Purpose
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how to create and sustain a successful mentoring program for reference student assistants in the liberal arts environment. The study delineates student training, program assessment and the impact on reference practice in a way that can be used at other institutions considering implementing a similar initiative.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study is written by professionals who have been deeply engaged in initiating, running and assessing the program. It presents the value of the program in an unbiased and objective manner by including the voices of the student mentees themselves reflecting on the experience.
Findings
The mentorship program has proven to be worthwhile and rewarding in equal measures to both the mentees and reference librarians working with our future successors. It serves an important role in inspiring and encouraging library student workers to become interested in academic librarianship as a career choice and it prepares them to be successful students in library and information science graduate programs.
Originality/value
Although the discussion of training reference student assistants per se is not rare in the library literature, this particular program is unique in several ways: its main intent is to mentor students who are interested in pursuing librarianship as a career goal; it occurs in the context of a liberal arts college rather than in a larger university setting, especially those offering degrees in information and library science; and it empowers students to provide in-depth independent reference services for their peers and faculty.
As digital technologies permeate research, teaching, and learning on academic campuses, librarians are increasingly expected to be conversant in the tools and resources used in digital humanities (DH) scholarship. They are also expected to play a role in managing DH projects and promoting them to their campus communities and beyond. This growing niche of support calls not only for expanding librarians' DH toolkits and knowledge, but also for novel and energetic collaborations with other college staff, particularly information technologists. This chapter considers ways to create and sustain partnerships between faculty, instructional technologists, and librarians in support of DH activities at a liberal arts college. By focusing on collaborative approaches to DH training, events, and project planning and management, the chapter provides a blueprint for creating a DH Team that capitalizes on the existing skills of librarians and instructional technologists and for fostering a culture in which librarians can acquire new skills to support DH scholarship.
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