Could you use help in designing an appropriate research strategy?
Unsure of how to best gather or analyze research data?
Do you have a question or research idea, but are not sure how to conduct good research?
The MLA Research Section provides you with direct access to librarians with research expertise.
The Section has supported a mentoring service since 1997 and now links MLA members to
information about 17 Research Section members with significant research expertise.
Using the Research Mentors Index at this
Web site, you can contact one or more of these
volunteer mentors to discuss ideas for new research, approaches to formulating
research questions, or the technicalities of various research methods.
The following characteristics have been suggested for good mentors: a trusted friend,
a guide, a teacher, an adviser, a coach, and a helper. One formal definition
describes mentoring as "a developmental, caring, sharing, and helping relationship
where one person invests time, know-how, and effort in enhancing another person’s
growth, knowledge, and skills, and responds to critical needs in the life of that
person in ways that prepare the individual for greater productivity or achievement
in the future." [Shea, Gordon F. Mentoring: Helping Employees Reach Their Full Potential.
New York: American Management Association, 1994. p. 13] While your relationship with
one of our Section mentors may eventually grow into a "trusted friend" relationship,
we recommend you first seek just advice and help, tapping the Mentor’s research
expertise on a specific research question, strategy or method.
Using this mentoring service
Please review the Research Mentors Index
for the areas of expertise listed for these Mentors and contact one person at a time.
Most mentors would prefer to be first contacted by electronic mail. Include a succinct,
but detailed, description of the research question or problem you are investigating and
the steps you have taken to date to find the information or help you seek. Let the mentor
know what kind of help you need - whether it is formulating the research question, designing a
questionnaire, analyzing statistical results, etc. Also let the Mentor know that you located
her/his name via the MLA Research Section Mentors Service and be sure to include complete
contact information for yourself and any deadlines under which you may be working.
The extent of the consulting help each Mentor can provide will depend on the particular
circumstances of each requestor and each Mentor at the time of the request. Mentors are
volunteers who have other job and professional responsibilities. If you have other questions
about how to use this service before you actually contact a mentor, please email or call
Gary Byrd at gdbyrd@buffalo.edu or 716-829-3900
ext. 130.
