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Volume 26, Number 2, Summer 2004

ASCLA AD Hoc Mentoring Task Force Recommendations

Elizabeth Ridler, Brooklyn Public Library and Chair of the Ad Hoc Mentoring Task Force

Why mentor?

• To develop appreciation for ASCLA and add value to ASCLA membership
• To recruit and retain ASCLA members
• To train new ASCLA leaders and plan for orderly leadership succession
• To educate ASCLA members with new skills and knowledge
• To enhance careers and expand professional network for ASCLA members
• To prevent burnout for current ASCLA leadership and renew the challenge and commitment for ASCLA members as professional librarians
• To increase librarian diversity to match their diverse library communities

The ASCLA Ad Hoc Mentoring Task Force recommends that:

1. The ASCLA Board establish a standing ASCLA Mentoring Committee
2. The ASCLA Mentoring Committee set up and coordinate an ASCLA virtual mentoring program which will pair mentors with mentees
3. The ASCLA Board approve draft criteria, purpose, mentor/mentee pairing forms, mentor/mentee best practices fact sheet, and evaluations
4. The ASCLA Mentoring Committee work with the Century Scholarship and the ASCLA Publications Committee to mentor Century Scholars to write irregular Century Scholar monographs that ASCLA will publish (proposal under discussion with J. Radioli, President, LSSPS)
5. ASCLA get permission from experts listed in the ASCLA Directory of Peer Consultants and Speakers to refer mentees to peers for mentoring
6. ASCLA publicize the ASCLA Directory of Peer Consultants and Speakers
7. The ASCLA Mentoring Committee work with sections and committees to expand succession planning: i.e. successor shadowing current committee head, current document folder handed to successor with bylaws, committee structures, current projects enclosed
8. ASCLA recruits and mentors library students and new members in committees and as future ASCLA leaders through positive role models as mentors
9. The ASCLA Mentoring Committee showcase mentoring best practices in annual conference programs and in Interface articles
10. The ASCLA Mentoring Committee match mentor/mentees for annual conference