May 11 2007
Mentoring
Friday afternoon at Knox Academy, I had my mentor hat on. I met three colleagues who are currently working towards their Charter - two School Librarians and the Young People’s Services Librarian. They are all graduates with either a degree in librarianship/information science or a degree in another subject and a PG qualification in librarianship. After a year mentored by a Chartered Librarian, following a personal professional development plan agreed with our professional body CILIPS, they must submit a portfolio for consideration to CILIPs. If this meets the appropriate criteria they will then become Chartered Librarians.
This was our second portfolio meeting. We will get together every few weeks to provide a focus for their work, otherwise it is all too easy to push professional development to the back of the queue of priorities. The purpose of chartering is to demonstrate that we are continuing to develop our managerial skills, keeping our professional skills updated and engaging in effective forward planning. We must demonstrate that we are assessing and evaluating not only our own work but the progress of our service. On reflection this is the way of working and the skills set we are hoping our school students will begin to develop as they engage in Extreme Learning.
