This talk discusses embedded librarianship and its importance for the future of the profession. It is divided into three parts. The first part defines embedded librarianship as developing strong relationships with teams, achieving mutual understanding of goals, sharing responsibility for achieving goals, and making customized contributions as an information expert. The second part discusses how embedded librarianship differs from traditional librarianship by focusing on relationships rather than transactions and requiring specialization within domains. The third part suggests actions librarians can take, starting with reflecting on current relationships and readiness for embedded roles, to help transition towards embedded models.
Presentation given at Internet Librarian International Conference, Olympia London, October 21st 2015 on Copenhagen Libraries' controversial new strategy and its implications
Presentation given at Internet Librarian International Conference, Olympia London, October 21st 2015 on Copenhagen Libraries' controversial new strategy and its implications
This is the presentation I gave at the Internet Archive's "Make Books Apparent" meeting, held in San Francisco, October 19-20, 2009. The meeting was mainly about our exciting new project, called BookServer, a distributed lending & vending system over the Internet.
This is a call to arms for libraries, inspired loosely by the famous SHIFT HAPPENS deck. Feel free to embed it anywhere and everywhere, with attribution.
Come on people! This is libraries' time!
Rebuilding Journalism: Winning the battle for attentionKevin Anderson
My presentation for Digital Directions 11 in Sydney Australia. I talked about how news organisations could find new opportunities in a world of over abundant content and scarce attention.
February 28th cyborg to borg—cont’d, with michael chorostDoug Thompson
Robert Bloomfield welcomes Michael Chorost once again, as his guest on Metanomics. The discussion during Michael’s last visit centered on his book, Re-Built and his experience of receiving a cochlear implant. As a science writer, he knew how the implant worked, yet it was a fascinating journey to share his experience of stepping up to Cyborg status, utilizing lines of code and an implanted physical device to regain the ability to hear. His new book, World Wide Mind has just been released and further explores the integration of humans and machine coupled with the connective potential of the internet. It’s been widely praised in reviews including The New York Times, Wired Magazine, New Scientist, and The L-Magazine. All agree that the science is dazzling, and the interwoven account of his personal journey to become a more complete human, emotionally speaks to how this merge with technology might affect us all.
Click here to watch video http://www.metanomics.net/show/february_28th/
Scanned and Delivered: How the DHLab made remote research workYHRUploads
This interview with DHLab Director Peter Leonard, Program Manager Catherine DeRose, and Director of Communications for the Library Patricia Carey comprises The Stacks, a conversation series published by The Yale Historical Review.
Is social media a revolution or just more conversation? What are companies doing to protect their reputations online? Where do virtual worlds fit in to the Web 2.0 ecosystem?
Chris Abraham, President and COO of Abraham Harrison was the guest on Metanomics, a weekly broadcast which explores the serious uses of virtual worlds.
View the video: http://tinyurl.com/ydv3c7t
The social media world is not flat. There are new lands beyond the continent of Facebook. The New world has riches, romance, opportunities, fame, and some say the secrets to eternal youth. Buy also beware! There are rumors of Medussas whose siren song will lure you in to her lair so that you will crash upon the rocks, serpents called worms that will entangle your ship and control your course, viruses that will make you and your crew sea sick, trojan ships that will approach you with free goods that hold spies that will live among you, pirate ships that will steal your goods and ask you to join in their skullduggery by trading in illegal goods, and Cyclops who will train their evil eye on you to suck out your soul and rob your privacy.
But as entrepid explorers you must put aside your fears and push out into the unknown. Forewarned is forearmed! Seek your destiny!
This presentation was given at the 23d Annual Conference on Libraries and the Future, sponsored by the Long Island Library Resources Council, October 24, 2014.
Embedded librarians operate in a complex network of relationships: with each other, with vendors of products and services, and most importantly with diverse members of the communities they serve. As their professional lives become centered on these networked relationships, instead of the library, they may find themselves redefining fundamental values and principles of librarianship, including the nature of service, the identity of the library as an institution, and the role of librarians in the community.
