Abstract

In June 2009, a meeting was held with Marishona Ortega (Academic Subject Librarian), Philippa Dyson and Lys Ann Reiners (Deputy Librarians) to discuss the principles of developing a mentoring system within the library at the University of Lincoln. During discussions we felt it important to develop something new that would create an ethos of mutual support within the department and this is where we felt buddying would be a step forward.

So what is buddying? The National Council for Voluntary Organisations defines it as ‘a system for ena-bling peers to support each other by sharing experiences, offering advice and providing a sounding board for ideas and problems. Buddying is different from mentoring, which is a more formal and structured rela-tionship where the mentor is typically in a more senior role than the mentee.’ 1 The strength of buddying is that it takes the view that both partners can offer each support and opportunities to learn whatever role they fulfil.

The buddying relationship need not and possibly should not be a permanent arrangement. Ideally, staff should change buddies regularly to ensure a broad range of perspectives is achieved as per the recom-mendations of Urquhart et al and Cunningham.