Are you new to serving distance and online students and want to expand your professional knowledge/skills? Or are you an experienced librarian willing to share your knowledge to help others develop their skills?
Consider participating in the latest DOLS Mentorship program cohort! We're now accepting participants until August 17, 2026:
After the deadline, participants will be paired (mentor/mentee), and the mentoring program will run from September 1, 2026, until June 30, 2027.
> How It Works
🌟 There is no prescribed intent or goals for this mentorship experience. Mentor and mentee pairs will work together to create customized goals for the mentee. Your goals can be as ambitious as a research project and publication, or as small as individualized coaching on a single job responsibility.
🕰️The pairs will communicate regularly throughout the year to work towards those goals. Guiding documents are provided by the program to assist in this. While time commitments vary based on your agreed-upon goals, the mentorship program often takes fewer than 2 hours a month.
> Rules
📋 All participants in the DOLS Mentoring Program must be
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have experience serving distance/online students through librarianship, research, service participation, or all three.
> Apply
🌟Fill out the appropriate application (links below) before our August 17th deadline!
> Got questions?
❓ For more information, contact the Membership & Mentoring Committee Chair: Tammy Ivins (tivins@nu.edu)
> Don’t take our word for it! Feedback from previous mentors/mentees:
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“[I appreciated h]aving someone to talk to about librarianship. I am the lone librarian, so I do not have anyone to talk with in-detail at work.”
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“The time I had with [my] mentor was very stimulating and offered great ideas for the future.”
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“Talking with and bouncing ideas off someone not in my institution who had no bias related to my institution or my position. It felt safe.”
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“I love getting to know another online learning/distance learning librarian from wherever in the country. I am a mentor, but I get so much out of the relationship that it almost feels like we are both mentors?”
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“My mentor…was great, helpful, and inspirational. I'm grateful to not only have found a supportive mentor, but a fantastic colleague in my career.”
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“I liked that I didn't really know what to ask and my mentor would kindly impart knowledge and helped guide me.”
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Video testimonial
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Tammy Ivins
Reference & Instruction Librarian | Dissertation Manuscript Publication & Institutional Repository Admin
National University |
www.nu.edu |
tivins@nu.edu------------------------------