Strengthening a Library Association Through Multi-Year Province Wide Mentorship

The British Columbia Library Association leads the library community in advocacy, professional development, and support of intellectual freedom. They ensure that all British Columbians have equitable access to information, ideas, and works of the imagination.

The Challenge

The British Columbia Library Association (BCLA) has offered a volunteer-run mentorship program since 2012, but it was limited in size and scope due to a manual matching process and lacked supporting resources. There is a growing desire for connection within the industry, and they wanted to expand the program to better meet the needs of their members and encourage and enhance knowledge exchange between new and experienced professionals. They identified that a mentorship platform with robust matching capabilities and a suite of on-demand resources would enable them to elevate and expand their mentorship program.

Pollinate Approach:

Participants completed a custom intake form, including Pollinate’s proprietary Knowledge Transfer Index Assessment, a collaboration assessment.
Matches were created by the use of Pollinate’s advanced matching algorithm, focusing on key topic areas and shared lived experiences combined with insights from the BCLA Mentoring Committee.
Matches were launched with a virtual webinar and access to Pollinate’s curated eLearning library and mentorship resources.
Program feedback was captured mid-way through and at the end to provide analytics and capture real-time insights to inform future iterations.

Highlights

73 High-quality matches built around shared lived experiences and industry goals.

Custom-branded mentorship platform.

Continuous feedback and program improvement.

Participation in the BCLA mentorship program increased by 250% in year one, and it has maintained the same level of interest in year two.

Results

Career Growth: Mentees reported continuing career growth as a topic area that was focused on in mentoring.
Expanded Networks: Participants built meaningful connections between libraries and roles.
Library Knowledge: Mentees could select the type of library they were hoping to learn more about to really focus their learning on what is applicable to their career.
Interest and Engagement: The Introduction of Pollinate both increased demand for the BCLA mentorship program and provided the capacity to support more mentorship pairs. In the first year of working with Pollinate, participation in the BCLA mentorship program increased by 250% and it has maintained the same level of interest in year two.

“Pollinate has been a wonderful partner for us and has enabled us to elevate and expand our mentorship program beyond what we imagined was possible. As a small, values-driven nonprofit organization, we were grateful not only for their deep knowledge and technological capabilities, but for the passion they brought to our shared work – their commitment to the value of mentorship and their genuine interest in what makes our sector and organization unique shone through in all of our interactions, and was manifested in the resulting program our members experienced.”

Rina Hadziev

Executive Director, British Columbia Library Association

“I have been so impressed by the Pollinate team and their services. They are attentive to our feedback, responsive to requests, and have created a quality product that has elevated our mentorship program to new standards, helping us to ensure a meaningful experience for both mentees and mentors. Obviously, library workers value resources and the addition of activity modules, templates, and video training on the platform have been much appreciated.”

Natalie Porter

Professional Development Coordinator, British Columbia Library Association

“My mentee was fabulous. I loved chatting with her and learning from her job experience. It was fascinating hearing about her workplace and community, which inspired me to think about my own community more. She also gave me some tips in return and the whole process felt reciprocal, not one sided.”

Mentor

BCLA Mentorship Program

“In the end, I think we both learned things from each other’s [career] journey. As we were both newcomers to Canada, we connected a lot about the newcomer experience both in and outside of [career], which I think strengthened our bond and ability to discuss challenging topics.”

Mentor

BCLA Mentorship Program

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