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Guest Speakers as Mentors: What Classroom Experiences Mean to Them

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Title: Guest Speakers as Mentors: What Classroom Experiences Mean to Them
Language: English
Authors: Keren Dali, Ashlyn Velte, Stephanie Anderson, Michelle Ganz, John Lindaman, Miriam Tuliao
Source: Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 2025 66(1):40-59.
Availability: Association for Library and Information Science Education. Available from: University of Toronto Press. 5201 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON, M3H 5T8 Canada. Tel: 416-667–7929; Fax: 416-667–7832; e-mail: journals@utpress.utoronto.ca; e-mail: office@alise.org; Web site: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/jelis
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 20
Publication Date: 2025
Intended Audience: Teachers; Administrators
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Opinion Papers
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Team Teaching, Professional Personnel, Library Schools, Learning Activities, Classroom Environment, Librarians, Archives, Graduate School Faculty, Graduate Students, Library Education, Lecture Method, Learner Engagement, Partnerships in Education, Student Attitudes, Outcome Based Education, Student Centered Learning, Individualized Instruction, Information Science Education, Mentors, Attitudes
Geographic Terms: Colorado (Denver)
DOI: 10.3138/jelis-2024-0019
ISSN: 0748-5786
2328-2967
Abstract: Resulting from the collaboration between five practicing professionals and an LIS faculty member, this article illuminates the experiences of librarians and archivists who engage with LIS students on a continuous basis as guest speakers in LIS classrooms. The phenomenological approach helps to elicit first-hand accounts that encapsulate practitioners' priorities and concerns. The free-floating narratives are combined with an extensive literature review related to mentorship practices in professional fields; they are used to produce a blended viewpoint-analytical article that places empirical data in the context of the three-pronged framework of mentorship motivations, focusing on outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented motivations. These types of mentorship motivations focus on transmitting professional knowledge, socializing LIS students to become responsible professional citizens, and learning about the state of the field and the workforce from students themselves. The article provides suggestions for future empirical research into the motivation of LIS professionals who choose to mentor LIS students through classroom engagements and other avenues.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1458193
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0182329932;lii01jan.25;2025Jan22.05:09;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0182329932-1">Guest Speakers as Mentors: What Classroom Experiences Mean to Them </title> <p>Resulting from the collaboration between five practicing professionals and an LIS faculty member, this article illuminates the experiences of librarians and archivists who engage with LIS students on a continuous basis as guest speakers in LIS classrooms. The phenomenological approach helps to elicit first-hand accounts that encapsulate practitioners' priorities and concerns. The free-floating narratives are combined with an extensive literature review related to mentorship practices in professional fields; they are used to produce a blended viewpoint-analytical article that places empirical data in the context of the three-pronged framework of mentorship motivations, focusing on outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented motivations. These types of mentorship motivations focus on transmitting professional knowledge, socializing LIS students to become responsible professional citizens, and learning about the state of the field and the workforce from students themselves. The article provides suggestions for future empirical research into the motivation of LIS professionals who choose to mentor LIS students through classroom engagements and other avenues.</p> <p>Keywords: guest speakers; LIS education; mentors; motivation; professional development</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-2">Key points:</hd> <p></p> <ulist> <item> LIS practitioners engaging students as guest speakers are trusted partners and mentors in LIS graduate education.</item> <p></p> <item> Guest speakers' motivation is determined by three types of factors: outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented.</item> <p></p> <item> These types of mentorship motivations focus on transmitting professional knowledge, socializing LIS students to become ethical professionals, and staying updated about the state of the field.</item> </ulist> <p>Every time faculty members plan their courses and update their syllabi, they invite their colleagues—practitioners from different types of libraries, archives, and other information organizations—as guest speakers to their classes. For educators in professional graduate programs, engaging practicing professionals in our classes is one of the best ways to keep our teaching relevant, to make sure that students' learning is interesting and rooted in the field of practice, and to afford budding professionals the opportunity to network with a wide range of practitioners while they are still in the program.</p> <p>Mentorship has always been one of the staples of Library & Information Science (LIS) education. In a field as vast as LIS, we have to maintain a wide and active network of professionals from various sectors supporting LIS students: from different types of libraries to archives to information organizations and non-traditional settings that require the skill and education in information science.</p> <p>To be sure, mentorship comes through different modes of engagement. Practitioners serve on advisory boards to LIS programs. There are ongoing mentorship programs, whereby students are matched with practitioners in the field one-on-one or in groups; these can be more structured or less formal, depending on circumstances. There are highly formalized opportunities embedded in LIS programs in the form of field placements, practicums, and internships, including those delivered virtually (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref1">11</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref2">12</reflink>]). There are extracurricular activities, such as workshops, invited panels, and immersion experiences. There are ad-hoc mentorship models established to facilitate specific projects, such as the team-based mentorship approach at a major academic library described by [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref3">9</reflink>]. Finally, there are frequent one-shot interactions between practitioners and LIS students when the former visit LIS courses as guest speakers. It is the latter type of engagement that is more often left out of focus in conference discussions and LIS publications while the other types of mentorships are well covered and examined.</p> <p>Nonetheless, studies of guest speakers do exist. A substantial number of multidisciplinary sources on guest speakers from various fields surveyed in [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref4">16</reflink>] are divided into three categories: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref5">1</reflink>) personal reflections with largely anecdotal data; (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref6">2</reflink>) the use of guest speakers in specific contexts (e.g., virtual learning, specific assignment completion, panel participation, etc.), documenting "ventures that were developed expressly to increase the employability of students and were often part of professional development activities rather than a traditional classroom environment" (p. 77); and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref7">3</reflink>) engagements with guest speakers as one out of many pedagogical techniques, using examples from such fields as education, instructional technology, world languages, communication studies, nutrition, psychology, and tourism (p. 77). While they are numerous, most studies exist primarily outside of LIS.</p> <p>Moreover, most publications and discussions often center on the benefits that students derive from communication with practicing professionals. Less frequently do we see accounts and analyses of these engagements from the standpoint of guest speakers themselves, and "empirical studies of mentor's [<emph>sic</emph>] motives are rare" ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref8">27</reflink>], p. 103). [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref9">24</reflink>] notes that "few studies directly consult practitioners, who are also the potential employers of LIS students, for their perspective" on the question of how well a certain program aligns with concerns and goals of the field of practice and how to balance theoretical education with practical training (p. 428). In another account, the now decade-old paper by [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref10">18</reflink>] points out that although the "sheer volume of articles that describe mentorship program models and their implementation suggests its significance in the development of professionals," a "discussion of mentoring from the mentor's perspective has received only anecdotal attention" in LIS (p. 137). Their own study does address this gap.