Building Success in Research and Scholarship Through Peer Mentoring

Abstract

Research and scholarship contribute to personal career advancement, and to evidence-based librarianship which seeks to improve library services by encouraging librarians to incorporate the results of qualitative and quantitative research into their daily practice. Peer mentoring is an effective means of building success in research and scholarship for librarians by providing opportunities for support and mutual learning. This paper describes current peer mentoring initiatives relating to research and scholarship for Canadian academic librarians at the institutional and national level, with a focus on the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Librarians’ Research Institute. The CARL Librarians’ Research Institute was founded in 2012 to “provide practicing academic librarians in Canada an opportunity to immerse themselves in sustained conversations and activities related to scholarly research, inquiry, and publishing” (Canadian Association of Research Libraries 2015).