By Blair Booker
Distance Education Librarian
Mississippi State University Libraries
Abstract
Since the 1970’s, librarianship has boasted varied mentoring experiences supporting the lifespan of information professionals. The evolution of such efforts shows formal beginnings that have morphed into a smattering of various formal and informal programs across a spectrum of libraries and institutions. Psychosocial support has emerged as an integral aspect of development for library professionals. For a modern holistic approach to mentoring, professional and psychosocial mentoring should work hand in hand to foster the librarian as a whole.
Introduction
“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”
-John C. Crosby (Crosby n.d.)
When you hear the word mentor, what comes to mind? If you’ve had experience with professional mentoring, the word hopefully conjures thoughts of colleagues and relationships that have bolstered your career over the years. If you’re new to the library profession, you may feel a blank space which you hope to one day fill with those relationships and corresponding support. On the flip side, there are surely many who experience negative emotions when mentorship is discussed. Maybe they participated in a mentoring effort that hit roadblocks and failed. Or maybe they have felt isolated during their career and never had an opportunity to form those relationships. The good news is that there is always a new day coming in which to pursue a worthwhile mentoring relationship, but the onus is on the LIS community to adjust mentoring programs to include a focus on the mental and physical well-being of the protégé. A balanced program for library professionals should include aspects of both professional and psychosocial mentoring.
History of Mentoring and Implementations in Libraries
Simply scratching the surface of mentoring literature is likely to produce mild confusion concerning an official definition. Multiple versions exist throughout the literature seemingly from an effort to define what it means to each individual program. The most succinct definition found in the research is from a 2006 American Psychological Association task force. “A mentor is an individual with expertise who can help develop the career of a mentee” (APA 2012). All definitions fall under the basic premise that the relationship exists to help guide and cultivate skilled and resilient professionals, and the National Academies found an undercurrent of similarities throughout the definitions:
- Mentoring relationships emphasize helping the individual grow and accomplish goals and include several approaches to doing so.
- A mentoring experience may provide professional and career development support, role modeling, and psychosocial support; mentoring experiences should include planned activities with a mentor.
- Mentoring relationships are personal and reciprocal, though online mentorship options are creating opportunities to build virtual mentoring relationships (National Academies et.al. 2019).
The etymology, philosophy, and indeed the many definitions of the word mentor can be traced back to ancient Greek roots using the story of Odysseus by Homer. It is important to touch upon these roots before diving deeper into a conversation about mentoring. In the epic poem, Odysseus departs for war and leaves his son, Telemachus, in the tutelage of a close friend named Mentor. While Mentor did serve as a teacher and advisor to Telemachus, the original Greek story shows a deeper and more complex relationship. In the ages since Homer created these characters, mentorship has come to hold the connotation of a mostly advantageous relationship for both mentor and protégé. However, a common observation is that the opposite can also be true. Mentoring relationships can range from highly successful to absolute failures and “involve both benefits and costs to those engaged” (Byars-Winston and Dahlberg, 2019).
Mentoring is a timeless concept and modern times have been hard at work keeping it relevant in the workplace. Wading through the literature, you find that almost every field and discipline in the country demonstrates at least some history of mentoring programs. Medicine, business, and STEM feature prominently in the category of structured and sometimes mandatory mentoring programs (Jordan 2019). One of the most impressive programs is that of the National Academies and their published study from 2019 holds an extensive array of resources (National Academies et.al. 2019). Informally, the arts and trade careers rely heavily on organic methods of mentoring with more experienced practitioners leading the newcomers. Think about what we know about apprenticeship programs over the ages. Prior to our modern notion of degree-granting education accessible to everyone, an aspiring tradesman needed an experienced senior tradesman to teach them the trade, e.g. stone masons, carpenters, artists and even physicians. Recently, during a presentation about the preservation of historical music, a professional jazz musician highlighted the relationships he has cultivated with elder musicians to support his own work in retaining historical musical styles (Muller 2024). Medicine is another field that has relied on both informal and formal systems of training. Medicine transitioned from primarily apprenticeship in the 1600s to mentorship beginning in the 20th century (Siddiqui 2014). And to this day, physicians rely on training that comes not from formal education but from on-the-job training situations like residency that allow the protégé to learn from more knowledgeable physicians in real time (Siddiqui 2014).