This is the presentation I gave at the Internet Archive's "Make Books Apparent" meeting, held in San Francisco, October 19-20, 2009. The meeting was mainly about our exciting new project, called BookServer, a distributed lending & vending system over the Internet.
This is a call to arms for libraries, inspired loosely by the famous SHIFT HAPPENS deck. Feel free to embed it anywhere and everywhere, with attribution.
Come on people! This is libraries' time!
Rebuilding Journalism: Winning the battle for attentionKevin Anderson
My presentation for Digital Directions 11 in Sydney Australia. I talked about how news organisations could find new opportunities in a world of over abundant content and scarce attention.
February 28th cyborg to borg—cont’d, with michael chorostDoug Thompson
Robert Bloomfield welcomes Michael Chorost once again, as his guest on Metanomics. The discussion during Michael’s last visit centered on his book, Re-Built and his experience of receiving a cochlear implant. As a science writer, he knew how the implant worked, yet it was a fascinating journey to share his experience of stepping up to Cyborg status, utilizing lines of code and an implanted physical device to regain the ability to hear. His new book, World Wide Mind has just been released and further explores the integration of humans and machine coupled with the connective potential of the internet. It’s been widely praised in reviews including The New York Times, Wired Magazine, New Scientist, and The L-Magazine. All agree that the science is dazzling, and the interwoven account of his personal journey to become a more complete human, emotionally speaks to how this merge with technology might affect us all.
Click here to watch video http://www.metanomics.net/show/february_28th/
Scanned and Delivered: How the DHLab made remote research workYHRUploads
This interview with DHLab Director Peter Leonard, Program Manager Catherine DeRose, and Director of Communications for the Library Patricia Carey comprises The Stacks, a conversation series published by The Yale Historical Review.
Is social media a revolution or just more conversation? What are companies doing to protect their reputations online? Where do virtual worlds fit in to the Web 2.0 ecosystem?
Chris Abraham, President and COO of Abraham Harrison was the guest on Metanomics, a weekly broadcast which explores the serious uses of virtual worlds.
View the video: http://tinyurl.com/ydv3c7t
The social media world is not flat. There are new lands beyond the continent of Facebook. The New world has riches, romance, opportunities, fame, and some say the secrets to eternal youth. Buy also beware! There are rumors of Medussas whose siren song will lure you in to her lair so that you will crash upon the rocks, serpents called worms that will entangle your ship and control your course, viruses that will make you and your crew sea sick, trojan ships that will approach you with free goods that hold spies that will live among you, pirate ships that will steal your goods and ask you to join in their skullduggery by trading in illegal goods, and Cyclops who will train their evil eye on you to suck out your soul and rob your privacy.
But as entrepid explorers you must put aside your fears and push out into the unknown. Forewarned is forearmed! Seek your destiny!
This presentation was given at the 23d Annual Conference on Libraries and the Future, sponsored by the Long Island Library Resources Council, October 24, 2014.
Embedded librarians operate in a complex network of relationships: with each other, with vendors of products and services, and most importantly with diverse members of the communities they serve. As their professional lives become centered on these networked relationships, instead of the library, they may find themselves redefining fundamental values and principles of librarianship, including the nature of service, the identity of the library as an institution, and the role of librarians in the community.
The Whole Is Greater Than Its Parts: How Quality Reference Service and Commun...Don Boozer
It’s impossible to point to one, single aspect of reference service and say “That’s it!” Reference service depends on a myriad of conditions and causes to bring the necessary pieces of information together with inquirers. These conditions include the layout and location of the building, the interaction of the personalities involved, the format of the answer itself, and many more. These will all affect the efficacy of the reference transaction and the satisfaction of both librarian and patron. While we can’t control all these factors, we should be consciously aware of them: capitalizing on some, mitigating others. This session will take you on a journey through the reference transaction, bringing to light the vital connections that make our profession possible and providing some practical tips on how to make the most of the resources, skills, and techniques we all have at our disposal. (Presented at Ohio Library Council Convention & Expo 2016)
Presented at the "Understanding and Improving Intelligence Analysis: Learning from Other Disciplines" Workshop, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, July 15, 2013.
