I need to catch up on my reading, and posting about, the articles, website updates, blog posts, etc. on embedded librarianship these days. Lots of interesting material is being published.
However, to indulge in a little self-promotion, I think readers of this blog will be especially interested in the January/February 2010 issue of Information Outlook, which I helped to develop. It’s a special issue on embedded librarianship, featuring four articles: three stories and a summary of the research that Mary Talley and I conducted.
The three stories come from Jill Stover Heinze of Affinion Loyalty Group, Deborah Garson and Eileen McGowan of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Jeanne Slater Trimble of the MITRE Corporation. Jill describes the development of her embedded role with the Brand Communications Group at Affinion, and the synergies that have benefitted her as well as her customers. Deborah, a librarian, and Eileen, a member of the faculty, present the origin and development of their collaboration in teaching a research seminar for Ph.D. students. Jeanne presents MITRE’s initiative to leverage and build the subject expertise of information analysts, aligning their services with corporate strategy and the needs of their customer groups.
To cap the theme, Mary and I have distilled the essential findings of our research project. Taken together, I think the four articles succeed in presenting the diversity of settings and approaches, as well as the common characteristics and success factors, in the developing model of embedded library services.
I hope you’ll get a chance to read the issue. Unfortunately, I don’t think SLA makes Information Outlook content publicly available on its website, so you’ll have to beg, borrow, or interlibrary loan a copy, or access it through a digital library subscription. Or, you can join SLA to get it!
In any case, I hope you’ll get to read these articles, and I’d love to see your comments and feedback on them.
The Embedded Librarians Café
February 26, 2010 at 4:45 pm |
I was so happy to see this issue arrive! All four articles were excellent examples of embedded librarianship.
I’m currently embedded within a Career Management Center for MBA students, hoping to do a poster session at SLA 2010 on some of my work. I most identified with Jill in the selection of articles of Information Outlook. My role is not only influencing the students but educating my colleagues on the work I can do.
Thanks for the great blog!