Introduction
In many cases East Asian Studies librarians work at institutions with no other librarians in their specific area (i.e., Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or even in their professional assignment like Cataloging). There are even East Asian Studies specialists who are required to take care of all the East Asian subject related tasks. This isolation often makes it unfeasible for them, not to mention for a newly hired specialist, to get help learning Chinese, Japanese, or Korean librarianship. To meet this need, the CEAL Membership Committee has inaugurated a mentor/mentee program to match an experienced East Asian Studies librarian (mentor) with an interested mentee. A mentor optimally will be an experienced and trusted advisor, giving guidance and support to a mentee. This is not intended as a job search program. If you agree to be a mentor or a mentee, the CEAL Membership Committee will add your name and information to the list of mentor/mentee candidates. The Committee will have exclusive access to this list, for the purpose of protecting personal information and maintaining the confidentiality of that data.
This project was initiated when the Membership Committee had a successful and pleasant "CEAL Mentoring Projects/Talking With Experienced Librarians Round Table" at the annual CEAL meeting in March 2004. We present our program here In order to expand on this initial step.
Goal
To facilitate mentees finding appropriate mentors and creating a learning environment for people who are interested in East Asian Studies librarianship.
Commitment
The only commitment you make if you say "yes" to being on the mentor/mentee list is that you will consider accepting a mentee or a mentor when contacted by the Membership Committee. There is no pressure, but each participant is asked to recognize that participating in this program involves a time and pledge commitment to a respective mentor/mentee, The level of interaction between a mentor and mentee is flexible and is mutually agreed upon by each pair. If you feel that they are not a good match on receiving their information, or after talking with your proposed partner, then you are quite free to say no.
Once agreed upon, mentors and mentees are required to commit to a one-year term together. The specifics of the arrangement, including the preferred type of communication (phone, email, in-person, or online meeting), the topics to be covered, and the amount of time to be spent on the arrangement, are entirely up to the pairs and should be negotiated at the beginning of the mentorship term. You may be invited to share your experiences with new participants at the following year's meeting, either separately or jointly (another thing you can negotiate with your pair).
Procedure
- Apply as mentor or mentee
- Contacted by the Membership Committee with potential match
- Pairs finalized and introduced by email
- Pairs contact one another, negotiated their mentorship
- At the end of term, contacted by the Membership Committee and receive Feedback Form
- Feedback provided to benefit future mentor-mentee pairs
The mentor-mentee pairs will be finalized and informed by email throughout the year-so your year may not follow the calendar year or CEAL year. Sometime during your year together, you may have the opportunity to meet in-person a the CEAL Annual Meeting.
At the end of the year-long program, all participants are asked to fill out the Mentorship Program Feedback Form (Google form) to share your experience and/or make suggestions for improvement.
Participating
If you are interested in being a mentor or a mentee, please read the section The Who and What of Mentoring below, and fill out the application: Mentorship Program Application (Google form).
All participants are asked to inform the Membership Committee if there are any problems contacting their partners at any time.
For questions about the mentorship program, please contact Shi Deng (sdeng@ucsd.edu)