Marketing academic libraries in a web 2 worldNed Potter
A presentation delivered at Oxford Social Media 2011. It's about marketing academic libraries with social media, but most of what it contains applies across the sectors to other library types.
Feel free to embed it! (With attribution.)
The library profession is at a cross roads. Computer technology coupled with the Internet have changed the way content is created, maintained, evaluated, and distributed. While the core principles of librarianship (collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination) are still very much apropos to the current milieu, the exact tasks of the profession are not as necessary as they once were. What is a librarian to do? In my opinion, there are three choices: 1) creating services against content as opposed to simply providing access to it, 2) curating collections that are unique to our local institutions, or 3) providing sets of services that are a combination of #1 and #2. This presentation elaborates on these ideas and demonstrates some of the possibilities.
The most complete version of this presentation is located at http://infomotions.com/musings/future-2015/
Make fans & influence people using Facebook & other social media (NTRLS TechN...Arlington Public Library
Libraries exist to connect with people and help them to connect with their world. Social media gives us new tools to help carry out that mission by allowing us to be more engaging, conversational and playful. Arlington Public Library staff wants people to see the library subconsciously as their trusted smart friend who steers them toward ideas and resources which they might not encounter on their own. Learn how to broaden your patron base and deepen connections by putting a human face on your institution.
Objectives: Recognize ways social media can help promote library services; Identify tools for library fans which can multiply a library’s message; Examine social media's promise for delivering personalized customer service; Acquire practical tips and tricks for connecting with library fans and for handling administrative tasks.
FREE 7+ Commentary Writing Samples and Templates in PDF. Teaching Students How to Write Commentary for the Literary Analysis .... How to Write a Commentary (with Sample Commentaries) - wikiHow. FREE 17+ Essay Writing Samples & Templates in PDF | MS Word. Writing a commentary essay. Examples of commentary sentences in an essay. Commentaries .... Five Ways to Target Commentary for Essay Writing — TeachWriting.org. Tips to Write a Commentary Essay - FreeEducator.com. Example IB English Commentary | African American Civil Rights Movement .... Commentary : Essay | Essays | Paragraph | Free 30-day Trial | Scribd. Commentary: Different? - PHDessay.com. Writing a commentary What have you written? | Purpose | Audience. 3 Ways to Write a Commentary - wikiHow. ⭐ Commentary examples. OECD releases Commentary and illustrative .... Commentary for Argumentative Essay - YouTube. How to Write a Literary Commentary: 14 Steps (with Pictures). PPT - Essay vs. Commentary PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID ....
Francesca Gottschalk - How can education support child empowerment.pptxEduSkills OECD
Francesca Gottschalk from the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation presents at the Ask an Expert Webinar: How can education support child empowerment?
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
The Embedded model, the future of librarianship, and what to do at work tomorrow!
1. This talk is entitled “The Embedded Model, the Future of Librarianship, and What to
Do at Work Tomorrow.” As the title suggests, the talk has three parts. In the first part,
I’ll propose a definition of embedded librarianship. Next, I’ll offer some ideas on why
it’s an important part of our future as librarians. To close, I’ll offer some suggestions
for things that you can do, starting tomorrow, to build and develop your embedded
future in your organization.
1
2. Let’s be clear about what embedded librarianship is, and is not.
Every once in awhile somebody tries to make a joke about librarians and getting into
bed. I’ve never heard one that I thought was any good. They are actually pretty lame.
More seriously, embedded librarianship has little if anything in common with
embedded journalism, although the terms are sometimes linked. The embedded
journalist gained prominence in the Operation Desert Storm, as a journalist who rode
into battle with a military unit, to gain a firsthand experience of the combat situation.
