+1 to this idea. I have benefited tremendously over the years from kind people taking me under their wings. Many of us try to do this one-on-one, but some kind of introduction service would be a huge benefit for the community, I would think. 

Mentorship is a great example of a robust solution - a solution that addresses more than one problem at once. I suspect that this would not only improve our diversity as a community, it might also solve some tech leadership / succession planning problems and maybe expose some training needs. 

Bess

On Nov 27, 2012, at 4:20 PM, Nathan Tallman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> This is a slightly different topic, but relates to Kelley's post: Does
> code4lib have a mentor program where more inexperienced geeks can pair up
> with someone to guide their development? I don't have anyone like that in
> my network, but would really like to. I don't mean to discount the existing
> resources on code4lib or this list, which both have been very useful. I'm
> sure I could just start by attending some of the conferences, but for more
> inexperienced people they can be a bit intimidating, albeit inspiring.
> 
> It would also be a way to directly engage minorities.
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> Nathan
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 6:20 PM, Kelley McGrath <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> I'll second the idea of approaching people individually and explicitly
>> asking them to participate. It worked on me. I never would have written my
>> first article for the Code4Lib Journal or become a member of the editorial
>> committee if someone hadn't encouraged me individually (Thanks Jonathan!).
>> 
>> It would also be good to find a way to somehow target the pool of lurkers
>> who maybe aren't already connected to someone and get them more involved.
>> 
>> As far as anonymous proposals go, we recently had a very good workshop on
>> implicit bias here. Someone brought up that found significant changes in
>> the gender proportions in symphony orchestras after candidates started
>> auditioning behind screens. There are also lots of studies about the
>> different responses to the same resume/application depending on whether a
>> stereotypically male/female or white/black name was used. Probably it's
>> impossible to make proposals completely anonymous, but it would be an
>> interesting experiment to leave off the names.
>> 
>> Kelley
>> 
>> PS Interestingly, I wouldn't instinctively self-identify as a member of
>> the Code4Lib community, although my first thought is that that has more to
>> do with not being a coder than with being a woman.
>> 
>> 
>> **************************
>> Kelley McGrath
>> Metadata Management Librarian
>> University of Oregon Libraries
>> 1299 University of Oregon
>> Eugene, OR 97403
>> 
>> 541-346-8232
>> [log in to unmask]
>>