The QUT/ALIA Queensland student mentoring program

This paper examines the partnership established between ALIA and QUT, through the School of Information Systems and the Careers and Employment Office, to provide a mentoring program for students in the Graduate Diploma of Library and Information Studies (GDLIS) course. The program has been offered to students enrolled in the Professional Practice unit of the course. The main focus of this unit is to prepare students for entry into their new careers and as such is conceptually and philosophically related to a mentoring program. A range of activities, both career-related and social, are offered to mentors and mentees, aimed at developing closer relationships between students and information professionals at a personal level, as well as interaction between the university and the information profession as a whole at the institutional level. The paper discusses the collaborative research project which investigates both the teaching and learning outcomes for students and the professional development outcomes for mentors resulting from this unique transitional mentoring program.