CPD23 Thing 11

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Thing 11: Mentoring
I am a b-i-g fan of the mentoring process, having experienced it from both sides. I find it extremely useful and a great way of learning new things (whether I’m the mentor or mentee).

My first experience of being a mentor was in the final year of my undergrad degree. I signed up to the university’s Peer Guide scheme where I was assigned 5 first year students to act as a mentor to. I was quite shy at the time, so I didn’t make as much of it as I should have, but I enjoyed what I did. However, retrospectively I do feel a tad guilty that I didn’t do a better job for those kids.

Two years ago, I acted as a ‘buddy’ to a new school librarian. She’d never worked in a school before and felt a little lost, so I volunteered to help. We discussed all manner of topics relating to school libraries, and looking back, I think we both got quite a bit out of it. It felt good to share knowledge/resources and help somebody feel less alone. It also helped beef up my chartership portfolio!

And that brings me to my experience of being the mentee, rather than the mentor. One of the requisites of chartering is that you have a mentor. I chose one from the list provided by Cilip and it really helped me find my way through chartership. I found the process confusing but having a mentor at hand who had already been through it really helped clarify things.

During my very first library post, 8 years ago now, one of the senior assistants took me under her wing. She taught me lots of things about libraries and we developed a close relationship. Averil Pearson was the focus of a Library Hero column I wrote for Cilip’s Library and Information Gazette.

Having recently changed sector, I am nobody’s mentor; I don’t have enough knowledge and experience in this field. I don’t have a mentor myself at the moment, though I must admit to practically stalking a fellow FE librarian I know, bombarding her with questions and emails when I first started my new job! After a few weeks she seemed reluctant to offer assistance; I think I may have imposed too much, which can be a potential problem with mentoring relationships – unofficial ones especially.

Simply put, I find both sides of the mentoring process to be one of my favourite ways of learning new things. As well as increasing knowledge it can help bolster confidence, and if you’re shy like I am that’s a pretty big thing. Although I am not part of such a scheme at the moment (officially or unofficially), I do hope it will one day feature again in my career.