This document describes a mentoring program between librarians and honors students at Quinsigamond Community College. The program partners librarians with students enrolled in the college's Honors Colloquium course to provide research guidance and support throughout a semester-long research project. Students meet with their assigned librarian mentor multiple times and receive feedback on their progress. Both students and librarians report on the mentoring sessions. The program aims to help honors students develop their research, writing, and information literacy skills. Assessment of the program focuses on bibliographies, presentations, and feedback from students, librarians and faculty.

1. Susan McPherson
Professor of English, Coordinator of the Honors Program,
Quinsigamond Community College
Fyiane Nsilo-Swai
Natural Sciences Librarian, Ithaca College
(formerly Coordinator of Reference and Instruction at QCC, 2000-2009)
Dale LaBonte
Coordinator of Library Serials and Electronic Resources, QCC

2.  The Background -- on QCC,
Library Instruction, IDS 200
 The Process
 A glance at the Literature
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4. 5,654 Students by FTE
9,130 Students by Head Count
2 Academic campuses – Worcester, Southbridge
127 Full-time faculty
570 Part-time faculty
32 Academic and Technical Programs
33% Transfer rate (2009 data)
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5. website http://www.qcc.mass.edu/library
50,000 Monographs & A/V titles
250 Print journals
>70 Research databases
20 Workstations in electronic classroom (seats up to 40)
4,030 Individual reference consultations
4,278 Students instructed in 289 sessions
82 Faculty with instruction sessions
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6. 1999 Program established
100 students
4-course Sequence for graduation with honors
1-10 Individual honors contracts
16-24 Students taking IDS 200 each year
8 Core faculty teaching honors sections
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7.  Correlates with information literacy competencies
developed by the Association of College and
Research Libraries (ACRL)
 Individual consultations at the Reference Desk
 Classroom Instruction in many subjects, with
highest demand in English, Psychology, and
Orientation
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8.  Five Librarians (4.2 FTE)
 One or more Librarians on duty whenever
the Library is open
 Collaborative framework for providing
Library Instruction
 Weekly team meetings
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9. Individual Consultations
• Reference
• Professional development
• Research assignment design
Library Class Instruction session
• Supports specific research assignments
• Reduces library anxiety
• Addresses information literacy outcomes:
 Student develops a research question
 Identifies and evaluates appropriate resources
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10.  Dr. Melissa Tamas, Assistant Professor of Psychology
 Concerned with lack of research and writing skills
 Assignment – PsycINFO - one article, summarize
 Partnership with Reference Team leader
 Librarian embedded in the course
 Developed new laddering approach
 Replicated and expanded partnership and
approach in Honors Colloquium -- IDS200
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11. A second-year “capstone” experience for
honors program students
Students engage in a semester-long
interdisciplinary research project
Course theme provides research framework
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Popular Culture
Eat the View (Food)
Human Rights
Emerging Paradigms

12. Students produce
• A research paper
• An oral presentation
• A poster session in the Honors Showcase
• May present at the statewide Undergraduate
Research Conference
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13. Class sizes vary with up to 24 students
Interdisciplinary approach
Unconstrained topic selections
Unspecified outcomes measures
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14. Uncertainty and inexperience
Prior experience with research varies
Little familiarity with research tools
Inexperience with academic disciplines
Unfamiliarity with research methods
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15. Librarians notice:
• Students unfamiliar with scholarly
resources
• Students radically change topics close to
deadline
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16. Honors showcase presentations
• Bibliographies limited to websites
• Visual presentation inadequate
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Homer described the original Mentor as a
"wise and trusted counselor" whom
Odysseus left in charge of his household
during his travels.
Athena, in the guise of Mentor, became the
guardian and teacher of Odysseus' son
Telemachus.

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A process
• Orientation to scholarly literature within a
discipline
• Support structure for individual growth
A relationship
• Role modeling
• Guidance and feedback
• Collegiality

19. “The interpersonal communication that
occurs between a reference librarian and a
library user to determine the person's
specific information need(s), which may turn
out to be different than the reference
question as initially posed.”
Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science
http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/searchODLIS.aspx
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“…independent research experiences
entail real hands-on experience in
research conception, design, conduct,
and dissemination and make inherent
contributions to a discipline.”
Stamatoplos p. 236

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 Support students to
• Thrive in the Honors Program
• Embrace the challenge of academic rigor
• Demonstrate information literacy
• Develop time management skills

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Engage with faculty to:
• Help students achieve high standards
• Advance assessment/evaluation criteria
• Exchange information on student progress

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Faculty and reference team members hold
planning meeting
Faculty send welcome letter to students
describing the mentoring partnership
Librarians send welcome letter offering
mentor support

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Syllabus establishes progress deadlines
and librarian/student contact dates
Instruction session explores relevant
sources and the research process
Students sign up for initial mentoring
sessions

