Professional Development is very interested in hearing new ideas or suggestions for both sustaining and further developing the mentorship program. If you would like to share your thoughts or volunteer to participate, or if you want more information on the program itself, contact the Mentorship Program coordinator, Kornelia Tancheva, or any of the other members of the CPD: Eli Brown (chair), Camille Andrews, Linda Bryan (ex officio for Human Resources), Medha Devare, Casey Westerman, and Ira Revels.

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