Mentoring in academic libraries implies a belief in the future of library employees, systems, the profession, and the principles that libraries uphold. It signifies a commitment to the broader institution and to higher education’s values of exploration, discovery, critical examination, and knowledge generation.
 
Academic Library Mentoring: Fostering Growth and Renewal presents a cross-section of mentoring thought and practice in college and university libraries, including mentoring definitions, practice fundamentals, models, program development, surveys, and analysis. Across three volumes, it explores library mentoring programs and the lived experiences of library faculty, librarians, library staff members, graduate library and information science students, and library student employees.
 
Volume 1, Fundamentals and Controversies, details effective mentoring skills and behaviors, mentoring models, dysfunctional mentoring relationships, conflicts of interest in mentoring, and, through a feminist lens, power differentials in mentoring. Chapters on diversity, equity, and inclusion call for library personnel to understand the exclusion some experience in the profession and to implement more inclusive mentoring practices.
 
Mentoring of Library Faculty and Librarians, Volume 2, explores mentorship skills, models, purposes and issues, and program development. Mentoring purposes include support for the pursuit of tenure and promotion, other career goals, and psychosocial concerns. Issues incorporate understanding and addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in mentoring. Chapter methodologies include surveys, program assessments, analysis of practices against standards, case studies of mentor and mentee lived experiences, and case studies of libraries and affiliated entities.
 
In Volume 3, Mentoring of Students and Staff, we hear the voices of library science students and library student employees as they describe their library school and library employment mentoring experiences. Also presented are mentoring programs for recruiting individuals to the profession, practices supporting all library employees regardless of formal employee classification, and methods for enhancing the skills of consortial members. The volume ends with a look to the future of mentoring and organizational development and with a tool any library employee at any career stage can use in forming their own mentoring constellation.
 
Intentional, effective, committed mentorships can help mentees understand their roles and develop their identities as librarians, library workers, or library science students. Mentorships also help mentees understand and meet performance standards, broaden their skills, shift to new specializations, and discern options for contributing to the larger institution and the profession. Through mentoring, mentors may be invigorated by contributing to the growth of mentees and by encountering ideas and approaches different from their own. Academic Library Mentoring: Fostering Growth and Renewal addresses the many dimensions of contemporary academic library mentoring and how best to engage in inclusive, effective mentoring.
 

Leila June Rod-Welch is a librarian at Saddleback College where she coordinates outreach activities. Previously, she worked at the University of Northern Iowa. Prior to that, Rod-Welch taught English to international students, refugees, and immigrants. Leila received her EdD in leisure and human services management and MA in community leisure services programming from the University of Northern Iowa. She received her MA in library and information science from the University of Iowa. The majority of her research focuses on outreach to diverse and underserved populations such as international students, English as a second language learners, graduate students, military science students, and veterans. In 2019, she edited a book titled Improving Library Services in Support of International Students and English as a Second Language Learners. Leila’s other scholarly interests include leisure and aging. Dr. Rod-Welch was a 2014 ALA Emerging Leader. She has sixty publications and presentations. She was the founder and past Convener of Academic Library Services to Graduate Students Interest Group, the current co-convener of Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group, and co-chair of the ACRL 2021 Innovations Committee. Dr. Rod-Welch has been involved with numerous ACRL committees over the years, including the Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Committee.

Barbara E. Weeg is a tenured professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where she serves as a collection strategist librarian for the social sciences and physical sciences. She began her library career as a reference librarian, advanced the library instruction program as library instruction coordinator, and then simultaneously served as a reference librarian, a bibliographer, and as library disability services coordinator (a role she initiated). She earned her MA in library science from The University of Iowa and, later, an MAE in college student personnel services from the University of Northern Iowa. Her BS in psychology was earned with distinction from Iowa State University. Her research interests include mentoring and the application of psychological theory to the practice of librarianship. She has applied her knowledge of psychology and librarianship as a city board member and a volunteer with local social service agencies.