Library and Information Science has no shortage of evidence of the benefits of mentoring in the profession. According to the literature, a culture of mentoring has developed more formally since the 1990s. Many articles point out that it is a necessary step to add onto a professional MLIS degree. Even on-boarding programs and other on-the-job training programs could be considered mentoring in disguise (Hussey & Campbell-Meier 2017).
Prior to the year 2000, heavy emphasis was placed on formal mentoring programs as a way of ensuring a strong workforce with up-to-date knowledge and skills. The formal programs of the 1980s and 1990s exhibited very specific goals to guide early career librarians through learning about job expectations as well as supporting the individual’s psychosocial development. Librarianship in the early 2000s confronted the impending retirement cliff of aging librarians by shifting focus towards mentoring programming with two specific goals at the forefront: recruitment of new librarians and instilling organizational loyalty (Goldman 2011).
In what can be considered an average size profession, the recent 10-15 years of mentoring literature still emphasizes a need to recruit and mentor incoming professionals. New professionals coming into librarianship are part of an increasingly diverse workforce serving as replacements for those aging out of librarianship (Jordan, 2019). The data for the 2020s shows a projected average of 13,700 librarians leaving the profession each year. For the year 2022, the total employment number was 141,200 so that is a 10 percent loss per year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023). Further predictions show that by the year 2030, the Baby Boomer generation will age out of the workforce completely (Wallace, Walker, & Nelson 2023). As the “old guard” phases out, institutional knowledge is at great risk of being lost without mentorship programs to pass it on to newcomers. First-year mentoring programs as well as programs designed to recruit library school students from undergraduate institutions can serve the profession greatly as librarianship works to preserve the employment numbers.
One recent article highlights efforts by many academic libraries to recruit from their own cache of staff and student workers. Both informal and formal mentoring at such institutions is undertaken to bolster and diversify the pool of those seeking library degrees and/or library employment (Olguin 2023). You also see a resurgence of programs designed to meet librarians at other career stages, such as early career and post-tenure. Novice librarians have a different set of needs than those in the middle of their career. Post-degree librarians are working to find their niche and need accompanying skills and networking connections. Librarians working towards tenure need research support and ways to serve to comply with promotion requirements (Burke & Tumbleson 2019). A 2017 survey with 230 responses showed that 23 percent of academic libraries maintain a formal mentoring program (Leuzinger & Rowe 2017). Informal mentoring numbers are certainly harder to track but Hussey and Campbell-Meier argue that supervisory mentoring can be considered informal and received a 65 percent response rate for those individuals (Hussey & Campbell-Meier 2017). And even the more isolated library systems in the country can still benefit from mentoring by involving themselves in virtual programs that some organizations offer as well as attending virtual conferences and taking advantage of message boards and Listservs.
Availability of Programs
Examining the availability of programs at different levels of the field shows some nuanced differences. Academic libraries have sparse examples of formal mentoring programs. You frequently see academic libraries with tenure track positions that rely on mentoring that leans toward more informal methods to pass on institutional knowledge and ensure that incoming faculty succeed with promotion requirements (Olguin 2023). But there are certain mentoring programs that have been mainstays for decades, especially when it comes to a systematic way of developing leaders for the profession. Many of the longer-lasting leadership development programs are led by professional organizations.
Leaders of professional organizations cite their own understanding that they are expected to be unofficial mentors for members (Zabel 2008). Zabel also recognizes the inevitability that leaders in professional organizations become de facto mentors out of a necessity to develop the next generation of leaders for their organization. This can be accomplished with a formal mentoring program, however most times it is an unstructured effort taken on by leaders simply out of necessity (Zabel 2008). The American Library Association and its many roundtables and committees offer a multitude of mentoring opportunities. The College Library Director Mentoring Program has been around since the early 1990’s and aims to provide leadership development for library directors at smaller, four-year colleges around the country. Almost 300 library directors from 43 states as well as Canada participated or completed the program during its first 20 years (Hardesty, Adams, & Kirk 2017). The Medical Library Association has historically offered many options for career mentoring to those already in the field of those interested in exploration. Their Rising Star program has been around since 2010 and remains popular. As recently as 2020, MLA continued its operations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by shifting their Colleague Connection program to a virtual communication system (Aronoff, Healy, & Glenn 2022). There are library graduate programs that offer structured mentoring programs, but internships can also be considered a form of mentoring. In fact, some undergraduate students majoring in different subject areas participated in a library internship and ended up pursuing a library degree because of their experience (Lamb, Hendricks, & Galbraith 2015).
While not able to boast about longevity, brief or one-off programs still exemplify their worth. The Mississippi Library Commission hosted a leadership institute to foster the next generation of leaders in the libraries of Mississippi in 2013. This year-long effort included four retreats where participants learned more about effective leadership through personality assessment and endeavored to learn more about decision making and communication. Also, informal mentoring is not highlighted nearly as often as formal mentoring. But simply ask around among library professionals and you will hear anecdotal evidence that points to the beneficial nature of having someone with which to “discuss librarianship as it applies to the profession and to our lives, not just to our current jobs” (James, Raynor & Bruno 2015). Quantitative impacts are largely absent from the literature and part of the challenge that presents is a lack of a definitive concept assigned to informal mentoring. Despite no real consensus on a definition, anecdotal evidence still points to the great worth of informal mentoring simply because it is often more freely available and happens more organically than a formal program (Freedman 2021). And by organically, think of “friendship, collegiality, teaching”, and other forms of casual interaction (Couture, Gerke, & Knievel 2020).
Examples of the three places where formal mentoring programs currently exist are displayed below. While this is not an exhaustive list, the search showed that professional organizations host the majority of programs with academic libraries and graduate programs following behind.
Organizational Mentoring Programs
- American Library Association (multiple programs) https://www.ala.org/educationcareers/mentoring-opportunities
- Medical Library Association (membership required)
- Oregon Library Association https://www.olaweb.org/mentoring-program-info
- REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking) https://www.reforma.org/content.asp?contentid=34
- Society of American Archivists https://www2.archivists.org/membership/mentoring
Academic Libraries with Mentoring Programs
- Iowa State University https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/mentoring
- Purdue University https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_fsdocs/233/
- University of California Berkeley https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/lauc/diversity/staff-mentorship
- University of Georgia https://www.libs.uga.edu/employee-resources/training/mentor
- University of North Texas https://guides.library.unt.edu/mentoringprogram
Graduate Schools with Mentoring Programs
- University of Iowa https://slis.uiowa.edu/current-students/job-and-career-resources/student-librarian-mentoring-program-ui-libraries
- University of Michigan https://www.si.umich.edu/host-student-project/speaker-case-study-and-mentoring-opportunities
- University of North Texas https://informationscience.unt.edu/slc-mentor-program
- University of Washington https://ischool.uw.edu/alumni/get-involved/imentorship
Addressing the Psychosocial Aspect
It’s safe to say that there are few kindergartners out there declaring that their one ambition for the future is to become a librarian. It is also safe to say that a variety of answers would result if you polled a group of adult information professionals on how they found their career. Whether one is aware of it or not, a lot of librarians were mentored into their career, whether through a personal relationship, at school, or in the workplace. Many times, once someone is exposed to information work, their eyes are opened to what a good fit it is for their personality and work preferences.
To break it down for this argument, there are two categories that work together to create a holistic mentoring experience: career mentoring and psychosocial mentoring. Career mentoring directly involves the professional development of the librarian only. Psychosocial mentoring addresses the more personal needs of the librarian by way of bolstering confidence and a sense of professional identity (Freedman, 2008).
