Picture

Let me start off by saying you're amazing, and you don't need a formal mentor to guide you towards greater librarian awesomeness. You can do it! Or rather, we can do it together. Ask for others' help, offer yours, and help make librarianship a better field collectively.

Blogs you should really be reading:

You might have already noticed that I suggested reading blogs rather than writing one of your own: that's intentional. We don't all need to write blogs! You can comment on the ones you like and help build a community around them instead of trying to compete. 
  • Letters to a Young Librarian because it's helpful to all librarians, not just the young or new. And because Jessica Olin is truly an awesome person and member of my librarian family.
  • BeerBrarian because he's thoughtful and honest. And because... beer.
  • 5 Minute Librarian is one I've recently come across and am really enjoying. Short, practical posts. Check out the "Ready to Go!" Book Display series.

Not to turn this into a giant blogroll, but also consider:
Note: These blogs skew academic because they're relevant to my interests. What public or special library blogs would you add? Keep in mind the aim here isn't to be a comprehensive list of all the awesome blogs that are out there but rather a list of blogs helpful for self-mentoring, i.e. blogs where you'll find good, honest advice about Stuff that Matters.

Tweet-ers you should really be following:

The truth is you should really be following whomever matches your personality and professional interests the best, both at your own level and up a notch. I can't try (and won't) to make a list of All the Awesome Librarians in the world. But I'll have a go at some suggestions.
  • Why not follow people other think are influential in our field? That might mean Movers and Shakers, Emerging Leaders, or some other set of people who are recognized as being thought-leaders.
  • Now that I've attended the i2c2 Conference, I can safely say the people on @LibraryMistress's list of i2c2 attendees are Very Awesome People indeed. Follow this list! Yes I'm on it, but I encourage you to just block me if you're annoyed by my cat photos.
  • Plenty of people have compiled Twitter lists of librarians. You can find and follow those for a wide swath of librarian voices.


Participate in some of the great Twitter chats happening! More keep popping up all the time, which is great!
  •  #LibChat at 8pm EST Wednesday nights, run by @NatalieBinder. Questions are quite varied and it's a good way to "meet" librarians you didn't know. (UK & other international friends: If the timing doesn't work out you can always search out the hashtag and follow up on interesting comments later.)
  • #CritLib chat at 9pm EST every other Tuesday night, run by a collective of awesome librarians (including @pumpedlibrarian, @catladylib, @barnlib, @edrabinski, & @kellymce).  The purpose of this chat is to discuss critical library pedagogy and related topics for librarians and other interested professionals. You can find more information here: tinyurl.com/critlibx.
  • #inaljchat at 9pm EST Monday nights. "Crowd-sourcing the best of the web from the best on the web (ie: librarians) on job hunting topics." If you're looking for your first job or trying to find a better one than you have now, this would be a great chat to participate in or just follow (if you're worried your current employer might catch on!).

Other very important Twitter tips: 
  1. Don't just follow people. You should say things and interact with people! You can favorite comments all damn day, but meaningful interaction comes from an exchange of ideas. I've gotten to know many librarians through Twitter and honestly, I've found it to be the most rewarding and invaluable networking/mentoring tool around. But I didn't make those connections just by sitting there reading people's Tweets. I connected with them.
  2. Be yourself! Or at least that stylized version of yourself you share on social media! I love librarians, but I'll quit following them if they only ever tweet library-related stuff. We know how to find current articles on our profession, I don't need you to tweet them to me all day long, but please, share the most interesting ones. Comment and share, don't just retweet them. And if you hate cat photos, you probably don't want to follow me, either.

Facebook forums:

Join ALA Think Tank. ALA as in Awesome Librarians Associated, of course. And they are awesome. So are you, which is why you should join. And the awesome thing about ALATT is that, despite all the drama, it's a loose coalition of librarians who just want to communicate with a diverse group of peers. Sometimes that's social (Drink Tank), and sometimes it's professional. See for yourself, okay? 

