Next Thursday, I’ll be meeting with various staff who have expressed interest in mentoring someone in the next cohort of interns (2016-2017). Dominican has committed to supporting three interns with tuition waivers. This prevents a bit of a challenge because we have more than twice as many interested mentors.
So, here are some questions for everyone to consider. Does it make sense to have one primary mentor for each intern, or would having two co-mentors work better? Are there are specific areas of the library that naturally make more sense to serve as an intern’s base or hub throughout the year?
I like the idea of having co-mentors. It would be interesting to co-mentor an intern with AS and/or YS so the intern could dig into collection development but also have a mentor who is more on the public services side of things
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I agree, this could be a great combo for the right intern.
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I’ll be interested to hear what you guys decided in your meetings about this. I agree with Laura, I think Access Services could be a natural pair with Adult or Youth Services. Many of the departments would work well together, too, I think. Even though I didn’t have a formal mentor in Adult Services, I feel like my internship has been a blend of the two departments, as well as with Learning Experiences. I’ve enjoyed the variety!
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@aliceasleson We’re thinking of having interns based in Adult Services, Young Adult Services, Youth Services, and Community Engagement. And then require each intern to have a project (even a small one) or involvement with collection development, experiential learning, and Virtual Community Engagement. The idea is to have a hub or base for each intern, with a main mentor, but also do more to formalize exposure to other areas of the library. What do you think?
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Richard, I think that sounds like a really good idea! I am interested to hear more next time we all meet!
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