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, Miriam Tuliao (Mentor) and Joshlyn Thomas (Protégé) share.
Miriam Tuliao (Mentor)
It’s truly been an honor serving in APALA’s Mentoring Program. This past year, I had the good fortune of working with two talented, committed, and big-hearted protégés—Joshlyn, an early-career librarian, and Vanessa, a veteran library worker enrolled in a MLS program. When I reflect on our time together, I cherish the opportunities to connect with them, whether it was via text, email, or Zoom.
I recognize that librarianship isn’t an easy profession, and navigating Libraryland as an AANHPI has its challenges, so having these moments to pause, come up for air, and talk shop was necessary and meaningful.
For these reasons and more, I’m deeply grateful to both Joshlyn and Vanessa for their kindness, candor and for generously sharing their personal and professional experiences and insights. And I’m especially thankful to APALA and the Mentoring Committee for creating a space for us, sisters and brothers, to find community, to speak truth, to celebrate, to dream, and to always lean into what’s possible.
Joshlyn Thomas (Protégé)
I am so blessed to have Miriam Tuliao, a longtime member of APALA, as my mentor. She is generous with her knowledge as an information professional, sharing her experiences working at NYPL to her current role as the Senior Library Marketing Manager for Penguin Random House. As an early-career librarian, I am inspired by her trajectory from public libraries to publishing, along with her experience as an Information Science lecturer. Miriam’s dedication to APALA and our profession at large is an amazing example of how to sustain a long, fruitful career in Libraryland while advocating for the BIPOC library workers and patrons.
While we have yet to meet in person, as Miriam is based in New York City and I’m in Houston, her online mentorship still impacted me offline. She encouraged me to apply for funding to attend different conferences, and I was awarded a stipend to attend the Texas Library Association’s annual conference in Dallas. I finally met one of my professors in person, whom I previously only knew through Zoom. I also made meaningful connections with fellow library workers based in Texas and beyond, including Mychal Threets! This was such a wonderful experience that I might have missed out on had it not been for Miriam’s encouragement, especially when I was struggling with imposter syndrome while between jobs.
Throughout our time together, Miriam helped me weather the storm of searching for library work in this unpredictable job market. From navigating my first on-campus interview at an academic library to accepting the offer for my current position at a research library, along with all the peaks and valleys in between, I was able to go through all of this with Miriam’s support. No matter what lies ahead, I know I will never have to face the future alone because I can always count on Miriam and our APALA community.
Mentors and protégés apply for the program in the summer and participate from September through June. For more information about when applications open for next year, please visit our Mentoring Program webpage and keep an eye out for an announcement via the APALA member listserv.