</p> <p>To further address this gap—the lack of first-hand accounts by practitioners who serve as guest speakers specifically in the field of LIS—we, a group of five LIS practitioners and an LIS faculty member, have decided to write a blended viewpoint-analytical article that reflects on the experiences and motivations of guest speakers in LIS classrooms in their own words. We place these experiences in the context of mentoring motivations: outcome-oriented motivations, student-oriented motivations, and personal-learning-oriented motivations, as explained below.</p> <p>All five practitioners contributing to this article have appeared in the courses taught by Dr. Keren Dali at the University of Denver and visited more than one course over the years, including courses in collection management, foundations of LIS, reader services, outreach, and job market readiness. This group comprises Stephanie Anderson, Michelle Ganz, John Lindaman, Miriam Tuliao, and Ashlyn Velte, all of whom are co-authors on this article and, along with Dr. Dali, referred henceforth as article contributors. Charting unique professional paths and bringing a wealth of knowledge from LIS sectors as diverse as public, academic, and museum libraries, publishing, and archives, these practitioners offer their reflections on the experience of engaging with LIS students in graduate courses. These reflections appear in the article as a series of vignettes, followed by an analysis and discussion of commonalities in personal accounts based on the earlier outlined classification of motivations for mentorship. We strive to retain the original voices of contributors and to conclude with the composite, collective picture of mentorship through guest speaking engagements. In doing so, we pursue a single research question:</p> <p>What does the experience of being a guest speaker in the LIS classroom mean to LIS practitioners?</p> <p>Our interest is also rooted in the supposition that "becoming a mentor" means "entering into a reciprocal relationship with a protégée or mentee" and stems from "the existence of two dominant mentoring motives: generative outcome motives and personal learning motives" ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref11">27</reflink>], pp. 103–104).</p> <p>We hope that this article will benefit multiple constituencies in the LIS community, including but not limited to LIS educators who continue inviting guest speakers to their courses; LIS program administrators who seek to improve the relevance and quality of their program offerings; LIS students who will become practitioners in the near future and engage in mentoring activities themselves; and a broad range of LIS practitioners who may be contemplating and deciding in favor of or against class visits as a way of engagement in professional service. In our article, we alternate between the first- and the third-person narrative for reasons of clarity. Our preference is for the first-person language; however, with multiple voices included in individual vignettes and parts of the article written collectively, narrating in the first person only may, at times, cause confusion. We blend both types of narrative to achieve maximum clarity on whose voice is channeled, and we hope that the reader finds our reasoning helpful.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-3">Where do guest visits fit in the context of professional mentorship?</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0182329932-4">The nature and value of professional mentorship</hd> <p>As mentioned in the Introduction, the importance of actively engaging members of the professional community in LIS graduate education is difficult to overestimate. [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref12">22</reflink>] argue for a broad and multi-faceted benefit of close collaboration with practitioners in designing educational opportunities for graduate students. In other words,</p> <p>Academic programmes[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref13">1</reflink>] have a responsibility to ensure that LIS students have the strategies in place, not just to perform the vocational aspects of their profession, but to adapt intellectually to a variety of workplaces and wider issues of their profession. To do this, students require a deep understanding of the industry, its history, common goals and principles, and contemporary manifestations of it. (p. 325)</p> <p>This ongoing and close collaboration serves as a barometer of the health and currency of an LIS program. It allows faculty and administrators to gauge the following:</p> <p>How well do current curricular offerings align with available jobs and employer expectations? What is the appropriate balance between theory and practice, education and training, and what roles can library schools and employers each play in supporting the development of new professionals? ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref14">24</reflink>], p. 428)</p> <p>Practicing professionals invite emergent librarians to their communities of practice, participation in which "provides many opportunities to transfer knowledge among professionals and those working towards professional status" ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref15">15</reflink>], pp. 346–347). In more specific terms, students can "engage with, contribute to, and be socialised into, the profession while still studying" ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref16">22</reflink>], p. 320).</p> <p>Affirming the importance of interactions between LIS students and practitioners, especially in online programs, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref17">5</reflink>] highlighted that "to create authentic, library related learning experiences, the majority of courses in the online program require that students participate in collaborative group projects that provide them with opportunities to interact with libraries and LIS professionals working in the field either online or in their local communities" (p. 129). Some studies also assert that</p> <p>As representatives of the practicing field and potential employers, practitioners exert enormous influence on the professional development and formation of LIS students, sometimes even greater than the influence of faculty members, let alone peers. There is evidence that the "professional identity" of LIS students "is largely developed through work experience in the field" and that socialization into the profession is facilitated by "practicing professionals in the LIS community [who] may hold significant value" ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref18">5</reflink>], pp. 125–126, cited in [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref19">6</reflink>], p. 170–171).</p> <p>However, the merit of early and ongoing communication between LIS students and practitioners goes beyond the knowledge transfer and the development of professional skills. It contributes a great deal to the professional maturation of LIS students, while mentoring is acknowledged to be "the best means for socializing and acculturating [LIS] students into library careers—indeed, for helping them to obtain a career position in the first place" ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref20">18</reflink>], p. 136). The fact that "practitioners who are passionate about their practice are necessary for the sustainability of the information professions" ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref21">22</reflink>], p. 317) underscores the centrality of mentorship. Moreover,</p> <p>Through engagement with real-world situations, students experience "learning to be" as well as "learning to do" ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref22">4</reflink>]). The idea of enculturation can be particularly effective as a tool in education and learning for professions where both skills ("learning to do") and engagement ("learning to be") are desirable for, if not central to, professional practice, professions such as librarianship and associated activities. ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref23">22</reflink>], p. 320)</p> <p>This professional socialization, ideally, should result in what [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref24">22</reflink>] refer to as "good ... organizational and professional citizenship" that works "for the benefit of the information professions (p. 318). This professional citizenship is fostered by "skilled and passionate practitioners who will contribute to the profession and organisations beyond their paid employment" (p. 318). It is this type of "passion-based" mentorship that creates engagement "with relevant and important ideas, connection to real-world problems and projects, student-driven learning and the need for enrichment and connection" (pp. 319–320).