The APALA Mentoring Program provides professional and personal development, inspiration, and encouragement through supportive mentoring relationships. Mentors provide guidance and coaching to library students and emergent librarians about their careers and growth as professionals. Every year, the APALA Mentoring Committee recruits participants from the APALA mentorship, matching mentoring pairs based on the protégé’s goals, the type of library they work in or would like to work in, geographic location, and availability of mentors.
As the year wraps up, mentors and protégés reflect on their partnerships. Here, Joe Lee (protégé) and Maya Bergamasco (mentor) share.
Protégé Perspective: Joe Lee
When Maya Bergamasco, Harvard Law Library’s Faculty Research & Scholarly Support Librarian, mentioned her passion for legal research, informational justice, and all things D&D during our initial face-to-face meeting, I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was to have her as my APALA mentor. As an MLIS student and Reference Library Services Specialist at an academic library, I understand how critical it is for those of us in this field to find a mentor with whom we could foster a mutually beneficial, supportive, and safe environment, especially as Asian and Asian Americans taking space in higher education institutions and academic libraries.
As Maya and I continued getting to know each other through our regular meetings—from sharing our frustrations and successes, nerding out about games, and bonding over our mutual love for cats—it quickly became apparent that Maya possessed a wealth of wisdom, experience, and expertise, whether it was related to institutional knowledge, job searching, AI literacy and regulation, or even helpful tips about the writing process. However, as impressed as I was by Maya and her amazing work as a law librarian, I also deeply valued her commitment to creating space for us, as well as her kindness, compassion, and unflinching morals and principles regarding what it truly means to be an information professional in this day and age.
Since our first meeting, we have started a book discussion centered around Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s work, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines; held meaningful conversations around the human cost of technological innovation; and even had the wonderful opportunity to see each other in person this past March in Washington, D.C., where our meeting felt like a reunion between very dear friends. Maya has helped me network with other law library professionals in the field, and, just recently, has even shared her yet-to-be-published paper on AI misinformation in law review journals. She presented at the Mapping Scholarly Communications in Law Libraries Conference at the University at Buffalo, where I was invited to attend virtually and hear her salient remarks on the complexities surrounding GenAI citations and deepfakes within law review journals and legal scholarship, as well as recommendations for stakeholders on policies and guardrails to uphold scholarly integrity.
I am incredibly grateful to Maya for not only allowing me to observe and witness her essential work, but for also keeping me informed of scholarship opportunities for my own professional development as well. Thanks to her encouragement, I was awarded this year’s APALA Travel Grant, which gave me the chance to attend the ALA Conference in Philadelphia and connect with other fellow APALA members. I extend my deepest gratitude to the APALA Scholarships and Awards Committee, Nikhat Ghouse and the APALA Mentorship Committee (without whom I never would have met my phenomenal mentor), and—last but certainly not least—to Maya Bergamasco for being an exemplary advisor, teacher, role model, and friend.
Mentor Perspective: Maya Bergamasco
I am so lucky to have been paired with Joe! What started as a shared interest in law libraries and legal research soon grew as we realized we shared even more interests in D&D, artificial intelligence, and data ethics and privacy. Given that we have such similar interests, when we met in person earlier this year it felt very easy to pick up where we left off!
It’s been an absolute pleasure to hear more about what Joe is working on. She is currently developing a LibGuide on artificial intelligence that I am very much looking forward to using! As Joe mentioned, we are also currently reading Unmasking AI by Dr. Joy Buolamwini, and we hope to both continue our monthly meetings and start virtual writing sessions to co-work together in the future to get some projects to the finish line. I am also so proud that Joe is this year’s APALA Travel Grant recipient and am glad we were able to meet up again at ALA Annual 2025. Thank you to the Scholarships and Awards Committee for your consideration!
Having benefited from mentors in the past, I believe that mentorship is one of the strongest community building tools in our toolbox and am grateful to APALA and to Nikhat Ghouse for providing us with this crucial opportunity and guiding us through this program.
I am extremely grateful to Joe for approaching this mentor/protégé relationship with such thoughtfulness and care. It has been a privilege to celebrate wins and work through challenges together. I have learned from her just as much, if not more, than she has from me.
Bios
Joe Lee (she/her/hers) is a Reference Library Services Specialist at the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is currently pursuing her MLIS at the University of Maryland’s College of Information (INFO) program, where she hopes to specialize in legal research. Prior to joining UMBC, Joe worked as a Library Associate at the Enoch Pratt Library in downtown Baltimore and at the Sheridan Libraries’ Special Collections department at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). She has a bachelor’s degree in Writing Seminars from JHU’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Joe is passionate about empowering BIPOC/BIWOC librarians and library workers, as well as sharing information and awareness of patron privacy rights. She would like to one day use her knowledge of legal research to help make information and resources more accessible for her community members.
Maya Bergamasco (she/her/hers) is a current PhD student in Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign School of Information Sciences, where she studies information seeking behavior and identify formation of Chinese transnational adoptees who use consumer genetic testing. This research combines information science with Asian American studies, East Asian studies, diaspora studies, data privacy and ethics, and critical adoption studies. Previously, Maya served as the Faculty Research & Scholarly Support Librarian at Harvard Law School Library. She holds a MLIS from Simmons University and a BA in English literature and creative writing from SUNY Geneseo.