Call for applications and nominations: Bass Library is growing its team of student mentors

Among Yale’s student employment opportunities, Yale Library offers undergraduates the chance to train and work as peer mentors.

Students in the Library Peer Mentor program help fellow undergraduates sharpen their research skills while developing new skills of their own.

Kelly Blanchat, undergraduate teaching and outreach librarian, trains mentors in how to navigate and benefit from the library’s extensive research resources. She also teaches them to teach others.

Undergraduate students are invited to apply for these paid mentor positions, which require a commitment of only 3 to 4 hours per week. No previous experience is required. New mentors will have a paid training period during the 2024 spring semester. Apply for a job as a peer mentor by signing into the Yale Student Employment portal.

Mentors learn to teach online and in-person workshops, coach peers one on one, and host student wellness events (such as the popular button-making event). While deepening their own research skills, peer mentors gain skills applicable to their academic fields of study and areas of future professional interest. 

Yale faculty and staff can also nominate first-year students and sophomores for consideration as mentors in the Library Peer Mentor program. To nominate a student to train as a mentor, email Kelly Blanchat. All nominated students will be personally invited to apply to the program.

Students who are interested in working with the mentors to build their research skills choose from among several special topics: “Let’s Find Books for Class,” “How to Find Scholarly Articles,” and “First Steps with Zotero.”

The weekly series of 30-minute online workshops is offered in evening and weekend time slots to accommodate students’ busy schedules. Additional workshops are announced on the library website as they open for registration.

Sign up for a Yale Library mentoring session or workshop.

—Deborah Cannarella

Image: Librarian Kelly Blanchat (at right) with peer mentor Isabelle Staco ’25. Photo by Monica Ong Reed