Librarian and Peer Research Mentor Partnerships that Promote Student Success

Abstract

This chapter describes the evolution of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Manchester Research Mentor Program, a cross-campus collaboration that trains writing tutors to assist students with information literacy skills. The first half of the chapter documents the first iteration of the Research Mentor Program, describing the recruitment, training, tutoring activities, and evaluation of the writing tutors/research mentors; the integration of the research mentors in First-Year Writing classroom library instruction sessions and writing tutorials; and the results of a three-semester evaluation study of the program's effectiveness at teaching composition students the information skills they will need to develop as writers, researchers, and critical thinkers. The second half of the chapter describes the Research Mentor Program's transformation as librarians, learning center staff, and classroom instructors adapted the program's goals by integrating the vision of the Association of College and Research Libraries' Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into their pedagogy.