GIS mentoring.(Geographic Information Systems)

ABSTRACT

The implementation and development of effective mentoring is crucial to the growth and success of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) librarianship and staffing. Mentoring is necessary to fill the gaps for all staff members, especially students. I propose that mentoring can assuage many of the staffing obstacles to successful GIS programs. Effective mentoring will create a healthy and productive work environment as well as nurture future GIS librarians and staff members. Although mentoring within librarianship has been discussed in library literature, unfortunately work on the area of GIS mentoring is lacking. This article discusses the benefits of mentoring and demonstrates how the need for GIS mentoring is different from other library mentoring, specifically because of staffing. It also offers strategies for effective GIS mentoring.

INTRODUCTION

"To teach is to learn." This Chinese proverb embraces the cyclical nature of mentoring, in which knowledge is gained by everyone in the mentoring relationship--student and teacher, protege and mentor. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to know how to teach and mentor effectively. While literature exists about mentoring in relation to libraries, this is not the case for mentoring in relation to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). As GIS is a relatively new discipline, circumstances regarding staffing, financial obligations, time obligations, and isolation set it apart from other areas of library mentoring. This article discusses these differences and offers practical strategies for implementing an effective GIS mentoring program.

MENTORING FOR LIBRARIES

Simply defined, a mentor is "someone who helps someone else learn something that he or she would have learned less well, more slowly, or not at all if left alone" (Bell, 2000, p. 133). This definition can be applied to everything that many of us, as librarians, do on a daily basis with all patrons, and it needs to be tailored to working with students and other assistants. A library is a business--to the extent that it has financial concerns, competition, and employees and offers services. Therefore, it is appropriate to embrace a business-oriented definition. Richard Luecke, author of Harvard Business Essentials: Coaching and Mentoring: How to Develop Top Talent and Achieve Stronger Performance, redefines mentoring as "a means of developing human resources" (2004, p. xi). Libraries, although not always thought of as such, are corporate entities and should be investing in ways to develop human resources. In order to offer high-quality services, attention must be spent on recruiting, developing, and keeping staff members. With students, mentoring plays a key role in demonstrating why librarianship is a good career choice, developing skills and knowledge, and creating a positive work environment that may reduce turnover.

The benefits of mentoring are numerous and diverse for the mentor and the recipient of the mentoring (referred to as the protege in this article). Benefits, however, apply to more than just those involved in the mentoring relationship. In his book The Mentoring Manager, Gareth Lewis (1996) divides the beneficiaries into three categories: protege, mentor, and organization (see Table 1). Gail Munde (2000) confirms and adds to Lewis's list of benefits in her article, "Beyond Mentoring: Toward the Rejuvenation of Academic Libraries."

 
   Positive outcomes for proteges have included higher salaries, 
   promotions, overall career satisfaction, and satisfaction with 
   their organizations. Benefits for mentors include a renewal of 
   professional purpose, a briefing in new or emerging aspects of 
   a profession, a sense of satisfaction that one has helped to 
   influence the future of the profession, the loyalty and support 
   of the protege, and recognition for the mentor's ability to 
   identify and advise promising employees who will contribute 
   to the organization. Positive outcomes to organizations have 
   included increased employee retention, reduced turnover, faster 
   and more efficient introduction of junior employees to 
   organizational norms and expectations, and improved coherence of 
   leadership through the organization. (Munde, 2000, p. 172) 

The organizational benefits--although commonly overlooked when considering mentoring--are the foundations of a successful library department or program.

GIS MENTORING VERSUS OTHER LIBRARY MENTORING

GIS librarianship is specialized and highly technical. Although mentoring is mentioned in library literature, a review of the literature did not find any mentoring models that fit the circumstances faced by GIS librarians and staff. For instance, the mentoring model used by the Louisiana State University Libraries, although successful, is not appropriate for GIS mentoring for two main reasons: goals and audience. The audience is librarians, and the goal is promotion and tenure. This is the case for the majority of mentoring articles that…