</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-5">Mentors' motivation</hd> <p>Although both in LIS and in other fields "mentor" can be a distinct "professional role and position" ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref25">1</reflink>], cited in [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref26">27</reflink>], p. 103), it is often thought of as "mostly a voluntary activity that goes above and beyond ... formal job requirements; a role chosen by some, not by others" ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref27">27</reflink>], p. 103) As such, in professional discourse, the idea of mentorship seems to be associated with uncompensated professional service, especially when we discuss mentorship that develops good citizens and supports "learning to be" ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref28">22</reflink>]) rather than delivers professional training. Mentors are presumed driven by passion and other intrinsic motivators rather than external incentives. Many sources highlight the directedness and goal-orientation of mentorship. [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref29">18</reflink>] call mentorship "an intentional act," adding that</p> <p>The librarian makes a conscious, deliberate effort to give advice, answer questions, and provide feedback to the student, helping [them] gain confidence in [their] ability to perform [their] work. By virtue of this relationship, librarians expose students to their organizational culture and alert them to professional expectations and thereby share knowledge that students would not have otherwise learned (pp. 136–137).</p> <p>In fact, the [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref30">18</reflink>] study was one of few studies that asked a question—"In what ways do practicing librarians benefit from mentoring LIS students?" (p. 138)—and focused on examining and analyzing "a semester-long mentorship program" in an academic library (p. 135). At the outcome, they noted that</p> <p>All mentors expressed great satisfaction from the mentor experience and readily agreed to participate again—without a stipend, if necessary. The librarian mentors felt that by participating in the mentor program they were able to:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> strengthen their commitment to the profession;</item> <p></p> <item> achieve a better understanding of their own work;</item> <p></p> <item> and keep more current than usual within their areas of practice. (p. 142)</item> </ulist> <p>This sentiment is shared by other, earlier-cited articles from LIS and other fields.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-6">Classroom guest visits as a form of mentorship</hd> <p>The [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref31">18</reflink>] study is also characteristic of another trend: when mentorship is discussed, it is more often in the context of structured programs, internships, or other formal engagements. Less frequently do we see the discussion or analysis of one-shot classroom guest visits and guest speakers' motivations and benefits associated with them. Even when such visits are centered, the focus is usually on student learning and professional development. Drawing on sources from Indigenous studies, science, and education, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref32">14</reflink>] point out that</p> <p>Guest speakers do more than fill content knowledge gaps for students; they open the school to the community and the world beyond the classroom. When you expose your students to individuals from the community, you share with them expertise, experience, and examples of what the future could hold for them. (para. 15)</p> <p>Hudson and Pelz mention four types of practical take-aways for students: the benefits of professional expertise; career exposure through the stories of one's professional trajectories; a memorable experience; and an authentic lived experience that is usually embedded in guest speakers' narratives (paras. 3–6).</p> <p>[<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref33">22</reflink>] highlight the fact that "academic programmes which include willing guest speakers from industry and the professional associations, visits to workplaces, placements hosted by the profession and encouragement of participation in professional events go some way to integrating and balancing 'learning to be' and 'learning to do'" (p. 325). They also affirm that "classroom learning is directly linked to the profession through a number of paths including speakers, an external community of practice and an industry placement in order to 'co-create' twenty-first century information professionals" (p. 321).</p> <p>In the context of another applied field—nursing—[<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref34">28</reflink>] have surveyed the studies of guest speakers in the classroom from multiple applied and academic fields, including accounting, librarianship, business, journalism, education, tourism, and social work. They discuss traditional, in-person engagements and also emphasize that "virtual guest speakers are becoming prevalent in university teaching" (p. 175). They propose their own "trilateral model of benefits of using guest speakers" (p. 187); however, out of eleven points elaborating these benefits in the model, only two outline the merit of guest visits for practitioners, specifically in terms of building a "relationship with the school and academic professionals" and having an "opportunity to know academic setting" (p. 187). The rest of the benefits describe how students, the curriculum, and the program as a whole are improved through the involvement of guest speakers, essentially corroborating the benefits highlighted from the studies in other disciplines and fields of practice.</p> <p>Introducing the "CMGS Method (Case Method with Guest Speakers)" in sales management courses, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref35">23</reflink>] analyzed guest visits from the standpoint of students, lecturers, and guest speakers. For one, "guest speakers were asked what they had learned from the students during the session" (p. 144). As the authors note, all guest speakers</p> <p>acknowledged that it had been worthwhile from the point of view of learning but were aware that the quality of the findings had not been particularly significant. Nonetheless, three of them recognized that what had helped them most was to consider issues and approaches which hitherto had not considered due to their lack of time and that this activity had somehow served to "force" them to think. (p. 147)</p> <p>Moreover, when "asked if they would repeat an experience like this," 90% of guest speakers "responded favorably" (p. 147).</p> <p>By the same token, providing insight from the cognate field of information systems, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref36">20</reflink>] presents an innovative technique of engaging recent alumni as guest speakers through the five-minute question-and-answer virtual panels. Once again, most benefits pertain to students, instructors, and the curriculum as a whole, while benefits to the visitors are summed in the following sentence: "For recent alumni, it provides a way to continue to connect with their alma mater and a way to give meaningful professional service through a short speaking opportunity" (p. 111).</p> <p>As the above overview shows, in terms of motivation and benefits for student professional development, there is not much of a difference between engagement with practitioners through guest visits and through other types of mentorship. The difference will likely be in the intensity, depth, and length of communication; however, the nature of student learning and professional development will be the same. Yet none of the studies we surveyed above discussed guest speaking engagements specifically in LIS from the standpoint of practitioners themselves in a meaningful and in-depth way, and this is where our article stands to address the gap.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-7">What we set out to do</hd> <p>As mentioned earlier, the group of authors who contributed to this article consists of an LIS faculty member and five LIS professionals who have made recurring visits to the graduate courses taught at the University of Denver. Contributing librarians and archivists considered the value of class visits and reflected on their personal experiences during these one-shot engagements with LIS students in free-floating format. They responded to an open-ended question that suggested some possible aspects to address without being prescriptive. The question was formulated as follows:</p> <p>You have continuously engaged with LIS students as a guest speaker in various courses (perhaps in more than one LIS program!), and aside from the obvious scheduling conflicts, you never declined an invitation. What does this experience mean to you? What type of engagements were these (e.g., structured lectures; semi-formal conversations; informal chats)? What motivates you to accept these invitations? What do you personally learn from these visits? How does it align with your own work and professional development? Please reflect on <emph>some of these aspects</emph> that feel important and relatable, and please add anything else that you consider significant and relevant to the topic.