Mentoring Research in Ohio

John Burke and Beth Tumbleson of Miami Unviversity Middletown conducted a survey on academic library mentoring experiences. Findings were reported at the 2017 Academic Library Association of Ohio Annual Conference in a session entitled Transform the Path of a Library Career: Empowering Librarians Through Mentoring. 

Highlights of the responses include:

• Mentoring experiences were more commonly reported by respondents from larger higher education institutions.
• Respondents were predominantly in public services positions.
• There is a higher incidence of mentoring during the first 6 years of a librarian's career than during the years beyond that time.
• Formal mentoring programs organized by libraries and library professional organizations were most common, but nearly one-third of respondents had a mentoring experience in which the mentee informally approached a mentor.
• Mentees and mentors most valued these characteristics of mentoring: empathy, having a knowledgeable and experienced mentor, and confidentiality.