Embedded journalists were, and are, brave and important figures. But it’s important
that they’re essentially there as observers. They don’t take part in the combat itself.
The embedded librarian is different. The embedded librarian is like embedded
software, that allows all the computer-controlled functions of your car to operate.
Jezmynne Dene, formerly of the Claremont Colleges, said that the embedded
librarian is like the geological concept of an element in a mineral, an “integral part to
the whole”.
The embedded librarian is not an observer. The embedded librarian is fully engaged in
the action. The embedded librarian is essential to the functioning of the unit.
2
3. So here’s my definition.
An embedded librarian is one who:
• develops strong working relationships with members of a team or community;
• achieves mutual understanding with the team, which means that the librarian
understands the team’s goals and operations, and the team understands the
librarian’s role and value
• shares responsibility for achieving the team’s goals
• and makes customized, highly-valued contributions to the team.
And, in short is a member of the team like any other, just with a unique set of skills –
the information and knowledge expert on the team.
3
4. I’d like to sharpen the point that embedded librarianship is really very different from
traditional librarianship. Here are five important differences.
1. First, the embedded model focuses on relationships, not transactions. Traditional
reference is a transactional operation. The reference desk is a place where
transactions happen. Somebody asks a question, the librarian gives them an answer.
The interaction has a beginning, a middle, an end. Similarly, traditional “one-shot”
library instruction is transactional. Students come to the library, they get a lecture
about doing library research, and it’s over. End of transaction. Embedded librarianship
is relational. One interaction leads to the next, and it just keeps going and going, with
increased mutual understanding and collaboration as the interactions accumulate.
This might mean a librarian embedded in a market research team, or it might mean a
librarian embedded with a first-year English class. The principle is the same.
2. Second, the embedded model requires librarians to specialize, not to try to be all
things to all people. We librarians like to think of ourselves as generalists. We’ve
evolved sophisticated reference interviewing techniques to get us from a state of zero
knowledge of what somebody is looking for to at least a basic grasp so we can
provide them with basic help. But isn’t it better if we start from a position of
understanding? It’s sure going to be a lot better for the people we are trying to help if
they don’t have to explain everything to us, and better for us as well. Just to cite an
academic library example: how many times across the decades have academic
librarians had students come up to the reference desk and ask for help with an
assignment – and the librarian had no background information about that assignment
4
5. beforehand? It’s standard practice! How much better would it be if the librarian was
embedded in the class, so the librarian knew all about that assignment – maybe even
helped to design it?
3. Third, the traditional librarian stood apart from the organization, ruling over the
domain of the library. People came to the library – the librarians didn’t go to them. In
the embedded model, the embedded librarian is out of the library and fully engaged
with the other employees and groups of the enterprise. This engagement, by the way,
can be virtual as well as physical. Moving your office outside the library so you can
hang out with the information user group you’re working with is a great idea and it
can be very helpful. But if you’re embedded in a distance education course or a
virtual work group – as some librarians are – you can still be successful even if you
never get to meet the people you’re embedded with face to face.
4. Fourth, the traditional librarian focused on being a service provider. Service is in
our professional DNA. And that’s not all bad. But service providers aren’t fully
aligned. Their goals are to provide the service, and their responsibilities are just to do
that – and no more. Embedded librarians aren’t just service providers. They’re team
partners. That means they define their role more broadly. They do whatever their
skills and competencies enable them to do that helps the organization to succeed.
5. Last, traditional library services have become a commodity. They’re taken for
granted. Embedded librarianship finds new value in new roles. There are two
important points that we shouldn’t lose sight of, though. The first is that the
commodity services are still needed – they’re just not enough by themselves. The
second is that this means we need to continue to evolving and finding still newer
sources of value in new roles. I’m going to come back to this in the next part of the
talk.