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Course Outline
Week Four 2/8
Paradigms and (Biology of) Belief;
Topics Due
Meeting #1 with assigned librarian must take place before 2/8
Week Five 2/17
Epigenetics;
Concept Map Due
Meeting #2 with assigned librarian must take place before 2/17
Week Seven 3/3
Evolution of Consciousness
Bibliographies and Outlines Due
Meeting #3 with assigned librarian must take place before 3/3
Week Ten 3/29
Vibrational and Energy Medicine
First 7 Pages of Rough Draft Due
Week Eleven 4/7
Drafts returned; discussion

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Course Requirements
Course requirements must remain flexible to allow for
the team taught experience. However, requirements
include the following tasks:
Preparation of a 12-15-page research paper supported
by a minimum of ten outside sources, which
explores a specific topic, related to the colloquium’s
theme.
A short written account of all meetings (3 required) with
assigned librarian to prepare for the research project.
A 5-7 minute oral presentation summarizing the main
points of the research paper, the process of its
evolution, and research methodology used.

28. For a productive librarian mentor meeting,
plan to bring:
•your datebook
•a tentative topic (or several)
•a definition of your topic(s)
•a list of questions ready to ask your librarian
mentor
•a list of the resources you consulted
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Students produce key documents
Students and Librarians report on and
evaluate mentoring sessions
Feedback looking for gaps

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1. What questions did you have for the
librarian?
2. Please describe what happened during the
session.
3. What progress did you make on your
project as a result of your meeting? What
did you learn through the session?

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The meeting outcome
Completed Cancelled/Rescheduled No Show
How prepared was the student for the meeting?
Extremely Very Somewhat A Little Not Prepared
The student's progress on the project thus far is:
Excellent Good Satisfactory Poor No Progress
Did the student make good use of the session?
Yes No
Any potential problems with the student's project?
Yes No
Comments:

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Classroom presentations
IDS 200 Honors Showcase
UMass Undergraduate Research
Conference

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 Mentor meetings required for Honors status
 Librarians collect bibliographies as an indicator
of information literacy
 Campus feedback
 Ongoing and end of semester discussions
between faculty and librarians
 Accreditation visits

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What mentoring programs exist at your
institution?
What could you do to participate in, develop,
or enhance those programs/ opportunities?
What resources are available or would be
needed?

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Defines 2 types of mentoring :
formal and informal
Identifies 6 components of the mentor role:
relationship emphasis
information emphasis
facilitative focus
confrontive focus
modeling
visioning
Mentions an assessment instrument for
mentor self-assessment:
Cohen’s Principles of Adult Mentoring Scale

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 Emphasizes student growth through the mentoring
relationship
 Notes team role stronger in STEM fields and
faculty/student contact is less frequent in
humanities and social science
 Describes the Summer Undergraduate Research
Experiences (SURE) survey taken by both student
protégés and faculty mentors

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 Discusses SURE survey results that demonstrate students’
positive responses to the mentoring relationship
 Notes benefits of academic year mentored research
experiences:
“The general taxonomy of benefits include student-reported gains
on a variety of disciplinary skills, research design, information or
data collection and analysis, information literacy, and
communication. … Undergraduate researchers learn tolerance
for obstacles faced in the research process, how knowledge is
constructed, independence, increased self-confidence, and a
readiness for more demanding research” (par 3-4).

39.  Reviews the literature on undergraduate
research and academic mentoring primarily in
the STEM fields
 Explores ways libraries can support mentoring
programs, although not proposing that
librarians serve as mentors
 Reports on a pilot program at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis
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40.  Insights on cultural differences suggest that role
modeling and informal networks are more
valuable for some types of students
 Analyzes needs and interests of the population
we find in the community college student body
 Uses SURE data to explore the student side of
the mentoring equation
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41. “The libraries take every opportunity to
demonstrate that they are not just buildings full
of books; a library is a body of knowledge
contained by no walls, a place both physical
and virtual where ideas are conceived and
shared, and where that knowledge grows.
Wherever there exists a potential for a learning
experience, librarians will be found. Librarians
will create these opportunities, too” (104).
Shoop, M. “University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries and the Common Reading Program.” Librarians as Community
Partners: An Outreach Handbook. Ed. Carol Smallwood. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010: 103-105. Print.
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42. Susan McPherson
Professor of English, Coordinator of the Honors Program,
Quinsigamond Community College
smcpherson@qcc.mass.edu|508-854-2759
Fyiane Nsilo-Swai
Natural Sciences Librarian, Ithaca College
fnsiloswai@ithaca.edu | 607-274-3889
Dale LaBonte
Coordinator of Library Serials and Electronic Resources, QCC
dlabonte@qcc.mass.edu | 508-854-7472
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Matthew Bejune
Coordinator of Library Reference and Instruction, QCC
mbejune@qcc.mass.edu | 508-854-4210