</p> <p>The question was intentionally broadly worded and guided by the phenomenological[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref37">2</reflink>] assumption that, given a choice, individuals would reflect on the aspects significant and important to them. By extension, their responses would encapsulate their own preferences and logic rather than the preferences and logic of the person asking questions (in this case, the faculty member on the team). As a result, all five accounts may not be structured in exactly the same way, may be of varying length, and may highlight different concepts, capturing the diversity of views and perceptions ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref38">7</reflink>], citing multiple sources).</p> <p>Similarly, in a phenomenology-informed fashion, we, as a team, held no preconceived notions about what would transpire from these accounts; nor did we have a predefined (<emph>a priori</emph>) frame that we would use to analyze and understand the narrated experiences. The match between empirically generated data and a possible theoretical framework (or frameworks) was done <emph>a posteriori</emph>, after the data were collected and subjected to initial analysis. We did not try to achieve the full comparability of data sets, relying instead on the phenomenological notion of personal choice directed to the most relevant and important material that the contributors highlighted. There was no minimum or maximum word limit to reflections.</p> <p>After the contributed reflections were compiled (as vignettes mentioned earlier), we analyzed and interpreted them based on the following select concepts from [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref39">27</reflink>], pp. 103–104):</p> <p></p> <p> <ephtml> <table><colgroup span="1"><col align="left" span="1" /><col align="left" span="1" /></colgroup><tbody><tr><td align="left" rowspan="1" colspan="1">Mentoring motivations:</td><td align="left" rowspan="1" colspan="1">generative outcome motives; personal learning motives</td></tr><tr><td align="left" rowspan="1" colspan="1">Mentoring orientations:</td><td align="left" rowspan="1" colspan="1">other-focused; self-focused</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>While we learned from and relied on the extensive research surveyed in [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref40">27</reflink>] paper, we have chosen to develop our own criteria for interpreting and understanding mentorship behaviors. We operate with the concept of <emph>motivation for mentorship</emph> and discuss three types thereof: outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented motivations, based on the following definitions.</p> <p> <emph>Motivation for mentorship</emph>: intentional and "goal-directed" behavior, that is, behavior "driven by some internal representation of a desired outcome or state" ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref41">3</reflink>], cited in [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref42">27</reflink>]).</p> <p> <emph>Outcome-oriented motivation</emph>: a type of mentorship behavior directed to providing guidance and passing professional knowledge to emergent practitioners, including "keeping traditions alive" and "transmitting cultural values to the next generation" ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref43">13</reflink>], and [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref44">17</reflink>], p. 35, cited in [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref45">27</reflink>], p. 104).</p> <p> <emph>Student-oriented motivation</emph>: a type of mentorship behavior that goes beyond outcomes and training and invests in the formation of professional identity, ethics, and commitment to the profession, in other words, "learning to be" ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref46">4</reflink>], p. 19). Mentors can act on "a desire to help and pass along information to others and to build a competent workforce"; "obligation to contribute to the profession"; "helping students [...] learn about the real world"; and "ensuring adequate quality of entrants into the profession" ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref47">2</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref48">19</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref49">25</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref50">26</reflink>]; all cited in [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref51">27</reflink>], p. 103). This type of motivation is also tied into so-called developmental mentoring whereby "mentors see themselves as creative partners in dialogue" ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref52">8</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref53">10</reflink>], cited in [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref54">27</reflink>], p. 105) in the process of students' professional formation and maturation. By the same token, it is tied into the concept of "learning to be" a professional, not only "learning to do" professional tasks ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref55">22</reflink>]), discussed in detail later on.</p> <p> <emph>Personal-learning-oriented motivation</emph>: a type of mentorship behavior rooted in the belief that the process of mentoring enables personal learning goals ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref56">27</reflink>], p. 105). This mentorship stems from "a desire to increase learning and to feel gratification," the "opportunity to learn and re-examine personal practice," "learning through self-reflection," and personal development as "a supervisor" ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref57">27</reflink>], p. 103).</p> <p>This article is our collective effort to ensure both the diversity of accounts and the cohesiveness of the collective narrative. The following vignettes are provided in the alphabetical order of contributors by last name.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-8">Stephanie Anderson</hd> <p> <emph>Stephanie Anderson is an assistant director, selection, at BookOps, The New York Public Library & Brooklyn Public Library</emph>.</p> <p>Guest visits to LIS classes is an interesting question to reflect on! I suppose it never even occurred to me that I would say "no" to an invitation to speak to LIS students. When I ask myself why that is, I think it is for two reasons.</p> <p>First, in my own LIS studies and my early career, I have benefited greatly from learning from practitioners, and I consider it a real honor to be asked to do the same for others. From my perspective, librarianship as a practice has largely developed through collaboration, and we have a mutual obligation to one another to share what we know so that others can continue to build on it (and so that we can continue to grow by hearing the perspectives of others and incorporating their experience into our work). It is just part of being a librarian! Now that I am in technical services, I think that this sort of outreach is even more important, as I am not sure how many LIS students are aware of career opportunities there are behind the scenes in a public library, and many may not even realize they would enjoy the sort of work we do. I personally shifted my career toward technical services after hearing a librarian I admire speak about its potential and realizing that I found it much more appealing than what I was doing at the time; so, I know that putting more information out there really works!</p> <p>On a related note, I also think it is important that all of us play a greater role in bridging the gap between LIS practice (particularly in public libraries) and LIS academia. Being a guest speaker is one small way to do that. I suspect it means more than we realize for LIS students to experience practitioner knowledge being treated with respect in an academic context, especially as post-graduation there is so much siloing between all the different types of librarianship. I appreciate that professors make a point of exposing students to many perspectives and types of knowledge and emphasizing that they are all equally valid. I hope it will pay dividends over time.</p> <p>The other reason is that I find the experience personally invigorating. I rarely have a chance in my day-to-day work to reflect on the overall impact and scope of what we do, and much of my schedule and priorities are driven by the needs and timelines of other people—that is just life in tech services. It is really nice to have a chance to share my work in this different way, and it always reconnects me with why I love it so much. I also find that the students ask excellent questions and have a lot to contribute to the conversation, and I love learning from them! We give a lot of tours at BookOps,[<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref58">3</reflink>] and between those and guest speaking, I have always found that students are the most open-minded and engaged people I talk to. There are a lot of complicated things about library work, and it can often be more rewarding to explore them with a group that is not coming from a place of defensiveness or frustration, which many career librarians (understandably) can bring to the same conversations. I often find that after a guest speaking opportunity, I return to work the next day with a perspective shift or a new idea that probably would not have occurred to me otherwise.