4
6. I do want to clarify one point before I go on, though. If it sounds like an embedded
librarian is something you either are, or you aren’t – that’s not what I mean. What
I’ve just described are two ends of a continuum, and there’s a lot of room in the
middle. When we talk about real life situations, it’s appropriate to talk about “how
embedded” and “more embedded or less embedded.”
5
7. Now let’s talk about the future of librarianship. To start out, I want to make clear that
I do not think that embedded librarianship is the only path for us to take. I think there
are several opportunities for our profession to develop. Embedded librarianship is a
very important one, but not the only one.
So, what’s happening to our profession, and where are we headed?
6
8. To answer that, first consider that we’re now in the midst of a great information
revolution. The last one was 500 years ago. We’re living in the greatest upheaval in
the ways society creates, distributes and consumes information since Gutenberg.
Think about it. For millennia, information had been laboriously recorded and copied
by hand, one copy at a time. Copies were few, the number of works was small, and
the percentage of the population that could consume recorded information was tiny.
Gutenberg changed all that. In a relatively short period, his invention disrupted the
monopoly of scribes and copyists. It created a whole new publishing industry. Copies
proliferated and works multiplied. Some of those new copies were sacred and
scholarly works of high authority, and some were junk. As literacy spread, the
demand for published material exploded. People began to complain about
information overload.
Of course, lots of things changed between Gutenberg’s time and 1993, but in the past
20 years, thanks to the invention of the Internet, we have seen the kind of
discontinuous change not seen since Gutenberg.
7
9. Here are my two candidates to go down in history as the Gutenbergs of the 20th
century. We can call them co-inventors of the World Wide Web. The one on the left is
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the hypertext transport protocol and hypertext
markup language, not to mention founder of the World Wide Web Consortium. The
other is Mark Andreessen, who while still a student wrote Mosaic, the first graphical
web browser, which made Berners-Lee’s html documents widely accessible. Together,
Berners-Lee and Andreessen are as responsible as any for the web-based information
ecosystem we have today. Their inventions have disrupted the information cycle that
depended on publishers, journalists, broadcasters, and bookstores – and libraries.
Their inventions have led to the creation of whole new industries in web service
hosting, information architecture and web design, social media, and more. More
fundamentally, they’ve challenged many information-related industries operated by
professionals by unleashing armies of amateurs -- anybody and everybody with a
computer – or a phone – and a network connection. Copying – legal and illegal; open
source and paid – has proliferated, and the range and diversity of works have
multiplied. Some of the new information being created is marvelous and exciting, and
some is boring, silly, or even malevolent.
8
10. Media consumption has exploded, and by 2008 the average American spent almost
12 hours a day consuming information in some form – up from 7 and a half hours in
1980. And we are complaining ever more loudly about information overload.
Do you hear an echo of Gutenberg and the printing press?
9
11. Librarianship has been one of the professions disrupted by the invention of Berners-
Lee and Andreessen. We haven’t had it as bad as some –the employment of
journalists in traditional media is down 40%.
We have been hit pretty hard, though. Here’s just one fact to illustrate the impact. In
the first decade of the 21st century, member libraries of the Association of Research
Libraries – the biggest, most impressive libraries in North America – reported a 45%
drop in total reference transactions. -- 45%! So we have been hit pretty hard.
Fundamentally, the Internet has destroyed our monopoly on information. Time was,
to find something out, to look something up, you had to go to the library. Now you
Google it. Actually, now there’s an app for it. I won’t say, you don’t need the library
any more – but let’s face it: there are a lot of times you used to need the library, but
you don’t any more. Our unique role used to be providing access to information. Our
value came from the access we could provide. Now we have lots of competitors who
can provide good-enough access, and do it quicker and cheaper than we can. That’s
what I was referring to earlier when I said the work of traditional librarians had
turned into a commodity.
10
12. Michael Stephens (“Stuck in the Past.” LJ Apr 15, 2011, p. 54)
As Michael Stephens wrote in Library Journal, “People do not think of the library first
when they need information.”
