MENTORING AWARD:
The award recognizes a more experienced library employee (mentor) for taking a special interest in the development of a newer library employee (mentee).
NOMINEES:
Eric Griffith
Eric is in charge of hiring and supervising the student assistants who staff the Main Library Reference Desk at nights and on the weekends when the Reference Librarians aren't staffing it. I have always been impressed with the high caliber of students that he has hired. First, Eric has to cull through dozens of applications when we need to hire and always narrows it down to a core group of two to three student assistants. Eric then has to train the student assistants to answer a wide variety of questions that we get at the Reference Desk. They are also trained to answer questions we get through phone, chat and text in addition to in-person help. Our student assistants also tend to stay with us and work the Reference desk until they graduate. When they graduate, they often don't leave education behind. During this last year alone, we have had a student assistant go onto to graduate work in English, another off to earn a Masters' in Social Work and another has gone to library school. Lastly, when they graduate, we are of course happy to see them move forward in their lives, but at the same time we all miss them terribly.
Carla Wilson Buss
Carla is one of those people that really stump you when it comes to ASSET award nominations: just which one does she deserve the most? This year I spun the wheel and decided on the Mentoring Award.
OK, so it wasn't that random. I am nominating Carla for this award because among all of the ways she is a model librarian, her spirit of mentorship might be the strongest. It sounds like an exaggeration, but something just lights up in her when she has the chance to help a beginning scholar, student, or young professional. I know, because that beginner has been me, time and time again. It's just how she is. She would explain that as a librarian-in-training herself, she had the benefit of working with those who made it their business to help her as much as they could. And certainly, those folks made their mark. But it comes naturally to her, no question.
A good mentor shares so many qualities with a good librarian: both want to smooth the path to knowledge and success in as many ways as possible, while also striving to leave discovery in the hands of protege, patron or student. Carla shares her hard-earned tools freely, and is lavishly generous with her time, attention, and knowledge, as a librarian should be.
While Carla does have a formal position as a Faculty Mentor through PDRC, her mentoring gift extends beyond that role. I have promised myself that when I'm in the position to do for someone else what she's done for me, I'll do everything I can to help that person succeed. And I'll hold myself to that, but it just won't be as easy for me as it is for Carla. Her brain is hardwired to help others, which is why it's such good news that she is both librarian and mentor to so many.
Please give Carla Buss the Mentoring Award that she so greatly deserves!