</p> <p>I am generally asked to do semi-formal conversations or informal chats. It is a dream of mine to someday do a more formal lecture and perhaps teach an entire class, but I do not think I am at the point yet to do that. In the meantime, I am grateful to be able to contribute in this small way to the next generation of the profession.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-9">Michelle Ganz</hd> <p> <emph>Michelle Ganz is a director of archives, Dominican Sisters of Peace in Columbus, OH</emph>.</p> <p>I am an advocate for Archival Justice; for most of my career I have worked to make archives accessible to all and to ensure that every voice is heard in archival collections. Throughout my career, mentors have helped give me confidence in my skills, find my voice, and taught me how to be a leader. I have benefited from amazing mentors who modeled behaviors and guided my professional development, and I want to pay that forward by being a mentor to others. From traditional mentoring relationships and cohort mentoring to serving as a guest in a class, mentoring is one of the ways I stay plugged into archival education and emerging trends. Mentoring is especially important for people with disabilities or from marginalized groups; my personal experiences drive my mentoring.</p> <p>My advocacy work allows me to engage with people as much as I can. I am a Society of American Archivists (SAA) Mentor as a one-on-one mentor, as part of the SAA Mentoring Cohorts program, and as a Career Counselor. I do virtual visits for LIS classes for a number of programs at the instructors' request. I do one-off talks as part of lunch-and-learn programs through the SAA and library science schools, either alone or as part of a panel. I teach live and recorded workshops and webinars for various organizations. I also try to participate in as many conference panels as possible for archival and allied organizations/associations.</p> <p>My mentoring activities have always been a part of my professional work, but the work has not always been supported by my employers. When I am supported, I have professional development time allotted to me that allows me to do many of my mentoring activities during work time, which in turn allows me to do more with my time. When I am not supported, I complete mentoring activities on my own time. My current employer, The Dominican Sisters of Peace, fully supports my advocacy and mentoring work as it aligns perfectly with the organization's mission of promoting Peace and Justice.</p> <p>Guest mentoring is one of the most rewarding experiences I participate in. Students are filled with enthusiasm; it makes the talks more engaging on both sides of the conversation. For each mentoring scenario, I have a set of topics to cover, in varying degrees of detail depending on my audience, but I always cover disability, accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and interview materials/techniques. Regularly speaking with students means I am constantly refreshing my resources and updating my information, which keeps me current on the latest research and methodologies. The goal of all mentoring is to help people avoid roadblocks that I ran into; being a guest in an LIS course is an opportunity to share what I did not see in my own MLIS courses. Most LIS programs focus on the "why" behind how archival/library work is done, but do not do much to prepare graduates for making the leap from student to professional. Students without the privilege of modeled professionalism are at a disadvantage, especially in the job search and interview process. The idea of a curriculum vitae is rarely covered in LIS courses, yet successful students often create these documents while in school; I can help everyone start their job search on even footing. When I do a talk on the job search, I can provide students with an overview of what academic interviews entail; most students are not prepared for what an eight- hour interview is like. It also affords me the opportunity to teach students how to advocate for themselves, their colleagues, their collections, and their communities.</p> <p>No matter at what stage you are in the profession, you have insights that can help other people. Mentoring is rewarding because you get to watch someone gain understanding, knowledge, and experience with your guidance. No one should be reinventing the wheel to join the profession or to make an impact; mentoring helps combat privileged disparities and diversify the field.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-10">John Lindaman</hd> <p> <emph>John Lindaman is the head of technical services at Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art</emph>.</p> <p>Like many of my colleagues, I came to the library profession later in life, after a highly successful career as a parking lot attendant. I was not planning on working in a library; it just happened to be a temp job I got after moving to New York City in July 2002, where the parking lot jobs required better double-parking skills than I had developed in Charlottesville, Virginia. Once I started working there, I immediately saw the benefits of a library job: smart colleagues, interesting work, and, most importantly, air conditioning. When an entry level job was posted at the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my colleagues, former Watsonians, encouraged me to apply. Unfortunately, I had never applied for a "real" job before and had no idea how to do it. But my colleagues helped me write my cover letter, get a CV together, and made sure I knew the basics of things that would be expected of me on the job so I could sound confident.</p> <p>Long story short, it worked: I got my foot in the door with the lowest possible library assistant position. I had to take a pay cut from my generic office admin temp job, but it was worth it. 20 years later, I am still there. Got my MLS degree in 2008, and now I am the Head of Technical Services, having outlasted several bosses. Every day I show up to work, though, I am keenly aware that I would not have gotten the chance to get that job 20 years ago without my more experienced colleagues helping me with their very specific real-world knowledge.</p> <p>A gift comes with an obligation to pass it on, and so I have spent most of that 20 years working in various capacities with library school students as interns, volunteers, fellows, temps, and as students when I taught at Long Island University. These engagements are driven by the realization that most LIS students as part of their coursework do not receive hands-on experience performing actual work and real discussion and interaction with a current professional about the specifics of their work. Based on the LIS students with whom I work, it is clear that it is rare to learn about how an office functions from a library admin/budget perspective, for example, or to work in an actual integrated library system creating cataloging records or bringing in copy, and if you have a systems librarianship class, you are one of a lucky few. Most professionals in my experience, due to budgetary pressures in their institutions, have taken on the work of more than one person, and it has not been the norm for quite some time that each person just performs one task.</p> <p>LIS curriculum, however, often approaches these tasks more or less in isolation, and ignores some altogether. There is a generation of students who are a few months away from completing their degrees and becoming my colleagues but who have never been prompted to think about how, for instance, working with your systems team to reprogram the default label templates to fit a sheet that prints 12 instead of 8 spine labels could save you thousands of dollars in label stock. What class does that fall under? Knowledge Organization? Cataloging? More likely, it is none of the above.</p> <p>This is not a criticism of LIS faculty; you are hired to teach a particular class, and the job barely pays enough to make it worthwhile and certainly not enough to expend a lot of time rethinking the entire paradigm of library science education. However, if you are lucky, you can bring in professionals with a wide range of responsibilities and experiences that can connect with students and encourage them to approach work situations as fluid problems to solve creatively, rather than received wisdom they need to ingest.</p> <p>To me, that is the greatest value in engaging with LIS students in a class format: helping the next generation of people I work with be better problem solvers than I am, so that I can spend the latter part of my career taking credit for their good ideas while they wait for me to get out of the way.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-11">Miriam Tuliao</hd> <p> <emph>Miriam Tuliao is a senior library marketing manager at Penguin Random House and an adjunct lecturer at Queens College, CUNY, and Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis</emph>.</p> <p>Serving as a guest speaker in LIS classes, workshops, and panels is personally and professionally meaningful to me. I welcome these opportunities to meet, network, and connect with the next generation of librarians and library leaders. The engagements, in which I have participated, have occurred onsite and online through structured lectures and semi-formal guided conversations in LIS classrooms. Class visits, specifically, help me gain insights into the passions, interests, dreams, challenges, and real-time individual and collective concerns of library workers. As a 20+ year public library veteran, I find that talking shop and sharing experiences are ripe opportunities to reflect and critically examine current library practice and imagine the possibilities for better service moving forward.