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Are You the Weakest Link? Networking and Mentoring In a Professional's Career
by Spring Lea Boehler
When you were in kindergarten, did you ever take a field trip to a museum? Remember forming a long line and walking single file, holding hands with both the person in front and the one behind? Think about that unique motion -- being pulled along at the same time you were pulling someone else along, all of you moving smoothly in the same direction. This is how the dynamics of networking and mentoring act optimally in a professional's career. Over the course of my own career, I have come to appreciate the links I have in both directions, with other library professionals and with up-and-coming professionals.
Sowing the Seeds of Networking
My insights on networking started three years ago, when I first had a glimmer of what making contacts could do for me. I had just started my library science degree program and was attending my first ever Colorado Library Association conference. Although I was at the time happily employed in a local library system, I thought that in the future I might want to find a job in another city, and that the people at the conference might well wind up being my bosses or co- workers.
I always trust my intuition, and this time it truly paid off. My inner voice told me that it was never too soon to start making connections, so I did the simplest thing: I talked to them. I asked questions in presentations, had conversations over the dinner table or during the line dancing lessons, and spent time at my school's booth in the exhibit hall. As it later turned out, one of the people I so bravely approached at that conference is the director of the library system where I just landed the position of my dreams!
As my school career progressed, I continued to broaden and deepen my contacts by asking professionals who I knew possessed expertise in various areas to help me with my class projects. I used e-mail lists to conduct surveys and spent time on the phone asking for advice and guidance. I also began to use these same contacts as resources of information and experience for the work I was doing in my library. It didn't take long for me to realize I didn't want to re-invent the wheel every time a new hurdle arose, when almost certainly someone else had already figured out a way around the problem. I had firmly grasped the hand of the person in front of me and was starting to be pulled along with the group.
Sharing the Fruit
Just before graduation, I also started to realize the value of that backwards reach -- to help the person walking behind me in line. I had begun to feel as if my ideas might be useful to others, that they might have a positive effect on the library community. So, I started to present workshops, write papers, and answer requests on e-mail discussion lists, rather than just asking for help. I also started getting phone calls and individual e-mails asking me for help in the areas where I had demonstrated knowledge, and I made sure to answer them as professionally and promptly as I could. Finally, I started to talk to some promising paraprofessionals about how they should apply to library science degree programs themselves.
Most recently, I have taken on a more official role as mentor for some students in my alma mater. I dialogue with them via e-mail and phone or sometimes meet with them in person about the challenges they are facing -- challenges that I am glad are in my past! I also read and critique papers, which actually benefits me as well as the students because it helps me keep abreast of current library theory and issues.
This approach to networking and mentoring might sound self-centered, implying that the only goal is to get where you want to go and make sure your life is pleasant in the future. There's a lot more to it than that, however. Using other people as resources can save you and your employer many hours and headaches when trying to solve problems. Also, drawing from the idea pool of your peers has the power to boost your own creativity and make your services more valuable to your patrons.
Additionally, if you have truly developed a set of professional skills, then you have something worth sharing with others. You will enrich their capability to participate in their own library careers and you will serve as an example of good service to those who will come after you. As a result of all this collaboration and idea- sharing, the library community only stands to benefit and improve as a whole. Like your school group in a museum, we can all get to where we're supposed to go.
Spring Lea Boehler is a graduate of the Emporia State University School of Library and Information Management. She is currently employed at the Philip S. Miller Library in Castle Rock, CO as a Youth Librarian. She also is the editor of YAttitudes, the official newsletter of the Young Adult Library Services Association. More information about her can be found at her web site at http://www.springlea.com.