HeLIN Pilot Mentoring Scheme. ANNEBRICE, CATHRYN BROWN, MARIE HICKMAN. AND LIS THORBURN. ABSTRACT. THE HEALTH CARE LIBRARIES.
HeLIN Pilot Mentoring Scheme ANNEBRICE,CATHRYN BROWN,MARIEHICKMAN AND LIS THORBURN ABSTRACT THE HEALTHCARELIBRARIES UNITCOORDINATES, FACILITATES, and promotes continuing personal development for all staff in the Health Libraries and Information Network (HeLIN) of the Oxford Deanery (UK). It supports the development of a culture of lifelong learning and recognizes that CPD should help deliver organizational objectives, as well as enabling all staff to expand and fulfill their potential. A major emphasis for 2000 was to investigate ways of improving support for individual learning within the workplace. The group identified a need to build on existing informal support networks in order to provide additional learning opportunities and decided to investigate the feasibility of piloting a mentoring scheme. The objectives of the pilot were to increase understanding and knowledge of mentoring as a tool for CPD; to investigate existing mentoring schemes and their applicability for HeLIN; to develop a pilot mentoring scheme for HeLIN incorporating a program for accreditation of mentors; and to evaluate the scheme and disseminate the results. In order to identify current practice in this area, a literature review was carried out, and colleagues with an interest in or existing knowledge of mentoring schemeswere contacted where possible. In the absence of clearly defined appraisal tools, all abstracts were read, and articles that met the followingcriteria were obtained and distributed to the group for review. Few Anne Brice, Institute of Health Sciences, Old Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF, England Cathryn Brown, LIS ETD Lead, Richards Building, Oxfordshire Health Authority, Old Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LG, England Marie Hickman, Trust Library, Postgraduate Centre, Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospital NHS Trust, London Road, Reading RGl 5AN, England Lis Thorburn, Health Care Libraries Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, England LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 50, No. 4, Spring 2002, pp. 651-664 0 2002 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois
652 LIBRARY TRENDS/SPRING 2 0 0 2 reports of mentoring schemes that fit our regional context were found, most being organizationally based, with a small number of formal programs in libraries and little activity in the health-library setting. A semistructured pilot mentoring scheme was introduced, which would focus on providing support to a wide range of HeLIN members, including midcareer librarians who wanted support in restructuring their career or who were facing changing roles and tasks and needed help structuring their learning. A set of guiding principles were produced, and the scheme advertised and promoted widely. Recruited mentees were matched with mentors, and initial contacts were undertaken. As part of the scheme, an accreditation program for mentors was organized. Mentors undertake a flexible and learner-centered six-month course in order to achieve the City and Guilds Mentoring Award. The program includes attendance at workshops that underpin participants’ knowledge and understanding, provide a forum to raise and discuss issues, and also provide a valuable support network for mentors. Individual meetings with learners also provide guidance, support development, assessment, and practical experience of mentoring sessions. A midpoint process evaluation has been undertaken to make sure that individuals’ needs are being met and to reassess and reprioritize the meetings program. A full evaluation will be conducted following the conclusion of the initial mentoring award program. This will assess whether the program is reaching its target population and whether the program meets the individual objectives of participants.
BACKGROUND The Health Care Libraries Unit (HCLU), based in the University of Oxford, coordinates, facilitates, and promotes continuing professional development (CPD) for all staff in the Health Libraries and Information Network (HeLIN) of the Oxford Deanery (UK). HeLIN is a cross-sectoral, cooperative federation of libraries and information units that aims to enhance the ability of each member to provide quality library and information services to the health care community it serves, by resource-sharing and other cooperative efforts. The network has been in existence for over thirty years and includes libraries in acute hospital trusts, psychiatric hospital trusts, health authorities, the primary health care community, and higher education institutions. It supports the development of a culture of lifelong learning, and recognizes that CPD should help deliver organizational objectives, as well as enabling all staff to expand and fulfill their potential. A major emphasis of the CPD strategy for 1999/2000 was to investigate ways of improving support for individual learning within the workplace, particularly for staff at midcareer stage. The HCLU identified a need to build on existing informal support networks, in order to provide addition-
BRICE, E T AL./HELIN PILOT MENTORING SCHEME
653
a1 work-based learning opportunities, and decided to investigate the feasibility of piloting a mentoring scheme.
HEALTH CARELIBRARIES COORDINATION The principles of HeLIN, on which all HCLU’s work is based, are focused on the sharing of resources and best practice in library and information management, thereby extending the resources available for users of individual libraries. Expertise and experience is shared both individually and through more formal mechanisms such as a quarterly forum and timelimited, task-focused Special Interest Groups (SIGs). A key target is to present a positive, proactive image for library and information services and to strive for representation on relevant committees and working groups within the home organization and further afield, in order to ensure that library issues are seen to be an integral part of the delivery of health care. Members of the network work together to develop a strategic approach to developingservices in the most appropriate way. This work is underpinned by a commitment to continuing professional development and includes an element of horizonscanning for intelligence on developing trends and on the increasing need for new skills and competencies.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GROUP Increasingly, professionals can rely no longer on their initial training and qualification to see them through their careers, and the impact and demands of continual change could be seen as daunting to the midcareer specialist. The HeLIN Professional Development Group (PDG) is a SIG designed to coordinate, facilitate,and promote continuing professional development for HeLIN staff, and aims to support all members through this continual process of change and development. It consists of seven core library and information stafffrom within the region, all with an interest in training and development. It has representation from all parts of the region and from all grades of staff, encompassing a wide range of experience, expertise, and specialist knowledge. The group is chaired by the assistant director of HCLU, who has prime responsibility for the role and remit of the group. Building on the success of the Librarian of the 21st Century program (Palmer, 1996), the role of the group is both strategic and pragmatic, anticipating and identifylng development needs and ensuring that new skills and knowledge are maintained in order to facilitate innovation and development of services at a local level. The aims of the Professional Development Group are: To identify the common training and development needs of all HeLIN staff.
654 LIBRARY TRENDS/SPRING 2 0 0 2
To provide and promote a program of training events to meet common
identified needs.
To identify and promote training opportunities that are available at lo-
cal and national level.
To enable newly qualified librarians to obtain professional certification.
To raise awareness of opportunities for further qualifications.
To promote the continuing professional development of library and
information staff at trust, health authority, and regional level.
To evaluate the work of the PDG.
The main objectives and methods for the group are based on these aims,
which are reTriewed in an annual strategy and action plan to ensure they are
relevant and appropriate. The annual program of events reflects the three
key areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and aims to ensure that all li-
brary staff in the region are enabled to do theirjob, to be aware of broad-
er developments within the field, and to enhance their roles within their
organizations.
The strate
