Are you my mentor? Identifying and cultivating mentoring relationships

on Twitter.Abigail Willemse

Presentation for Pub-SIG workshopLIANZA Conference 2013, Hamilton Oct 20-23, 2013

How do librarians use Twitter to form and cultivate mentoring

relationships?

Why choose Twitter?

Research in a nutshell

• Variety of methodologies – literature review & qualitative questions

• Responses from 14 librarians from Australia and New Zealand

• Number of themes emerged

Hung up on mentoring?

Phone by Pete Prodoehl via CC license on Flickr

Or informal?

Formal relationship between two people?

How do I know it’s mentoring?

A rose by any other name…

Ementoring

Rose A 6-22-12 1 by Paul Sullivan via CC license on Flickr

Personal Learning Network (PLN)

Networking

We’re all in this together!

Together at last by gemsling via CC license on Flickr

I feel that one of the things Twitter does is flatten out the layers so that, although you know in theory someone is older/more experienced etc, you can communicate without so many barriers. A flatter playing field if you like!

Have you got a minute?

Clock by Earls37a via CC license on Flickr

Twitter + other platforms

BLOGS

Twitter by Andreas Eldh via CC license on Flickr

Wrap-up

• Hung up on mentoring?• A rose by any other name• We’re all in this together• Have you got a minute?• Twitter + other platforms

What next?

• Explore an alternative/expanded view of mentoring – a more informal model

• Repeat the research with more participants

Any questions?

• @ajwillemse91• octopuslibrarian.wordpress.com

Thank you for coming!