Perhaps it was a professor . . . or an employer . . . or an acquaintance from a conference . . . Each of us remembers the times when we needed advice about academic law librarianship and we reached out to those that knew the profession best--academic law librarians.
All of us have benefited from the advice and counsel of at least one or more experienced law librarian some time during our careers. Mentoring relationships are vitally important in our profession. The Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section (ALL SIS) Peer-Mentoring Program gives newer law librarians an opportunity to learn about our profession, ask questions, and discuss concerns.
The ALL-SIS is working with the AALL Mentoring Committee to match experienced academic librarians with newer members of our branch of the profession. You can meet your new mentor or mentee as early as July 2003 at the Annual Meeting in Seattle. Any experienced law librarian is eligible to be a mentor, and anyone who has become a law librarian in the last few years is eligible to be assigned to a mentor. If each one of you reading this newsletter article signs up for this program, and if you convince your favorite colleagues to do the same, there will be a mentor for every one of those wonderful new colleagues who are just looking for someone to befriend them and to show them the ropes, and there will be a new law librarian to give an "old-timer" a glimpse into the future of the profession. What an outstanding service the Academic SIS could provide just by making a generous showing as participants in the Association's Mentoring Program!
In addition, the SIS is sponsoring a special CONALL (Conference of Newer Academic Law Librarians) program for newer academics and their mentors. At this light-hearted event we will introduce newer academic law librarians to the world of law school librarianship. Combining fun and humor with frank and serious discussion, we will raise issues particular to serving law students and faculty and to promoting legal scholarship and research within the campus community. This will also be a fitting occasion for the members of the ALL-SIS "entering class" and their mentors to begin the exciting process of forming new professional relationships and then to continue this process as we move as a group to the reception. A special bus will be provided to bring attendees to the Seattle University School of Law for this program, which will be held from 5:15 - 6:15 P.M., just before the ALL-SIS reception.
So please fill out a Mentor Application Form at www.aallnet.org/committee/mentoring/mentor_form.html or a Mentee Application Form at www.aallnet.org/committee/mentoring/mentee_form.html right now, and join us in this rewarding volunteer opportunity. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the Chair of the ALL SIS CONELL/Mentoring Committee, Ruth Levor, at rlevor@SanDiego.edu or by phone at (619) 260-4604.