Career and psychosocial mentoring are not mutually exclusive. From the American Psychological Association, a defined mentoring relationship combines the efforts of career coaching and personal development. In a best-case scenario, the mentor provides counseling and support for the protégé’s psychosocial development as well as coaching towards career development (APA 2012). The baseline of human nature is the need to be understood and fulfilled and even librarians do not perform at their best unless these needs are met (Burke and Tumbleson 2019). Previous sections of this article discussed different methods of career mentoring, but while participating in a formal mentoring program to develop career skills will be helpful, one will likely still benefit from psychosocial mentoring if the elements of personal development are involved.
Not every library workplace sponsors a formal mentoring program but informal mentoring can be found in any circumstance and at any library with a staff of two or more (Freedman 2021). The research for this article has shown that the information profession needs more resources and attention paid to the psychosocial aspects of mentoring. A successful psychosocial mentoring program ideally works to bolster three core areas: “an individual’s sense of competence, identity, and effectiveness in a professional role” (Arora & Rangnekar 2015).
Many librarians find themselves in graduate school or in their first professional position with zero real world library experience. These conditions make imposter syndrome almost an inevitability (Farkas 2016). Some may instinctively seek out support while others are not even aware of what is happening. There is an abundance of research concerning imposter syndrome in both men and women as well as how frequently it occurs among librarians in higher education (Farrell et al. 2017). Others have found evidence to support the earlier mention of imposter syndrome setting in during graduate school or early in the career (Lacey & Parlette-Stewart 2017). There is a multitude of causes ranging from a lack of guidance to the varied nature of library work. Oftentimes librarians wear many different hats and so levels of skill and intelligence for all different aspects of their work can be difficult to define (Lacey & Parlette-Stewart 2017). Other specific causes are unexpected promotions or a perfectionist/Type A personality (Rakestraw 2017). Those experiencing it at a young age or during their early career may not even know that there are others who suffer or that it is an actual documented phenomenon. One of the hallmarks of imposter syndrome is just a lack of experience that can certainly happen at any time in a librarian’s career. Mentoring can combat the effects of imposter syndrome when the sufferer finds someone, even casually, who can pass on their own experiences and knowledge to help break the cycle (Rakestraw 2017). Also, a good mentor relationship can help the person keep their passion for their work in the forefront of their mind rather than getting caught up in doubt about their abilities (Lacey & Parlette-Stewart 2017).
Another negative occurrence in librarianship is burnout. Most library positions are essentially “public human service” for most of the time. Rude and demanding patrons, massive changes in technology, and the rigors of promotion and tenure can all contribute to severe burnout scenarios (Huprich 2007). A lot of information professionals are drawn to their career from a desire to help others, but the unexpected amount of customer service in the workplace is something rarely addressed during traditional library school. Unexpected stressors like this are commonplace for librarians and can be addressed at any point in time by a well-matched mentor. Supervisors cannot be expected to always fill this role, especially with what we know now about the younger generations. Technology has broadened career trajectories since the late 20th century and so mentoring efforts should be flexible enough to meet librarians where they are (Gipson 2019).
So much of a typical librarian’s work is connecting with other people, whether they are colleagues or patrons, and sharing their knowledge. Formal mentoring for librarians has a rich history going back to the 1970’s but new and updated research models conducted since the 2000s show the importance of thinking outside the box and allowing for a more varied approach. Not all librarians fit in the same category, so neither should mentoring. Similarly, one mentor might not be enough so don’t be afraid to collect them like a fanatic collects memorabilia from a favorite movie. I know from personal experience that mentors can show up serendipitously. You might find yourself part of a group mentoring experience that works best or you might find a one-on-one situation that fits. There is no one size fits all approach; mentoring can exist in many different forms.
“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”
– Dr. Albert Schweitzer (Burke & Tumbleson 2019)
Final Thoughts
Mentoring at any point in your career is a good idea. But that doesn’t mean that every mentoring program or effort is an inherent success. We don’t shed our human nature when we walk through the door of the workplace, so there is always the possibility that things will go off the rails. There is even anecdotal evidence that mentoring can work in a very opposite direction. A blogger once had great expectations for a colleague who turned out to disappoint her and she learned what type of employee she didn’t want to be. The blogger, in response to the disappointing mentor, worked hard to educate herself about the community she served and to be supportive instead of questioning and harsh (Salamah 2018).