</p> <p>I have been teaching graduate-level courses in library science for over 10 years. In addition to being an instructor of Public Library Management at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis's School of Informatics and Computing, I teach Multicultural Approaches to Librarianship, an online course which provides a framework for promoting equity and inclusion in school, public, and academic libraries. For Queens College, City University of New York, I teach Collection Development, a course which covers the theory and practice of collection development, management, and promotion, as well as vendor relations, marketing, and publishing. As a lecturer, I am committed to advancing book culture, promoting diversity, and collaborating with library experts. My teaching goal is to encourage future information professionals to become service-oriented, community-centered, empathic, and critically engaged lifelong learners.</p> <p>At Penguin Random House, I have more than seven years' experience promoting adult trade titles to library staff, educators, and consumers across the country through a variety of methods including targeted campaigns, conferences, social media, title presentations, newsletters, and author events. I actively support initiatives that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing through my involvement with Penguin Random House's Mentor Match program, the Women's Media Group, as well as collaborations with the National Associations of Librarians of Color, especially the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, and the Black Caucus American Library Association (BCALA).</p> <p>As a librarian, I believe in the core values of education, lifelong learning, service, and social responsibility. And I consider it my duty to guide, mentor, and support future librarians as they aim to develop professionally and learn how to better serve and effect change in their communities. Additionally, I hope that I offer help to the LIS instructor and workshop facilitator by presenting examples of current library practices.</p> <p>I consider librarianship an activist's profession. And these days, I ask myself and others to reflect on and consider with critical urgency the following questions:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> How can we each become caring, compassionate, and competent agents of change?</item> <p></p> <item> How can we develop, promote, and improve library services for ALL?</item> <p></p> <item> How do we empower people and create safe spaces for connection, participation, and learning?</item> <p></p> <item> How can libraries, as organic organizations, responsibly shape and provide culturally sensitive community-centered programs, collections, and services?</item> <p></p> <item> How do we promote organizational change?</item> <p></p> <item> What is the fundamental mission of librarians? What are our individual plans of action? And what are our libraries?</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0182329932-12">Ashlyn Velte</hd> <p> <emph>Ashlyn Velte is the senior processing archivist and assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries</emph>.</p> <p>My name is Ashlyn Velte, and I am currently the Senior Processing Archivist and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder Libraries. At the time of this writing, I have been in my current role for over four years. I am responsible for planning processing projects, maintaining local processing and finding aid standards, managing collections, and other archival tasks like reference, acquisition, and instruction. Since this article is about my interaction with LIS students, it might be useful to know that I was an LIS student from 2014–2016 when I received my degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. While pursuing my master's degree, I received a fellowship where I worked for 20 hours a week in the UNC Libraries special collections library. Part of that fellowship involved career training and guidance in job searching and interviewing.</p> <p>Since my graduation, I have engaged with LIS students by guest speaking during the Collection Management class at the University of Denver around once a quarter. The class is geared toward collection management in libraries, but, as a guest speaker, I introduce students to collection management topics in archives. It typically involves a short presentation from me followed by a Q&A covering topics from the presentation or my experience as an archivist. There are many reasons why I continue to engage in guest lecturing with LIS students. I enjoy introducing LIS students to aspects of my work and remember what it was like to be an LIS student; I discover what current LIS students are concerned about and learning; and I have support from my job duties to engage in this activity.</p> <p>The primary reason I engage with guest lectures is that I find it rewarding. I remember being an LIS student, and when working professionals spoke to my classes, I was always interested in their experience. Many archivists receive library science degrees. However, most people with library science degrees become librarians. Since archivists and librarians receive similar training, it is useful to share that there is another career path one can pursue after graduating. By sharing my experience, I offer current students a basic understanding of what archivists do and how our material differs from regular circulating library material. I also find it rewarding to feel like an expert by sharing how I apply in practice what they are learning in their degree program. It is hard to explain exactly why I find it rewarding, but maybe because it is a context where I can share my expertise.</p> <p>When I was an LIS student, I wanted to hear about the concepts and experiences that working professionals found useful, as well as their perspectives on job searches, hiring, and building a competitive resume. I have always attributed much of my career success to having received excellent advice when I was an LIS student. Realizing this, I use these guest lectures to pass on that advice since students often have questions about what kind of experience will make them competitive on the job market, and what qualities search committees desire. For all these reasons I find it rewarding to pass on knowledge to the students.</p> <p>Another reason I continue to engage in guest lectures is that the questions students ask help me understand what they are currently concerned about. This helps me gauge what the future trends are in archives and libraries since these students will soon be my colleagues. For example, in the last three years, students have asked me many questions about social justice topics in archives and about decolonialization. It is important for me to understand these students' interests since they will soon be shaping the landscape of the profession. Their perception of these topics is far more nuanced than mine was when I was in graduate school. Acquisition classes I attended covered diversity, but I get the impression that current LIS students cover diversity, equity, and inclusion topics with more complexity and that they are more integrated into the curriculum. Also, the kinds of questions students ask me about job searches help me understand what the job market is currently like. If they are worried about short-term, temporary jobs, then I understand that this might be a problem in the profession. If they are worried about pay or benefits, or if they feel like there will not be enough jobs for them, then that gives me more information too.</p> <p>Finally, another reason I continue to support LIS instruction, while not being faculty in an LIS program, is that instruction is built into my job description. Typically, my instruction involves teaching one-shot sessions on primary source interpretation and discovery for undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines at CU Boulder. However, it also includes instruction that occurs outside of CU Boulder, like visits from K-12 students and these type of guest lectures. Without having the time built into my job duties and receiving credit on the work for annual evaluations and tenure and promotion, it would be harder to make time to prepare in advance for these class visits.</p> <p>Overall, I view my participation in these guest lectures to be very rewarding and one way I can give back to the profession by passing on my knowledge and experience. I will continue to do them and to help aspiring librarians.