The International Mentoring Programme was set up during the past few months and provides young or recently-launched dealers with one-to-one support from a more established dealer. It will tap into its international base of member as well as modern technology to pair dealers with local and foreign mentors.
“This programme harnesses the enormous goodwill of our members, offering a truly extraordinary range of expertise in nine languages to support less experienced booksellers wherever they may be,” says ILAB vice-president Sally Burdon, who is also the coordinator for the new mentoring programme.
Participation is free for mentees and they will not be listed publically, though a full list of mentors is available on the ILAB website. Mentees also do not need to be ILAB members.
Burdon adds: “We can now envisage a Dutch mentor supporting a young American bookseller, an American mentor helping a young Russian bookseller or an Australian mentor chatting regularly with their mentee in Malaysia.”
