Thing 11: Mentoring

Having been both mentor and mentee, mentoring is something I am very familiar with.

Mentee

When registering for chartership, part of the process is to find a mentor, CILIP provided a list of mentors in my area and I just picked one and emailed them to see if they would mentor me. I tried to pick a mentor who was in the same or similar field of work so I went for one who worked in education. My mentor guided me through the first part of the chartership process and offered support and advice as and when I needed it. Unfortunately I am without a mentor at present as he retired so am on the look out for someone new.  My mentor was in the profession for a long time and had specific training from CILIP to be a mentor, so they had a wide range of knowledge and expertise to share.

MENTOR

A previous colleague of mine was working towards an HNC in Librarianship and as I had already been through the process asked me if I would be her mentor.  I pointed her towards resources and let her take a look at some of the assignments I had produced.  In doing this I felt I was giving something back to the profession.

My place of work runs a mentoring scheme where current staff are mentors to new staff.  I was asked to take part in this scheme as a mentor but as yet have not been assigned any mentee's.  Probably something I can blogg about at a later date.