Matt McCollow proposed something like this a while back. We have a page
up and everything! But, it never got much traction.
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg14270.html
http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Mentorship
-nruest
On 12-11-27 07:30 PM, Bess Sadler wrote:
+1 to this idea. I have benefited tremendously over the years from kind people
taking me under their wings. Many of us try to do this one-on-one, but some
kind of introduction service would be a huge benefit for the community, I would
think.
Mentorship is a great example of a robust solution - a solution that addresses
more than one problem at once. I suspect that this would not only improve our
diversity as a community, it might also solve some tech leadership / succession
planning problems and maybe expose some training needs.
Bess
On Nov 27, 2012, at 4:20 PM, Nathan Tallman <[email protected]> wrote:
This is a slightly different topic, but relates to Kelley's post: Does
code4lib have a mentor program where more inexperienced geeks can pair up
with someone to guide their development? I don't have anyone like that in
my network, but would really like to. I don't mean to discount the existing
resources on code4lib or this list, which both have been very useful. I'm
sure I could just start by attending some of the conferences, but for more
inexperienced people they can be a bit intimidating, albeit inspiring.
It would also be a way to directly engage minorities.
Just a thought.
Nathan
On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 6:20 PM, Kelley McGrath <[email protected]> wrote:
I'll second the idea of approaching people individually and explicitly
asking them to participate. It worked on me. I never would have written my
first article for the Code4Lib Journal or become a member of the editorial
committee if someone hadn't encouraged me individually (Thanks Jonathan!).
It would also be good to find a way to somehow target the pool of lurkers
who maybe aren't already connected to someone and get them more involved.
As far as anonymous proposals go, we recently had a very good workshop on
implicit bias here. Someone brought up that found significant changes in
the gender proportions in symphony orchestras after candidates started
auditioning behind screens. There are also lots of studies about the
different responses to the same resume/application depending on whether a
stereotypically male/female or white/black name was used. Probably it's
impossible to make proposals completely anonymous, but it would be an
interesting experiment to leave off the names.
Kelley
PS Interestingly, I wouldn't instinctively self-identify as a member of
the Code4Lib community, although my first thought is that that has more to
do with not being a coder than with being a woman.
**************************
Kelley McGrath
Metadata Management Librarian
University of Oregon Libraries
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
541-346-8232
[email protected]
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-nruest
