Mentorship Program

2015-03-03T21:21:12Z

AlyssaLoera:

== Goals ==
* Bring people together to build individual capacity and empowerment
* Increase diversity in participation and presentation at Code4Lib (both online and at conferences)
* Increase number of volunteers for developing and maintaining Code4Lib software projects

== Structure ==
Structure of the relationship between mentor and mentee can and should be defined at the outset by the parties involved. However, here are a few simple guidelines you may or may not want to follow for success:

* Set up a clear overall goal and timeframe. "Learn Ruby" is ok, but is not specific enough. "Create and deploy experimental Vote2Promote discussion board in Ruby on Rails" would be better.
* Set up expectations. For example:
** Set aside time each week to collaborate on articulating weekly goals.
** Establish a communication platform and expected response time in advance.
** Establish "office hours" in chat room or IM for questions and review of progress
* Evaluation: We would love to know what worked or didn't work for advice to future mentors

== Platforms for communication ==
This is generally worked out between the mentor and the partner. A mentor is not a replacement for reading the manual (RTFM). Please read the following before asking questions of the mentor (or the listserv for that matter):
[http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html How to Ask Questions the Smart Way]

* Instant Messenger
* [http://trello.com Trello]
* IRC Chat Room (Code4Lib)
* Email

== Participants ==
Please state whether or not you have a preference for your mentor or partner to be male, female, or some other unique demographic characteristics. Otherwise, it will be assumed that you don't mind either way.

=== Mentors ===
Bess Sadler - I currently have a couple of pro bono projects that would be good learning opportunities for someone interested in learning more about Blacklight, Ruby on Rails, Solr, museums, or libraries in Africa. I am also happy to be a mentor generally, and I'm open to suggestions about what form that might take.

[https://www.lib.umn.edu/about/staff/eric-larson Eric Larson] - I have been working in large academic libraries as a web designer/application developer for a decade. I am also the co-founder of a business successfully selling software to libraries. I would be interesting in mentoring people on entrepreneurship in libraries. I can offer advice on how to form a company, how to market your product, what it costs to exhibit at conferences, etc. I would also be happy to mentor people new to the field of library application development. I can answer all those questions you are afraid to ask elsewhere.

=== Partners ===

Bess Sadler - I have been a developer for Digital Humanities and Library software projects for over a decade, but I am relatively new to library management and administration and I would love to find a mentor with more experience than I have in those areas.

Jessica Wood - Currently a cataloger, looking for projects to improve my coding skills and get past the basic "learn to code" stuff, and to move more into the tech side of librarianship.

David Anderson - Looking to get some (any) experience with Solr and/or Drupal. Happy to contribute a small amount of free labor to interesting projects in exchange for knowledge. Currently a federal systems librarian, got MLS a year and a half ago. Been in the library field for 9 years in a wide variety of roles, if anyone wants to learn from my mistakes.

Jeffrey Sabol - Would like to gain experience coding in Ruby and Ruby on Rails. I would also like to learn about Solr and SQL databases. If anybody currently uses OCLC's WMS I would like to learn more about that system. I currently work as the Electronic Resources and Systems Librarian at Marymount California University. I would be willing to assist and help with any project that would help me learn these skills.

Alyssa Loera - Would like to gain experience in python/pymarc, ruby on rails, SQL databases and other tools. I've been working in libraries for 6 years and I'm in the process of getting my MLIS. Right now I coordinate digital projects at the academic university level but would love to learn more about the developer side of things.

== Code4Lib Community Projects for Mentorship Opportunities ==
* Wiki Cleanup? - Lots of pages are out of date and other pages are hard to find. Perhaps even migrate from MediaWiki to Github Wiki.
* Drupal Upgrades?
* Code4Lib Journal WordPress Upgrades?
* [http://docs.railsbridge.org/curriculum/ RailsBridge Workshop] (either at Conference or individual effort)

Code4Lib - User contributions [en]

Mentorship Program