Finding a School Librarian Mentor That’s Right For You

It’s best practice (and common sense) for new school librarians to be mentored or trained by a more experienced librarian. This is especially true for educators who don’t have teaching experience yet, or who are transferring to the school librarian role from another area of K-12 education.

But how do you find another school librarian or media specialist to help you grow professionally? What if you’re the only librarian in your school or district?

Who can help you learn the practical, day-to-day procedures and skills to manage a library and teach library classes?

It can a tough to find a mentor or coach who understands the unique challenges that working in a school library brings. The good news is that the school librarian community is thriving, and we generally love supporting each other! If you know where to look, you will find colleagues and “work besties” to connect with throughout your librarian career.

This article is part of a series on Librarian Mentoring. Read more articles about mentoring at this link.

3 Ways to Find a Librarian Mentor who is the Right Fit

1. Ask within your district or local area first.

In larger districts, you will likely meet other teacher-librarians who are teaching the same grade levels as you are. Your library “department” may even have a leader on staff who is in charge of library programs, professional development, initiatives, and/or budgets. The best place to start is to ask your department leader if another librarian could be your assigned mentor.

Of course, any assigned mentor should be compensated, even if it’s just through a stipend. If there is an expectation for the mentor and new librarian to meet outside of school hours, both people should be compensated for their time as well.

In the absence of an assigned mentor or new teacher mentoring program, you can ask within your library department if anyone is willing to mentor you as a new librarian. Keep in mind that you’re asking someone to give their time and energy, likely without compensation. Be gracious if they say “no” and respect their professional boundaries.

An ideal mentor is someone who has at least 3-5 years of experience teaching in a school library.

Questions to ask a potential mentor:

• How often can you both meet? What is a realistic time commitment for both of you?
• Are they willing to be “on call” during school hours to answer emails or phone calls if you have questions? If so, that might be enough to help you through your first year of teaching.
• Are they willing to chat or text outside of school hours?
• What other healthy boundaries should you set?
  For example, you may both decide to limit conversations to professional library topics only, or you may be open to discussing how your profession affects your personal life.

If your school is too small to have multiple librarians, talk to your principal or school administrator about partnering with a neighboring school district to find a professional librarian mentor.

2. Check with your state’s or region’s professional library association.

There are professional school library associations for every state in the U.S., plus regional and national library associations in the U.S., Canada, and around the world. One of the most well-known in the United States is the American Association of School Librarians, or AASL, which is part of the American Library Association (ALA).

If you are very lucky, your state library association might have a mentoring program already. In fact, the best of these programs offer a discount on membership dues for librarians who volunteer to mentor others.

As of this writing in 2024, here are the ones who have mentoring programs in place or in the works:

Note to library associations and organizations: If you would like to be added to this list or to update a broken link, please contact me through this link.

U.S. State Library Associations with Mentoring Programs

• Connecticut – https://ctlibraryassociation.org/mentoring 
• Georgia – https://www.glma-inc.org/newschoollibrarians 
• Hawaii (see Buddy System)- https://haslhawaii.weebly.com/contact.html
• Kentucky – https://www.kasl.us/about/mentoring 
• Maine – https://maslibraries.org/Mentoring2 
• Montana (committee, not a program)- https://www.mtlib.org/page-18180
• Nevada – https://nevadalibraries.org/Mentorship 
• New Jersey – https://njasl.org/Mentoring 
• New York City – https://nycsla.com/membership/ 
• North Carolina (in progress) – https://ncslma.wildapricot.org/professionalgrowth
• Oklahoma (in progress) – https://whova.com/web/hrdpHxTYLd7EBuAmecC3gNEtT3bUQd7u7yYRIPAqpQI%3D/ 
• Oregon – https://ola.memberclicks.net/mentor-program 
• Tennessee (scroll to Mentorship Committee)- https://tasl.memberclicks.net/executive-board
• Vermont – https://sites.google.com/view/vslamentor/home 
• Virginia (informal monthly chats) – https://vaasl.memberclicks.net/colleague-connect-chats 
• Washington – https://wala.memberclicks.net/teacher-librarian-mentoring 

Other Library Associations with Mentoring Programs

• Canada – https://librarianship.ca/resources/mentoring-programs/ 
• Australian Library and Information Association – https://www.alia.org.au/Web/Web/Careers/ALIA-Mentoring-Scheme.aspx 
• Asian / Pacific American Librarians Association – https://www.apalaweb.org/about/committees/standing-committees/mentoring-committee/mentoring-program/ 
• Middle East Librarians Association – https://www.mela.us/committees/education/mentorship/ 
• Association of Christian Librarians – https://www.acl.org/community/mentoring-program/

3. Hire a librarian mentor or coach

Group mentoring isn’t for everyone, and library associations may struggle to find enough volunteer mentors for the number of new librarians who need them.

That’s where a librarian mentor from outside your school can be a great option.

I’m a certified teacher-librarian in the state of Pennsylvania who mentors, trains, and coaches new school librarians and media specialists. I help newbie librarians learn how to run their library, teach effective lessons, and grow professionally based on my 15+ years of experience.

Especially for small districts with only 1 librarian, making a short-term investment will advance your school’s library program quickly and effectively. Working together with a new librarian, we usually accomplish initiatives in 1 school year that would normally take 3-5 years to implement.

If your interested learning more, book a free 30-minute consult, and see if my services are a good fit for your school. No hard sells, or pressure to buy anything. It’s just a conversation about your vision for your school library program. If I’m not the right person to meet your needs, I may refer you to other resources that will help you develop your library or media center.

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