Mentoring A to Z. Julie Todaro. Chicago: ALA, 2015. 153 p. Paper $58.00. (ISBN 978-0-8389-1329-1).
Staff training and development programs are aimed at all library employees. These processes communicate job expectations, orient the worker to the organization and its resources, and provide information about the library’s mission and goals. Mentorship programs, on the other hand, are more often developed for employees at the professional or faculty level, and, ideally, they deal with issues such as long-term professional career development, promotion and succession planning, and retention (or tenure in tenure-track faculty situations).
In this book, Julie Todaro examines mentorship programs in libraries and library organizations. Much of the book is in the form of bulleted lists, which makes it a quick read but which also leads to a degree of repetitiveness. She includes several case study exercises, enabling the reader to practice applying the information. Several lists are particularly useful, including those covering types of mentoring relationships (12–13), typical goals for mentoring programs (38–41), and failure modes (77–88).
As Todaro points out, “the success of any [mentor-mentee] pairing lies in the identification of relationship goals” (22). Chapter 3, “The Value and Benefits of Mentoring,” addresses this topic in depth, considering not just the overall goals of mentoring programs in relationship to the organization, but also specific benefits for the mentor, the mentee, and nonparticipants within the organization. This is perhaps the most substantial chapter of the book, and it serves as a helpful reference for those trying to promote the development of a mentorship program to library administration. Chapter 7, on measurement and evaluation, is somewhat weaker, although it provides the sound advice that planning for any new initiative should include “[deciding] what data results matter” (88) and incorporating an evaluation plan.
The substantial appendices suffer in some places from an overly general approach. For example, the handbook content guide (97–99) could apply to building documentation for nearly any program; still, this may be a good set of guidelines to use. One peculiarity of the back matter is that several sections begin with what appears to be text from the publisher’s style guide. But this section is quite thorough on the documentation needed at every phase of a mentorship program, from planning through evaluation.
This is a useful and practical book, though perhaps a bit padded here and there with material of a very basic nature. Overall, however, it offers excellent guidance on developing, setting up, and evaluating the success of a mentorship program. The forms and checklists in the appendices are invaluable and make the book well worth adding to the professional collection supporting a mentorship program.—Janet Brennan Croft, Head of Access and Delivery Services, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey