ALA Connect Help Community

While ALA Connect is a superb professional networking resource for members of the American Library Association, it can be equally valuable for professionals who are not yet members of one of the largest and most active professional asssociations in the United States. Students, consultants, and other professionals with an interest in librarianship will find the resources in ALA Connect extremely valuable for connecting with ALA Members. It's easy to get started....

1. How much do I need to fill out in the “About” section of my MC Profile?
   All of these fields are optional, although each helps someone else determine which person could potentially be the best mentor for them. We recommend you fill out these fields, but it’s totally up to you. The information you provide here isn’t used anywhere outside of MentorConnect, and ALA will never expose, give away, rent, sell, or do anything else with the data you include here.

    

How do we get going?

There is no set way for mentoring relationships to get started. However, it’s very important for both the mentor and mentee to remember that the work needs to focus on the needs of the mentee. Subjects for early conversations should include: goals and aspirations of the mentee, frequency of contact desired, preferred learning styles, communication preferences, and sharing of information about the mentor’s and mentee’s backgrounds.

If you’re a mentor, you might open the conversation by asking the mentee one of the following questions:

There's so much happening on ALA Connect, you may feel a bit overwhelmed trying to find your way. But with a few easy features, you can quickly put your finger on the pulse of ALA Connect.

From the ALA Connect homepage you can browse upcoming events, view most recently created member communities, follow comments recently made, and more. Let's take a closer look....