Embedded Librarianship

If you plan on viewing this event with a group of 3 or more people, please purchase at the group rate.A 90-minute workshop, Thursday, May 23, 4:30pm Eastern/3:30pm Central/2:30pm Mountain/1:30pm Pacific This is an online event hosted through Webex.

This session will describe how a small university library worked to develop a more sustainable way of meeting the research needs of students enrolled in online courses. Initially, we embedded individual librarians in online courses, to provide content and monitor the library-related discussion forums within. With limited staffing and tight budgets and with the population of online students growing rapidly, we were struggling to continue in this fashion.

Recently, my Library, the Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School, collaborated with the co-principal investigators for an ongoing breast cancer screening intervention stu...

A guide to the materials and resources for Dr. Looper's English 1101 classes. What you need to know about this class.

With the advent of mobile technologies, reference and information services to library patrons have finally come of age. However, it is no longer enough that the ubiquitous virtual reference web chat is open 24/7, or that a library’s website is geared to mobile device access. What, in fact, true digital and mobile assimilation means for reference and information services of the 21st century is the ability for the library to reach out beyond its physical and mobile device- oriented structures, to extend a hand of reference and information greeting to the human user, quite literally, in the street.
This is the realm of the “Embedded” or Itinerant Librarian, whose new role is to take the library with her out into the city to meet her patrons as they go about their busy day-to-day lives. This paper presents case studies, practical professional advice and vision statements of how such services can be achieved to produce a truly 21st century library.

The Douglas County Libraries has many extraordinary staff members. Four of them are Colbe Galston, Elizabeth Kelsen Huber, Katherine Johnson, and Amy Long. They are all librarians. I'm very pleased to note their recent article, Community Reference: Making Libraries Indispensable in a New Way. It's in the latest (June, 2012) issue of American Libraries.
Our library has been doing a lot of work on the cutting edge of our profession. This one - "Community Reference" - is important. It represents a shift from an internal to a more wholistic focus. Instead of asking what serves the library, we now ask how can the library serve the community? This may surprise some librarians, but it's not all about us. On the other hand, we have a host of skills that can not only make our whole environment (cultural, political, economic, etc.) better. This is also an opportunity for us to demonstrate our worth.

Embedding librarians in local organizations is the cornerstone of community reference. Assignments for embedded librarians vary from branch to branch so as to strategically target organizations that will provide the greatest partnership opportunities. DCL staff are embedded throughout the county in local schools, city councils, metro districts, economic development councils, and even a local women’s crisis center.