The subject of mentorship is widely discussed across professional fields and disciplines. The overall goal of mentoring and mentorship programmes is for career development. The concept of mentoring faculty members and administrators is however relatively new to higher education, and rare in information technology circles, including university libraries. The reason is that staff professional development in these types of organizations majorly depends on technical manuals and certification. The focus of the paper therefore, is on how librarians in university libraries can leverage mentoring and mentorship programmes for their career advancement. The paper discussed the concept of mentorship, types of mentoring and mentorship programmes, guide and principles to successful mentoring, reasons for mentoring and mentorship programmes in a workplace, how librarians and university libraries can harness the benefits of mentoring and mentorship programmes for career progression of staff. The paper identified some barriers and challenges to effective mentoring relationship such as unfair manipulations of parties, unrealistic expectations from mentors and mentees, failure to meet appointments, etc., and outlined strategies to overcome such challenges, such as setting mentoring goals and objectives, effective communication and striking a balance against over dependence on the mentor or mentee, among others.