Purpose

The Wyoming Library Association implemented this mentoring program in order to assist all library staff to succeed in their library careers. Mentors supplement the supervisors’ efforts and provide protégés with a personal relationship that allows for acculturating, encouraging new talent, sharing expertise and connections, and promoting professional growth.

Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of growing professional knowledge, skills, and confidence. Mentors, sometimes called coaches, typically have years of practical experience and professional knowledge that they share with less experienced counterparts, called mentees or protégés. Because Wyoming libraries participate in a shared ILS consortia, even experienced library staff members new to the state will benefit from participating in the Wyoming Library Mentor Program.

LEAD members facilitated the development of this program in 2020. The purpose of LEAD is to administer this program, involving the taking and reviewing of applications, partnering mentors and protégés together, and assessing the mentoring relationship at least twice during a 12-month period. More details can be found within the mentorship application and materials.

2020-2021

The WLA Mentorship Program team assessed applicants and selected likely pairs. Lisa Scroggins put together Zoom meetings as an introduction to the program. The program ran from January – July/August, which was a change from a year length as originally proposed. The First Cohort comprised seven pairs of Wyoming library workers. The team developed a survey for feedback from the mentorship program.

Created and adopted a logo for LEAD.

Said goodbye to Anna Street; Johanna Tuttle moved from incoming chair to chair in August.

Plans for next year include continuing the WLA Mentorship Program and presenting a program for 2022 WLA conference.

2019-2020
At our WLA meeting in August 2019, members discussed upcoming plans for the fiscal year, including developing a mentorship program. Our mission statement was changed at this meeting. Programming and developing a useful and thoughtful WLA mentorship program will be the focus of the group this year. We will have online meetings as needed and an in-person meeting at WLA 2020, and we will maintain and stay active on our listserv.

2018-2019
At our WLA meeting on August 3, 2018, members discussed upcoming plans for the fiscal year, including budget and membership. We also discussed having online meetings quarterly and an in-person meeting at WLA 2019, and we will maintain and stay active on our listserv. Programming and marketing will also be main areas of focus for this year.

▪ Return to top