Taller de liderazgo

Research Review

Gina

September 20, 2009

Review of Research Article

In the article “Revitalizing a Mentoring Program for Academic Librarians,” three associate professor librarians at Kansas State University (KSU) revise, document and assess improvements to their 20 year old mentoring program.  Prior to the reorganization of the program, mentorship at KSU libraries was largely unstructured, focused on the tenure process and mandatory for all tenured librarians who served as mentors.  The Professional Development Committee (PDC) of the Libraries Faculty Association of KSU transformed the program into one focused on the general professional development of the mentee, matching him or her with a volunteer mentor with similar interests.  Additionally, the PDC developed written guidelines and recommendations for mentoring activities, adding structure and formal expectations to the program.

The authors evaluated the improvements to the program by proctoring an extensive questionnaire to mentors and mentees regarding their profiles, the concrete outcomes of the relationship and the general effectiveness of the mentoring.  The authors conclude that the feedback indicates the improvements to the program were successful.  More mentors volunteered to participate in the program in the following years and mentees agreed or strongly agreed that the mentoring was effective.  Finally, the documentation produced by the PDC regarding guidelines and expectations for the mentoring relationship was so helpful that mentors were unwilling to return to the minimum structure of the original program.

This article presents a valuable contribution to the literature on academic libraries for several reasons.  First, the authors Diana Farmer, Marcia Stockham and Alice Trussell all have administrative responsibilities related to collection management, faculty liaison work and library user instruction in their areas of specialization which span from social sciences and humanities to sciences and engineering.  Two of the authors, Stockham and Trussell have written previously on academic library administration and services. Second, the article includes an extensive bibliography on mentoring in academic libraries that is up-to-date and relevant.  Third, the appendix includes the documentation developed by the PDC, which should be very useful to any library considering implementing a similar program for their new librarians.  This documentation includes criteria and responsibilities for mentors, the responsibilities and expectations of mentees, the activities that the PDC encourages the pairs to engage in, and, importantly, the continuing role of the mentees supervisor within the mentoring program.  Overall, the authors have done a great job summarizing the salient aspects of a successful mentoring program and have delivered useful tools for other libraries to use.

Bibliography

Farmer, D., Stockham, M., & Trussell, A. (2009). Revitalizing a Mentoring Program for Academic Librarians. College & Research Libraries, 70, 8-24.