At the end of the day, all parties must desire to be involved in mentoring to have a chance at success. Dr. Brene Brown recognizes that one of biggest hinderances to a mentor relationship is “diminishing trust caused by a lack of connection and empathy” (Burke and Tumbleson 2019). The National Academies clearly state that “mentorship is a professional, working alliance in which individuals work together over time to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relationship partners through the provision of career and psychosocial support” (National Academies et.al. 2019). Researchers should be aware of digging deeper than expected into the psychosocial aspect of effective mentoring. Library professionals can experience hurdles at any stage of their career, and it is important to address things like burnout and imposter syndrome in addition to building career skills. Even adding something off the wall like personality assessment can deepen an employee’s understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses and help them align themselves with suitable activities and people. If you boiled down most of the recent literature concerning mentoring in librarianship, you would find that a “culture” of mentoring should be a goal held by every professional. Whether you are in a position to serve as a mentor, have a desire to find mentors, or both, mentoring is a very prominent thread in the fabric of librarianship.
Blair Booker is Assistant Professor and Distance Education Librarian at Mississippi State University. After completing a Master of Library and Information Studies degree at the University of Alabama, Booker went to work for the Mississippi Library Commission in Jackson, MS. Quickly moving into academic libraries, Booker has worked in community college and university libraries since 2008. In her current role at MSU, Booker works closely with the Center for Distance Education, the College of Art, Architecture, & Design, and various other academic departments to provide library instruction and research support.
References
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Further Reading
Ackerman, E., Hunter, J., & Wilkinson, Z. T. (2018). The availability and effectiveness of research supports for early career academic librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 44(5), 553–568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.06.001
Azore, Kimba (2018, September 28). Mentoring the next generation of librarians of color. The 3rd National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. https://www.jclcinc.org/conference/2018/mentoring-the-next-generation-of-librarians-of-color/
Bartlett, J. (2013). New and noteworthy: Paying it forward, giving it back: The dynamics of mentoring. Library Leadership & Management, 27(4). https://llm.corejournals.org/llm/article/view/7038
Bosch, E. K., Ramachandran, H., Luévano, S., & Wakiji, E. (2010). The resource team model: An innovative mentoring program for academic librarians. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 16(1), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614530903584305
Brewerton, A. (2002). Mentoring. LIBER Quarterly: The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries, 12(4), 361–380. https://doi.org/10.18352/lq.7703
Clance, Pauline Rose & Imes, Suzanne Ament (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: The dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 15 (3), 241-247. https://mpowir.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Download-IP-in-High-Achieving-Women.pdf
Fought, R.L. & Misawa, M. (2019). The path to leadership: the career journey of academic health sciences library directors. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 107 (1), 49-56. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.552
Gerke, J., Couture, J., & Knievel, J. (2023). Once you get tenure, you’re on your own: Mentoring and career support for mid-career academic librarians. College & Research Libraries, 84(6). https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.84.6.843
Hicks, D. (2011). The practice of mentoring: reflecting on the critical aspects for leadership development. Australian Library Journal, 60(1), 66-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2011.10722557
Inzer, L. D., & Crawford, C. B. (2005). A review of formal and informal mentoring. Journal of Leadership Education, 4(1), 31–50. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.12806/V4/I1/TF2/full/html
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Parker-Gibson, N. (2007). Library mentoring and management for scholarship. Library Philosophy & Practice, 1-9.
Shupe, E. I., Wambaugh, S. K., & Bramble, R. J. (2015). Role-related stress experienced by academic librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(3), 264–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.03.016
Williams, G. H. (2019). Mentoring mid-career: Reflections on fostering a culture of mentorship for experienced librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(2), 171–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.11.003