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At times, it feels like I have had hundreds of mentors; other times, none.
Doing the podcast over the past decade has allowed me to make contacts I never would’ve made otherwise and some of those guests end up being colleagues, friends, or mentors. The mentor role slips in and out, as the word “mentor” changes meanings in my mind. Is it a long-term role that seeks to help me grow in my career? Is it a short-term cheer squad? Is it just someone willing to listen and give practical advice?
As you’ll hear from the founders of PeMento in Circulating Ideas Episode 236, a mentor can be different things to different people, so maybe that continuously-changing role in my head is not so far off.
CI242 Show Notes
PeMento
PeMento is designed to create space for participants to explicitly reflect on and explore career motivations, finding that these connections and support networks are critical to have beyond your home institution, which all have differing levels of support (including complete lack of support!). And let’s face it, even with support and resources, it can still be awkward to have career growth conversations with colleagues at your home organization, or even to strategize at an individual level about what you really want.
So PeMento is putting together peer mentoring cohorts that allow the candid and safe spaces to do that.
Founders
Lindsay Cronk is currently Assistant Dean for Scholarly Resources and Curation at the University of Rochester. She’s a passionate advocate and champion for libraries and library workers who served as first elected president of Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, ALA’s newest Division. Her consortial work includes the creation of NERL’s Backflip model for retroactive open access. She’s more covered in tattoos and full of strong opinions than ever before.
Maurini Strub is the Assistant Dean for Strategy & Planning at the University of Rochester. She’s a storyteller who enjoys helping organizations tell their own stories about how they are working together to fulfill their mission while optimizing limited resources; and, about the impact of their strategic changes on the community (or institution)-at-large. As a systems thinker with years of experience in academic libraries, she has a strong understanding of the strategic levers that can scale strategic and user-focused initiatives.
Ashley Krenelka Chase is a former law librarian and current Assistant Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, where she teaches research & writing. In her copious free time, Ashley writes about access to justice for incarcerated litigants, spends time pretending to be PeMento's general counsel, and plays a lot of hide and seek with the Brute Squad (aka her three kids).
Rachel Fleming is Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where they manage the UTC Library’s Affordable Course Materials Initiative, support open campus publishing in UTC Scholar, and provide scholarly communications training and support.
Mentions
“The cost of librarianship: Relocating for work and finding community” by Annie Pho, Dustin Fife [CRL News]
PeMento and the Power of Peer Mentoring [Carterette Series Webinars]
“Sneaky Hate Spiral” by Allie Brosh
Steve Thomas is a public library manager who lives in the suburbs of Atlanta with his wife, two kids, and one dog. He has worked in libraries for two decades and has hosted the Circulating Ideas podcast since 2011.
Currently Reading: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Circulating Ideas facilitates conversations with the innovative people and ideas inspiring libraries to grow and thrive in the 21st century. Brought to you with support from listeners like you.