Surely you're a member of some other group of librarians that has a FB page. For me, that's Beta Phi Mu or my alma mater's student ALA Chapter (this time I really do mean American Library Association). I don't find them to be as valuable for mentoring as ALATT but they're likely not going to spam you, either, so go for it.

Are there other awesome FB groups of librarians? Many.  Let me know which ones are your favorites and I'll add them here.

Podcasts:

You know, I don't really listen to podcasts. I don't have a commute on a train (I drive <5 minutes to work), and I'll admit I don't go to the gym. So podcasts don't really fit into my life. That said, I've heard from a number of people that they love librarian podcasts and they find them really helpful. So, for your consideration:
  • Circulating Ideas is a podcast by and for librarians. Steve Thomas interviews a different librarian from a different walk of librarianship each episode. This one keeps getting recommended to me, so put it first on your podcast to-listen list.
  • Lost in the Stacks is actually a radio show in Atlanta hosted by two librarians from Georgia Tech. It's part music and part library, so if you're averse to talk-only this one's great. I'll bet they have a lot of fun matching themes with songs!

Find your own opportunities:

Do you have something to share with the world, but you don't know where the amazing conferences are happening and when? Good news! The Library Conference Planner lets you find conferences by geographic region!  (This is how I found out about i2c2!) If you're not a world traveler (or don't have the funding to be), you can still use the site to find conferences in your region you could drive to. State library association conferences are great, but we need to get out of our boxes and bubbles sometimes.

Are you on any committees? You should volunteer for some. Whether ALA, SLA, SAA, IFLA or some other interesting jumble of letters is your bag, they'll always need people to serve on committees. My advice: start small unless you know you'll have the time and energy for a committee that takes a lot of work. For example, serving on a scholarship committee usually means you'll have obligations for a short period of time, then your work is done.

Your peers are likely writing things. If not, your aspirational peers probably are. A Library Writer's Blog posts calls for proposals so you'll know what publishing opportunities are out there. Of course, you can submit to your favorite journal or trade magazine, too. Where are your friends publishing? Start there. Still nervous? Write something with a co-author you like working with or review a book. You don't have to jump straight into writing your own monograph of brilliance.

Other great tools:

Be on LinkedIn and keep your profile current. Connect with people you meet in real life who you'd want to stay in contact with. Then you can quit trading business cards that you'll just lose anyway! Don't lurk too much and visit the same person's profile every week or they'll think you're a stalker.

Use Unstuck to get past writer's block or whatever is preventing you from doing the amazing things you've been putting off.

Tiny Habits can help you take baby steps towards being a more efficient and amazing person, too. The idea is to get used to making tiny improvements in your life (putting your keys on the hook when you get home so you won't lose them anymore) because these behaviors are easier to change. After that so you can move on to accomplishing bigger and better things.

Read Informed Librarian Online. It aggregates everything you'll ever need to know about what's going on in libraries right meow.
I presented this concept at the i2c2 Conference in Manchester, UK in March 2014. These are the brilliant ideas attendees suggested:
  1. Try stepping outside the library world (whether you're an academic or otherwise) and do something different, like teach camps or unconferences. Expand your idea of who your colleagues are and you stand to learn a lot from people in seemingly unrelated professions.
  2. Administrators should be paying attention to what the young, innovative people are doing so they can put their ideas into practice. Don't let good, creative thoughts go to waste: harness them. Reverse the mentorship process.
  3. Go analog: you can learn a lot from looking over files from previous employees or administrators to see how they handled some of the same problems you'll face.
  4. If you're on a board or committee that gives out grants or other awards: you're lucky to be reviewing their applications! Take their good ideas and see how they might fit in your own institution.
  5. Go on job interviews. Even if you don't get the job it's a great way to meet new people in the field and to showcase your work.

    Is there a resource you think I should add to this page? Let me know.

Praise for "I mentor my d@mned self", where I introduced the self-mentorship toolkit: