Mutually Beneficial Mentoring for Mental Wellness and Personal Growth

<p dir="ltr"><i>The Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame has implemented a </i><i>lightweight mentorship program that provides a structure for recently hired employees to </i><i>learn about the organization, to provide advice that considers the institutional context, </i><i>and to elucidate the roles and responsibilities of library faculty. In the fall of 2012, the </i><i>Hesburgh Libraries hired a Metadata and Digital Collections Librarian and the </i><i>Organizational Development Librarian paired him with a senior manager overseeing IT </i><i>in the Libraries. This chapter endeavors to first ground the readers in the literature </i><i>related to mentoring, wellbeing, and the intersection of the two concepts. For the </i><i>remainder of the chapter, the authors will discuss how their work together has matured </i><i>their perspectives, how their professional relationship has evolved over time and helped </i><i>them both to practice new skills and learn new approaches together, how the meetings </i><i>provide a safe space to talk through challenges openly, and offer some tips on how to </i><i>start a mentoring relationship on one’s own in that context. The authors hope to offer a </i><i>low threshold means to engage in effective mentoring.</i></p>