11
13. So our traditional operating model has been disrupted. And when you are disrupted,
you better change your operating model, pretty quick.
And that is where the embedded model comes in. It enables us to create new value
in new ways. The characteristics that distinguish it from traditional librarianship are
the characteristics that create new value:
Relationships: so we understand the communities we are working in.
Specialization: so they don’t have to explain everything to us every time they ask us a
question; so we can organize and manage their information in the ways that are
responsive to their work; so we can teach them the things they need to know most.
Engagement: so we are present and available, pitching in as needed and not waiting
to be asked.
Partnership: so they know they can count on us, so they know we care as much about
the success of the community as they do.
Those things move us away from commodity and toward added value.
You know, sometimes I think I might add one more characteristic to embedded
librarianship, and that is “visibility.” I wish I had a dollar for every librarian who has
said to me, something along the lines of “they just don’t understand what we do”.
Embedded librarians don’t have that problem. Embedded librarians are very visible,
and if you’re adding value, everybody knows it.
12
14. The embedded librarian, now and in the future, is the information and knowledge
expert on the team.
13
15. So it’s clear what embedded librarianship is, and it’s clear why it is going to be
important in the future of many librarians. So what should you do at work tomorrow?
14
16. You could order a new sign that says “Embedded Librarian on Duty.” But don’t do
that! A new sign won’t make it so.
15
17. It’s going to take more work than that, and it’s going to take you awhile. You won’t
finish tomorrow. In fact, you may never finish. But you can start.
Here’s my three step program:
1. Figure out where you are, as far as embedded librarianship is concerned
2. Identify the facilitating factors and the barriers in your environment
3. Prioritize actions you can take to seize opportunities and overcome barriers.
So, it starts with some reflection. Let’s go through each step in turn.
16
18. Relationships are key to embedded librarianship, as I’ve been saying. So, start by
thinking about your relationships with the people in your community. Maybe you
have some friends at work – not librarians – that you get together with for lunch.
Maybe you participate in a work-related club or social group, or volunteer activity. Do
you ever talk about work with these friends? Could you?
How about working relationships with groups, or teams, or departments who use
your library or information service? Do you participate in team meetings? Collaborate
on projects? Meet with their managers to discuss projects and priorities, and learn
what their pain points are, and talk about how you and your group could help?
Both social relationships and working relationships are strong factors in the
embedded model, so assessing your relationships is a good place to start when you
want to assess just how embedded you are. In our SLA “Models of Embedded
Librarianship” research, we found a number of relationship building activities that
embedded librarians commonly take part in. In my book, there’s a self-test you can
take to help you evaluate this. It includes both purely social activities, and work-
oriented activities.
You might come out of this with a conclusion that you have some strong relationships
but you want to develop and strengthen some others. Or you might conclude that
you need to start creating new relationships across the board. Whatever your current
situation is, you’ll need to think about readiness before you strike out on an action
plan.
That takes us to Step 2: assessing how ready you are to initiate embedded
librarianship.
17
19. Readiness comes in two flavors: librarian readiness and organizational readiness. Let’s take librarian readiness first. Do you, or the staff who’ll be
taking this on, have what it takes to be successful? Based on my research, I believe there are four key characteristics.
The first is skill at building relationships. This comes as no surprise, since I keep emphasizing this point. But it may be scary for some librarians,
who don’t think of themselves as extroverted glad-handers. But if you think this means turning your library staff, or yourself, from an introvert
into an extrovert, I have good news for you: introverts can do this. I have to tell you a story here.
