Library Faculty Committees
Faculty Mentoring Program
Guidelines for UIC Library Mentoring Program
The mentoring program is designed to benefit new faculty, though a
successful partnership should enrich the experience of both partners. The
goals of the program include: (1) to help new faculty successfully
negotiate the UIC periodic review or promotion and tenure process; (2) to
learn the research process, (3) to help new faculty understand UIC
faculty activities outside the Library, such as membership on the UIC
Faculty Senate or on Senate Committees, and (4) to develop as professional
librarians. The Executive Committee will solicit new faculty interested in
being mentored and will oversee the program. The mentoring program will
be part of the new faculty orientation process. The mentee will submit a
brief application to the Executive Committee via the mentoring webpage on
the library faculty pages; it should include the mentee's research
interests and the request for a specific senior faculty mentor, if
applicable. The mentoring relationship may lead to one party's raising
issues that are confidential by their very nature and should be treated as
such by both parties.
- Appointment of Mentors
- The mentoring program is voluntary for both mentors and mentees.
It is intended for both tenure track and clinical faculty. Mentors are
senior faculty, both tenure-track and clinical faculty, but may not be the
mentee's department head.
- Interested senior faculty should submit brief statements to a
mentoring webpage on the library faculty pages; it should include a
discussion of the types of research, methodologies employed, related
service activities and a bibliography of selected publications. Listing
of educational and institutional backgrounds would be useful in helping
new faculty seek appropriate mentors.
- The Executive Committee will match mentors and mentees, honoring
suggested matching requests, if possible. If the mentee does not request a
specific senior faculty mentor, EC will make the assignment. Normally a
mentor will have one mentee.
- Meetings
Mentors and mentees will have flexibility in determining how frequently to
meet; fairly frequent meetings at the beginning are recommended. After
that, fewer meetings may be sufficient since mentors and mentees may be in
more frequent contact by e-mail or telephone and may schedule meetings
whenever a perceived need arises.
- Mutual Responsibilites
- The mentor will help the mentee understand the Library's
expectations
and norms concerning research, publication, and service, the nature of
scholarship and research, the peer review process, and journal rankings.
The Promotion and Tenure Committee will also assign a liaison to work with
the mentee on paper preparation. The Promotion and Tenure Committee may
assign the mentor as liaison. Mentors and liaisons may be interviewed by
the mentee's librarianship review committees but may not serve on them.
- With the help of the mentor, the mentee will develop a research
agenda. The mentor will stress the importance of creating a unified body
of work so that the mentee may come to be recognized as having impact on a
given field.
- The mentor and mentee will work together in setting realistic goals
and benchmarks and in identifying opportunities for research that fit the
mentee's career goals and facilitates them.
- The mentor and mentee will discuss kinds and level of service
appropriate for untenured faculty, creating awareness that service reduces
the time for research and publication. Nevertheless, participation in
external service activities can bring mentees to the attention of
potential external referees. Mentors for clinical faculty and clinical
faculty mentees will evaluate the appropriate kind and level of service
outside the library to contribute to the mentee's professional
development.
- When the mentee has developed a research idea, the mentor will
provide
the guidance needed or recommend other faculty to help with statistics,
research methodologies, and vetting stages of the project and manuscript
as it reaches fruition, as needed. Some mentors and mentees may wish to
work together as co-authors.
-
Terminating Mentoring Mismatches : The mentor/mentee pairing may not work
for a variety of reasons, both personal and professional. If either the
mentee or mentor is uncomfortable in the relationship, it is better to
terminate it and have a new mentor assigned, if the mentee so requests.
The mentor or mentee should petition the University Librarian (UL) to
terminate the mentoring relationship and for a new mentor to be appointed.
The UL will work with the EC to find and appoint the new mentor.
- Evaluation of the Mentoring Program: The Executive Committee will
develop a method and procedures to evaluate the mentoring program in
2005-2006.
Submitted by the Mentoring Task Force:
John Cullars, chair
Krystal Lewis
Ellen Schellhause
Ann Weller
February 17, 2005; revised March 9, 2005: April 25, 2005;
approved May 4, 2005
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Last updated: Wednesday, 07-Sep-2005 13:39:30 CDT
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