CARL Mentoring Program Committee

Ned Fielden, Chair  (2 Year Term: 2010, 2011)
San Francisco State University
fielden@sfsu.edu

Deborah L. Schaeffer  (2 Year Term: 2011, 2012)
John F. Kennedy Memorial Library
California State University, Los Angeles
dschaef@exchange.calstatela.edu

Penny Scott  (2 Year Term: 2011, 2012)
University of San Francisco
plscott@usfca.edu

Susan B Jackson  (2 Year Term: 2011, 2012)
California State University, Long Beach
sjackso4@csulb.edu

Mission & Purpose

CARL has long recognized the value of mentoring, and that librarians-to-be in graduate school or newly emerged in a professional career often appreciate experienced counsel when navigating the hurdles of librarianship in an academic setting. These include the performance of primary assignment tasks (reference service, teaching, cataloging, or systems work, to name just a few areas of responsibility librarians often have in their portfolio), as well as issues of professional achievement (conducting research, presenting conference papers, posters or other professional talks, writing and producing publications of various types) and service, to campus and community.

The CARL Mentoring program seeks to match new California academic librarians with more experienced colleagues. To do this we invite new librarians to contact the Mentoring committee to set up initial contacts. By new librarians we not only mean newly employed librarians in their first posting out of graduate school, but also librarians who may have recently relocated to California, shifted job category (from public to academic for example) or who otherwise could benefit from advice or a more formal introduction to California academic library culture and professional concerns.

Guidelines

-One mentor per new librarian
-Official length of the formal relationship will be one year (obviously extended unofficially by mutual consent)
-In most cases, geographical proximity will help determine best matches although we will consider other facets as well (librarian type or role, similarity of research or other interests.)
-CARL members may enroll via the CARL Mentoring Form and the Mentoring committee will match mentors with new librarians

Further information can be found by contacting the CARL President, Ned Fielden at fielden@sfsu.edu.