From Local to Global: A Comparison of Hong Kong Library Association Mentoring Programme and International Librarians Network

In today’s world, sharing and connecting get easier every day with the rapid development of and ubiquitous access to the World Wide Web. It enables one to acquire information about their profession and connect with people any time any where. While celebrating this wide availability of information and connectivity, one-to-one personal sharing is not to be dismissed. Instead, we should make the best use of it in developing our profession. Both the Hong Kong Library Association Mentoring Programme and the International Librarians Network are newly launched mentoring programmes addressing the increasing demand for connecting and networking LIS professionals both locally and globally. This paper aims to compare these two mentoring programmes in terms of the successful factors of and learning support given to the Hong Kong LIS community, as well as the effectiveness of these personal sharing platforms. Their strengths, similarities, and impact to the LIS community will be discussed.