Finding a mentor can be a difficult & scary experience at times but it is well worth the effort. Not only do mentors provide practical support & advice but they can also be a useful tool when it comes to networking or act as a sounding board for ideas & issues. I've had some experience with mentors, particularly as part of my Chartership process & university dissertations. The main thing I've found when choosing mentors is that wherever possible you should choose one who not only is in the same field (libraries) but who has some specific knowledge of the area you work in or project your creating. For instance, I work in a special library, focused on science, engineering, technology & medicine so when I wad looking for a mentor I wanted to find someone in the same kind of field, luckily I found someone on the CILIP Chartership list who was based at Oxford University's Radcliffe Library. It made things a lot easier as he already understood a lot of the issues I was facing not just in general library terms, but also the specifics of dealing with rare books & of dealing with science based enquiries & handling/conservation of scientific material. The Chartership mentor register made it a lot easier & less scary to find someone & pluck up the courage to ask them to be my mentor, for a start it was guaranteed that they were willing to be a mentor or they wouldn't be on the list. You also have a lot of information on the list about their specific interests which makes it easier to decide whether they would be interested in your project. Choosing a mentor on your own, however, is not always so simple. You don't have a handy guide to hand to tell you what their interests are or whether they are even interested in mentoring. I've had to go through the process 3 times looking for dissertation supervisors with varying degrees of success. The first time I was researching Native American culture as part of my BA but I didn't really know how to choose a mentor, plus I was a bit scared of asking & getting turned down. As a result although my supervisor was as helpful as he could be his specific area of knowledge didn't cover my topic. Next time round I was more organised I made a list of the topics I was covering for my MRes & specific areas I might need support in then began googling relevant lecturers to find one who matched my criteria - most lecturers have some kind of internet profile that lists their research interests & involvement in organisations & groups. Tat worked out a lot better but I still have a slight problem with confidence when it comes to asking complete strangers for support. I'm currently looking for a professional mentor for informal support/advice on professional development, training opportunities, etc but I'm not sure how to go about asking someone who hasn't indicated an interest in mentoring (through CILIP registration or other), if anyone has any tips on how to make an approach & sell yourself as a mentee I'd be very grateful. Some of the areas if training I'm particularly interested in are writing for marketing/web content & mentiring/supervisor training. I had some very basic mentor training at university when I was a Student Mentor but now I would like to try & build on it. Partly in response to my role as operational volunteer supervisor & my involvement in our Diversity Panel, but also because I would be interested in acting as a Chartership mentor in the future.
CJ Crennell
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