</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-13">Discussion</hd> <p>The benefits of having guest speakers in graduate professional courses for LIS students are well known and well documented. However, much less is known about the experiences and motivation of guest speakers themselves, how these interactions feel on their end, and why they choose time and time again to invest their time, energy, and effort in meeting and mentoring LIS students through guest visits. Our study has brought forth three different types of motivation: outcome-oriented, focused on the transmission of professional knowledge; student-oriented, which goes beyond knowledge outcomes and skill acquisition and signifies the desire to invest in the formation of professional identity, ethics, and commitment to the profession; and personal-learning-oriented, driven by the desire to learn from students and to stay abreast of the latest developments in the profession. Practicing librarians and archivists see engagement with LIS students as simply "part of being a librarian!" (Anderson) and consider mentorship "rewarding because you get to watch someone gain understanding, knowledge, and experience with your guidance" (Ganz).</p> <p>Outcome-oriented quotes were very pronounced in the contributors' accounts. They strived to bridge "the gap between LIS practice (particularly in public libraries) and LIS academia," recognizing that "librarianship [is] a practice" "largely developed through collaboration, and [that] we have a mutual obligation to one another to share what we know" (Anderson). A closely related realization is that no one "should be reinventing the wheel to join the profession or to make an impact; mentoring helps combat privileged disparities and diversify the field" (Ganz). The contributors name specific knowledge and skill sets that they would like emergent professionals to develop, including but not limited to "advancing book culture, promoting diversity, and collaborating with library experts" (Tuliao); understanding "how an office functions from a library admin/budget perspective," and how "to work in an actual integrated library system creating cataloging records or bringing in copy" (Lindaman).</p> <p>Referenced in the context are collection management, community-engagement, marketing, outreach, archival, and technological skills, as well as the ability of future librarians and archivists "to advocate for themselves, their colleagues, their collections, and their communities" (Ganz). There are also multiple mentions of helping students to learn about the job market and to become savvy while job hunting; opening their eyes to the possibilities and being "aware of career opportunities there are behind the scenes in a public library" (Anderson). In this context, class visits give guest speakers a chance to share "what kind of experience will make [LIS graduates] competitive on the job market and what qualities search committees desire" (Velte). For practicing archivists, it is also an opportunity to alert students obtaining LIS graduate degrees that they have "another career path" and help them understand "what archivists do and how [their] material differs from regular circulating library material" (Velte).</p> <p>Statements pointing to student-oriented motivation seem to be all the more numerous. They channel the desire of practicing librarians and archivists to help LIS graduates socialize into becoming responsible professional citizens and "caring, compassionate, and competent agents of change" who "empower people and create safe spaces for connection, participation, and learning" (Tuliao). This task is as important as specific knowledge acquisition, set "to prepare graduates for making the leap from student to professional"; interactions with practitioners prove instrumental for "[s]tudents without the privilege of modeled professionalism" who find themselves "at a disadvantage, especially in the job search and interview process" (Ganz). Guest visits can become an avenue for supporting students "to approach work situations as fluid problems to solve creatively, rather than received wisdom they need to ingest" (Lindaman). Ultimately, the goal is to "encourage future information professionals to become service-oriented, community-centered, empathic, and critically engaged lifelong learners" (Tuliao).</p> <p>Finally, personal-learning-oriented motivation is also felt strongly in the contributors' narratives. The common theme is that practitioners love learning from students. Classroom interactions afford guest speakers an opportunity "to reflect on the overall impact and scope of what" they do, "reconnect" with why they "love it so much," and "return to work the next day with a perspective shift or a new idea that probably would not have occurred to [them] otherwise" (Anderson). Students' questions and comments help practitioners "to reflect and critically examine current library practice," "imagine the possibilities for better service moving forward" (Tuliao), and "gauge what the future trends are in archives and libraries" (Velte). All in all, "class visits" help practicing professionals "gain insights into the passions, interests, dreams, challenges, and real-time individual and collective concerns of library workers" (Tuliao).</p> <hd id="AN0182329932-14">Conclusion and suggestions for future research</hd> <p>Combining free-floating reflections from five LIS practitioners with a detailed review of literature that addresses mentorship motivations, this article presents first-hand accounts by librarians and archivists who continuously engage with LIS students as guest speakers in graduate courses. We place these experiences in the context of the three-pronged framework of mentorship motivations: outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented motivations.</p> <p>The article has been conceived of and written as a blended viewpoint-analytical piece rooted in empirical data generated by observations and self-reflections of librarians, archivists, and LIS educators. We did not draw on any purposive sample that would facilitate a qualitative study; we did not do the coding of the generated reflections. By extension, our conclusions are theoretically framed and conceptualized experiences and insights and should be viewed as such. The lack of qualitative data coding did not allow us to produce descriptive statistics that would help contextualize our observations further. For example, while we notice that all three types of motivation—outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented—have a substantial presence in the contributors' reflections, we cannot tell which category is the most prevalent. However, all of these can be accomplished by researchers who are interested in building an empirical qualitative, mixed-methods, or quantitative study of motivations of guest speakers in LIS classrooms.</p> <p>We also believe that a phenomenological approach to such a study has the greatest potential. It is important to remind our readers that we did not pre-structure the contributors' responses based on any theoretical propositions; we simply allowed narratives to flow, giving the contributors the opportunity to highlight what was important to them, in their own words. As such, responses encapsulate their own professional priorities and vision. Applied <emph>a posteriori</emph>, existing theories of motivation help us make sense of responses and develop a systematic overarching conclusion.</p> <p>Future research can also take into consideration other categories of guest speakers, for instance, LIS and non-LIS faculty members, representatives of governmental and corporate entities, and representatives of not-for-profit organizations outside of LIS who frequent LIS classrooms, especially as LIS programs continue to develop in disciplinarily diverse iSchools.</p> <p>We believe that our article outlines several possible directions and ideas for future studies and reveals the professional experience and thought that can serve as an inspiration for LIS colleagues to engage with this topic further. Most importantly, it provides insight into what motivates busy LIS practitioners, with demanding careers and complex personal lives, to take—usually uncompensated—time off their busy schedules to mentor LIS students, through classroom engagements or otherwise.</p> <p>Presenting the mentorship experience in the mentors' own voices paints the picture of professional dedication, a genuine concern for the future of the field, an immense desire to pass on professional knowledge, wisdom, and skills, and a commitment to supporting budding librarians and archivists as they become contributing members of the profession, aspiring to serve communities in various LIS organizations and different areas of practice.</p> <ref id="AN0182329932-15"> <title> Notes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref5" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> While we consistently use American spelling throughout the article, we retain the spelling of original quotes.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref6" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> "Phenomenology builds on people's lived experiences and elucidates the meaning of their experience through participants' own accounts and interpretations. It is rooted in the belief that 'because individuals live and narrate their lives in time and place, they provide us with knowledge about much more than themselves'" ([21], cited in [7], 186)</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref7" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> "BookOps is a pioneering collaboration between The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library that makes it possible for essential materials and resources to be available and delivered quickly and efficiently to millions of users across New York City. ... BookOps is jointly governed and funded by NYPL and BPL and carries the responsibility of meeting the strategic collection management and distribution needs of each organization" (https://sites.google.com/a/nypl.org/bookops/home).