ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 204 / C&RL News ■ March 2000 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s A C R L ’ s N e w M e m b e r M e n t o r i n g P r o g r a m news M a ke a c o m m itm e n t to p ro fe s s io n a l d eve lop m en t by Melissa Cast A CRL is launching an ambitious new initiative, the ACRL New Member Mentoring Program. The program enables new members to engage in a sustained, year long mentoring relationship with a veteran ACRL member, who can provide advice, di rection, and the per spective gained from experience. In keeping with President Larry Hard esty’s theme, “Celebrat ing our successes, con fronting our chal lenges,” the program also actively supports ACRL’s goal to provide members with more opportunities for pro fessional growth and development. Teaching, learning, and expanding your contacts As academic and research library profession als, our primary goals are supporting the mis sions of educational institutions and help ing our patrons fu lfill their academic, professional, and life goals. One of the things that makes education such a rewarding endeavor is the opportu nity to teach, to experience anew the pro cess of learning and discovery, to re-examine one’s own knowledge and beliefs from a fresh perspective. This mentoring program offers participants the opportunity to experience all of these fac ets of teaching and learning, and, at the same time, it allows mentors to help colleagues new to the profession while enabling them to develop future leaders. In addition, the ACRL New Member Mentoring Program complements existing chapter and divi sional programs by allow ing participants to expand their network of contacts throughout the associa tion. It therefore has the potential to foster coop eration and interaction among all ACRL members, regardless of their length of service, specialty, or location. As academic librarians, we all face similar challenges: changing roles, duties, and re sponsibilities; the emergence of new tech nologies; shrinking budgets; increasingly di verse populations; threats to access and in tellectual freedom. Mentors and mentees can benefit from engaging in a yearlong dialogue about these issues, and they can work together to ex plore ways of meeting these challenges within Chair of the Distance Learning Section Harvey Gover and Carol Mouldon have made many new contacts through ACRL. About the author Melissa Cast is ACRL director of member services, e-mail: mcast@ala.org mailto:mcast@ala.org C&RL News ■ March 2000 / 205 individual institutions and within the profes sion as a whole. The m e n to r program cycle The New Member Mentoring Program will begin at the 2000 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago and will follow a regular annual cycle. Applications will be due in April, and ACRL staff will match mentors and mentees and notify each partner in May. Mentoring partners will initiate contact with each other at that time, and they are expected to main tain regular contact throughout the year. ACRL will also provide opportunities for mentors and mentees to meet, outline the objectives and goals of their partnerships, and assess outcomes. At the Annual Conference, for example, ACRL will host a function where mentoring partners can confer, develop ac tion plans for the year, and acquire support materials and addi tional inform ation about the program. In August, each pair will be expected to com plete progress report forms and submit them to the ACRL director of member services. At the ALA Midwin ter Meeting, ACRL will again host an informa tion exchange meeting for all participants in the program, and mentors and mentees will complete a second series of progress report forms after the meeting in February. The pro gram officially concludes at the next Annual Conference. We anticipate that some partners will wish to continue their association with each other after the program ends, but that decision will be entirely theirs. A pplications due May 10 ACRL is now accepting applications for the 2000-01 program; prospective mentors and mentees are encouraged to apply. Applica tion forms and program information are avail able from the ACRL Web site (h ttp :// www.ala.org/mentodng.html); there are sepa rate forms for mentors and mentees. Each applicant must submit a completed applica tion form as well as a letter outlining his or ACRL provides a place to expand your professional network. Here Cathy Moore- Jansen, Maija Lutz, and Sally Willson Weimer meet at the ACRL Leadership Council. her reasons for applying; applicants should consider and describe the goals they hope to achieve through their participation in the pro gram. All applications are due on May 10, 2000. Please note that ACRL cannot assume any financial responsibilities for participation in the program beyond hosting meetings at the Annual and Midwinter conferences; men tors and mentees bear responsibility for any other costs incurred. Make the co m m itm e n t to m entoring We strongly encourage you to consider par ticipating in this program. Mentoring relation ships are extremely rewarding, and, contrary to popular belief, they need not consume large amounts of time. Two meetings at the Annual and Midwinter conferences and some time throughout the year keeping chan nels of communica tion open should be sufficient. The suc cess of the program will depend in large part on individuals’ commitment to their own and to others’ professional develop ment as well as their willingness to share with and learn from each other. Help us plant the acorns from which mighty oaks will grow; make a com mitment to the future of our profession. For further inform ation about the mentoring program, please contact Jeff Bullington, Social Science reference librarian, University of Kansas, e-mail: jbullington@ ukans.edu; Susanna D. Boylston, reference/ instruction librarian, Lafayette College, e-mail: boylstos@lafayette.edu; or Melissa Cast, ACRL director of member services, e-mail: mcast@ala.org. ■ A n Op p o r t u n i t y t o s h a re More information a opportunity to shareAnbout ACRL’s New Member Mentoring Program and applica tions can be found at http://www.ala.org/ acrl/mentoring.html. The deadline for ap plications is May 10, 2000. http://www.ala.org/mentodng.html mailto:boylstos@lafayette.edu mailto:mcast@ala.org http://www.ala.org/ 2 0 6 / C&RL N e w s ■ M a r c h 2 0 0 0