The LAUC-SC Peer Mentor Program is intended to serve as a welcome to newly hired librarians (including temporary librarians hired at 50% time and above) and to help them become oriented to our environment, especially in (but not limited to) areas such as reviews and getting involved in LAUC. It is not intended to replace other mentoring activities, such as those that focus on primary areas of job responsibility. A LAUC Peer Mentor should consider themselves part of the overall employee-retention effort.

LAUC Peer Mentors are established LAUC members who are paired with newly hired librarians, generally outside the new librarian's own department. The LAUC Executive Board works in consultations with the hiring supervisor to identify and assign mentors. Known interests of the new librarian are taken into account when making an assignment. The LAUC-SC Chair will email a letter of introduction between Peer Mentor and Mentee. The peer mentor pairing is intended to last from the new librarian’s start date to their first review, though it is not expected that regular meetings will take place over this entire period.

Guidance for Mentors

• Reach out to your mentee as early as possible after their start date.
• You should initiate the first meeting/s; the mentee should feel free to initiate subsequent contacts and/or meetings.
• Consult the suggested topics and activities below for further guidance on what to discuss and what to do with your mentee.
• Introduce your mentee to other library staff, taking into account others who may share similar interests/backgrounds.
• Additionally, consider sharing the following information/resources with your mentee…
  • LAUC-SC & statewide websites
  • Membership and executive board rosters
  • LAUC Shared Google Drive
  • LAUC committees and advisory reps
  • Dates of upcoming membership meetings
  • LAUC grants and timing
  • UC Library Acronyms and Abbreviations
• It is strongly suggested that an additional meeting be held near the time of your mentee’s first review.
• After your mentee’s first review is complete, the formal mentor-mentee pairing is concluded.

Guidance for Mentees

• Your mentor will initiate the first meeting/s.
• You should also feel free to initiate questions or meetings with your mentor, including drawing from the list of suggested topics and activities below.
• If desired, you should let your mentor know when your review is approaching (the mentor may not know otherwise). You can then decide with your mentor what kind of advice or support with your review would be beneficial.
• After your first review, the formal mentor-mentee pairing is concluded.

Download these guidelines as a PDF.