When there’s no space to specialize: Embedding Research Mentors to increase instruction capacity

Due to retirements and budget cuts, the Schaffer Library at Union College has reduced its research instruction workforce. Lean staffing makes a traditional liaison model impossible, requiring librarians to teach across all disciplines without subject specialization. To address the resulting workload and specialization gaps, the library created a Research Practicum to develop students into paid Research Mentors. The program involves a three-term practicum course focused on information literacy, mentorship, and employment as a Research Mentor providing peer consultations. The program’s greatest success came from creating a subject specialization within the mentorship program. This model aims to fill service gaps in areas where the library lacks specialized staff. Mentors function as a crucial complement to librarian-led research support and learn valuable lifelong research skills. Through the Research Mentor Program and Practicum, we have built something perhaps more sustainable for a relationship-based campus: a service where information literacy is a shared, visible, and student-driven endeavor.