</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0182329932-16"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Achinstein, B., & Athanases, S. Z. (2005). Focusing new teachers on diversity and equity: Toward a knowledge base for mentors. 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The Library Quarterly, 85(4), 427–453. https://doi.org/10.1086/682735</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sinclair, C., Dowson, M., & Thistleton-Martin, J. (2006). Motivations and profiles of cooperating teachers: Who volunteers and why?. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(3), 263–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.11.008</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Stout, C. (1982). Why cooperating teachers accept students. Journal of Teacher Education, 33(6), 22–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/002248718203300605</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> van Ginkel, G., Verloop, N., & Denessen, E. (2016). Why mentor? Linking mentor teachers' motivations to their mentoring conceptions. Teachers and Teaching, Theory and Practice, 22(1), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1023031</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zou, P., Sun, W., Hallowell, S. G., Luo, Y., Lee, C., & Ge, L. (2019). Use of guest speakers in nursing education: An integrative review of multidisciplinary literature. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 10, 175–189. https://doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S196456</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Keren Dali; Ashlyn Velte; Stephanie Anderson; Michelle Ganz; John Lindaman and Miriam Tuliao</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author</p> <p></p> <p>Keren Dali is an associate professor of LIS at the University of Denver. Her areas of expertise are in disability and workplace equity; reading practices of adults; social work and LIS; and humanistic pedagogies in higher education. She teaches courses on foundations of LIS, outreach, reading, collections, and inclusive communities.</p> <p>Ashlyn Velte is the senior processing archivist and assistant professor at University of Colorado Boulder Libraries Rare and Distinctive collections. She is responsible for archival collections management, processing, prioritization, primary source instruction, and student supervision. She received her MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</p> <p>Stephanie Anderson is assistant director, selection, at BookOps, managing the amazing team that selects all circulating collections for the 150 physical locations and digital collections of The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library. She is currently researching the history of collections and readers' advisory in New York City.</p> <p>Michelle Ganz is the archives director for the Dominican Sisters of Peace. She has previously worked in academic, museum, corporate, and private archives. Michelle is deaf, mixed race, queer, and weird, which gives her a unique view of archival theory and practice.</p> <p>John Lindaman is the head of technical services at the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he has worked for over 20 years. He is also an internationally renowned musician, former parking-lot attendant, and caretaker of the Museum of Obsolete Library Science.</p> <p>Miriam Tuliao is a senior library marketing manager at Penguin Random House, an adjunct library science instructor, and a New York Public Library veteran. She is committed to supporting the important work of libraries and growing the audience for books across communities.</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref32"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref36"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref48"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref49"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref53"></nolink>
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  Data: Guest Speakers as Mentors: What Classroom Experiences Mean to Them
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Keren+Dali%22">Keren Dali</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Ashlyn+Velte%22">Ashlyn Velte</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Stephanie+Anderson%22">Stephanie Anderson</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Michelle+Ganz%22">Michelle Ganz</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22John+Lindaman%22">John Lindaman</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Miriam+Tuliao%22">Miriam Tuliao</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Education+for+Library+and+Information+Science%22"><i>Journal of Education for Library and Information Science</i></searchLink>. 2025 66(1):40-59.
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  Data: Association for Library and Information Science Education. Available from: University of Toronto Press. 5201 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON, M3H 5T8 Canada. Tel: 416-667–7929; Fax: 416-667–7832; e-mail: journals@utpress.utoronto.ca; e-mail: office@alise.org; Web site: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/jelis
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  Data: 20
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  Data: 2025
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  Data: Teachers; Administrators
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Descriptive<br />Opinion Papers
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Postsecondary+Education%22">Postsecondary Education</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Team+Teaching%22">Team Teaching</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Professional+Personnel%22">Professional Personnel</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Library+Schools%22">Library Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learning+Activities%22">Learning Activities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Classroom+Environment%22">Classroom Environment</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Librarians%22">Librarians</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Archives%22">Archives</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Graduate+School+Faculty%22">Graduate School Faculty</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Graduate+Students%22">Graduate Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Library+Education%22">Library Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Lecture+Method%22">Lecture Method</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learner+Engagement%22">Learner Engagement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Partnerships+in+Education%22">Partnerships in Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Attitudes%22">Student Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Outcome+Based+Education%22">Outcome Based Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Centered+Learning%22">Student Centered Learning</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Individualized+Instruction%22">Individualized Instruction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Information+Science+Education%22">Information Science Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mentors%22">Mentors</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Attitudes%22">Attitudes</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Colorado+%28Denver%29%22">Colorado (Denver)</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.3138/jelis-2024-0019
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  Data: 0748-5786<br />2328-2967
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  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Resulting from the collaboration between five practicing professionals and an LIS faculty member, this article illuminates the experiences of librarians and archivists who engage with LIS students on a continuous basis as guest speakers in LIS classrooms. The phenomenological approach helps to elicit first-hand accounts that encapsulate practitioners' priorities and concerns. The free-floating narratives are combined with an extensive literature review related to mentorship practices in professional fields; they are used to produce a blended viewpoint-analytical article that places empirical data in the context of the three-pronged framework of mentorship motivations, focusing on outcome-oriented, student-oriented, and personal-learning-oriented motivations. These types of mentorship motivations focus on transmitting professional knowledge, socializing LIS students to become responsible professional citizens, and learning about the state of the field and the workforce from students themselves. The article provides suggestions for future empirical research into the motivation of LIS professionals who choose to mentor LIS students through classroom engagements and other avenues.
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      – SubjectFull: Library Schools
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