The second is subject domain knowledge. As I mentioned earlier, embedded librarians specialize. They need to know at least enough about the
subjects their community members care about, that they don’t have to get basic background. What we found in our research was rather
interesting, though. It turned out that about half of the successful embedded librarians in our survey had prior education or experience in their
subject domain, and the other half, or thereabouts, didn’t. What subsequent interviews showed, though, is that those who didn’t start out with
the knowledge, acquired it one way or another. In many of the successful programs, there’s active management support – and even expectation –
that the embedded librarian will engage in some form of education to learn about their domain. That might be in-house training, or attending
professional or scientific conferences, or signing up for formal courses. Whatever it takes, that subject domain knowledge has to be part of the
mix.
The third is Organizational knowledge. Call this “knowing the ropes.” Call it politics. In the interviews I’ve conducted, embedded librarians have
repeatedly called my attention to this, and distinguished it from the subject domain knowledge I spoke of a moment ago. The embedded librarian
has to know – or, again, has to learn – how the organization functions. New embedded librarians, we’ve found, often rely on peer mentors or
management champions from their community to help them get started in learning their way around.
And the last element is your Librarianship skills. Are your staff top-flight information professionals? As I mentioned earlier, the embedded
librarian is very visible. This is a good thing, if the librarian is doing a good job, because the value will be clear. But for someone whose skills aren’t
as sharp, the demands of the embedded role may be too much. This is also a tricky area because different teams need different things. It might be
competitive research and analysis in a commercial marketing group, or managing a collaborative virtual workspace in an R & D group, or teaching
information literacy skills in a university biology course. No librarian is tops at all of these, so matching the skill set to the needs of your
community is not always easy.
How do your staff measure up? Do they have these? If they don’t, do they have the motivation and capacity to develop them?
Now let’s look at organizational readiness. Key factors include:
1. An executive champion
2. Strong working relationships with middle managers
3. Heavy users of library services who are respected by their peers
4. The autonomy for the library manager to start something new, and an organizational culture that is open and encouraging (or at least tolerant
of) initiatives.
You’re pretty lucky if you have all four of these. I’d say that if you have the fourth one, which is autonomy and an open, forward-leaning culture,
plus any of the other three, you probably have enough to get started. Here are a couple examples.
At Affinion Group, Jill Stover Heinze, who is a member of the Virginia Chapter, got her big break from an executive champion. The president of her
company directed her to move her office to the area of the Marketing Communications group. The move enabled her to build relationships and
collaboration that fundamentally changed her role in the company.
At a multi-national corporation I visited, the embedded librarian “relationship managers” meet regularly with middle managers to discuss the
business needs, library services, and funding of embedded librarians. Each group pays an annual fee to fund their embedded librarian. At one such
meeting, the librarian informed a group manager that the group’s assessment would have to go up substantially, because of the increased
demands being placed on the embedded library services. The manager’s response was to the effect that this was no problem, because the
embedded librarians were the best bargain in the company.
In higher education, what we’ve seen in multiple stories from the literature is that a faculty member and a librarian will hatch the idea of
embedded information literacy instruction, which then gets sold to the library director and department head.
Whichever version fits your circumstances, what you are essentially looking for here is a partner, somebody you can do business with, and the
conditions that will allow you and your partner to start something new.
And when you take the pulse of the organization, you may find some parts more receptive than others. You may find that you want to prioritize
working with those, so you can achieve something quickly. Or, for other reasons, you may choose to prioritize other units, even if it means you
have to lay some groundwork first.
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20. Either way, now you’re ready for step 3.
3.3 Prioritize actions
Step 3 is to decide on your action priorities and begin working on the first ones.
Those may involve training and mentoring staff. They may involve joining the softball
team, or the bond drive committee, just to start building relationships. They may
involve setting up meetings with key management contacts, to explore potential
embedded relationships.
Whatever you choose, you won’t finish tomorrow.
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22. As Alan Kay said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
I hope this presentation has triggered some ideas and energized you to take action
and invent your embedded future.
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23. As you invent your future, please stay in touch. Email me. Check out the Embedded
librarian blog for an occasional update on embedded librarianship. Get the full picture
and a detailed map for inventing your future from the book. I wish you the very best
success, and hope to hear from you!
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