Background:
The ARLIS/NA Strategic Plan for 2000-2005 states that “Goal I [is] to increase the effectiveness of art librarians and visual resources curators by focusing efforts on professional and continuing education, as well as professional development activities.” The fifth action item under goal I is “Provide a mentoring program.”
Over the past year the Professional Development Committee and its Mentorship Task Force have addressed this goal, initially by writing a report that is available to members at
http://www.arlisna.org/arlismembers/artdoc/24.2.pdf. A one-year Mentoring Pilot Program will be launched with a Workshop session at the annual conference at Banff on Friday, May 5 from 1-5 p.m. To assist Margaret Law, the workshop leader, and the PDC in developing the pilot program a survey on mentoring has been posted at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=382971711135. The survey is divided into two parts, determined by interest in being a mentor or a mentee.
The pilot program & workshop will be limited to 15 mentor/mentee pairs; the application process will be announced on ARLIS-L shortly. An AskARLIS session: Building the ARLIS/NA Mentoring Program is scheduled for Sat. May 6 to describe components of a program and to elicit input from the membership at large. Please note that the year-long mentoring pilot program is separate from the Conference Mentoring Program; we encourage all members to continue to participate in this valuable activity.
Please take five minutes to complete the survey and support this important initiative.
--
V. Heidi Hass
Chair, Professional Development Committee, ARLIS/NA
Head of the Reference Collection
The Pierpont Morgan Library
29 East 36th Street
New York, NY 10016-3403