Navigating a new job can be difficult for both new and experienced librarians. How will you learn “the way we do things here”? Mentoring can play a key role in helping librarians find their way to becoming effective professionals.

 

Grand Valley State University currently has several formal mentoring programs for new librarians, in addition to informal mentoring. Our poster will discuss GVSU’s mentoring programs and the purposes they serve—acclimating to university culture, developing position-specific skills, and successfully participating in the scholarly process. We will include our experiences and perspectives as recent participants in these programs. This discussion will include insights into the various kinds of mentoring relationships and their impact on career success.

 

We will also include data from an informal survey of other Michigan university libraries and their mentoring programs. This is an opportunity to take a step back and see the big picture of mentoring at academic libraries.

 

Our poster will spark conversation about mentoring programs, our experiences, and the experiences of our audience. We hope to inspire conference attendees to continue this conversation at their home institutions and generate ideas for improving the mentoring process.