by Sarah Sansbury
As Strong as the Librarian Next to You:
Community over Competition!
This is the heart of GLMA’s new mentoring program. Our profession is as strong as the librarian next to you. When another librarian succeeds, we all succeed!
We’ve all experienced outsiders misunderstanding our profession—believing it’s just story time and checking out books. It is because of this, when there are budget cuts, there are people who believe librarians are not vital for our schools and communities. However, we can change that erroneous perspective through thriving programming, transformational librarian leadership, and effective advocacy. This is just one of the many reasons why we need community over competition, why we are as strong as the librarian next to you.
If you are an experienced librarian, please consider giving back to the GLMA community by becoming a mentor. Below are the criteria to become mentor as well as the responsibilities of a mentor. Click here for the mentor application.
Mentor Responsibilities:
1. You will help acclimate a new librarian to the culture, goals, and best practices of school librarianship focusing on the School Librarian Evaluation Instrument standards.
2. You are a growth agent meant to support and encourage.
3. You will provide professional dialogue.
4. You will provide reflective coaching.
5. You will maintain open and positive communication with your mentee(s).
To become a mentor, You must meet the following criteria must be met:
1. Be a certified School Library Media Specialist
2. Have at least three years experience as a School Library Media Specialist
3. Be a member of GLMA
4. Have administrative approval
5. Read and agree to the terms of the mentor guidelines: https://bit.ly/3k8249O
If you are new to the library field, please take advantage of our new mentoring program. Details on how to sign up will be shared shortly. If you have questions, please email: president@glma-inc.org.
Remember that we are indeed stronger together—and our future ever so brighter!
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