Growing in the Profession: Career Support for Library Employees

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) Libraries’ Library Career Interest Group (LCIG) is an informal group formed to provide moral support and encouragement to staff interested in a general exploration of the library profession as well as career advancement. This group met quarterly and received support from the UCI Libraries in the form of approved staff time and funds for professional development training. Despite LCIG’s original focus on library school, it quickly became apparent that there was a need for broader career mentoring. Members began to take an active role in reaching out to library specialists and creating workshops intended to define the types of work done in each department, offer career paths for each of these roles, and build specific skills related to job searching. In the last few years, LCIG has grown increasingly active and focused on career growth and professional mentorship. Programming seeks to empower staff and offer insight into the many paths to librarianship. Examples include: asking former employees to speak about the specific experience and skills that aided their job search as well as describing their new positions, hosting workshops on tools related to scholarly communication, and sharing professional development opportunities. By moving from a one-on-one to a group mentorship model, LCIG is applicable to libraries experiencing unprecedented retirements and disruption to traditional mentoring programs. This ShopTalk will showcase the advantages of this mentorship model and answer audience questions about implementing and sustaining this program.