Embedded Librarians

One of the issues that I’ve been thinking about lately – especially as the start of the fall semester approaches – is the idea of ‘embedded’ librarianship. This is a concept that has been making the rounds in the professional literature for a few years now. And it seems worth serious exploration, particularly in light of the increased use of web-based resources, and distance learning.

The embedded librarian concept basically entails having a librarian directly involved assisting students at the point of classroom instruction. This could take place either in a real-time class, or virtually, through courseware like Blackboard. Most of the impetus for embedded librarian initiatives has come from a desire to address issues of information literacy, outreach to departmental teaching faculty, and the marketing of library resources and services to the wider college or university community.

Several articles in library science journals addressing this idea have focused on pilot programs in research orientated courses, where the librarian plays a role similar to a teaching assistant, specifically focused on helping students to find, evaluate, utilise and cite sources for their research projects. For example, Russell Hall, at Penn State “embedded” himself in a freshman speech class in which he attended all of the class sessions, often participating in class discussions with respect to his expertise. This was in addition to providing the usual stand-alone library instruction sessions. He reports a very positive experience, in which the instructor proposed involving him directly with the grading of students’ annotated bibliographies. He also notes that most of the students viewed his presence in a positive light as reflected in feedback from the course evaluations. See: Russell Hall. “The Embedded Librarian in a Freshman Speech Class:Information Literacy Instruction in Action.” C&RL News. 69, 1 (January 2008).

The advantages of having a librarian work closely with an instructor in a speech class are certainly obvious from the point of view of the students. They get a value-added service that helps them to do better in the course. Also, the librarian gets the opportunity to demonstrate his professionalism and expertise, both to the students and to the faculty member. The potential downside that I see in this type of scenario, however, is that such an active presence in the classroom could be seen as an intrusion by many teaching faculty. Moreover, there are questions about how much time such intensive projects will take from librarians' regular duties – from collection development and committee work to traditional bibliographic instruction.

This is an area where librarians need to tread very carefully. In their study of the model of the faculty liason librarian, Rodwell and Fairbairn of the University of Sydney point out that however much librarians may want to redefine their traditional roles, it remains unclear whether or not teaching faculty are themselves on board with such innovations. See: John Rodwell and Linden Fairbairn. “Dangerous Liasons? Defining the Faculty Liason Librarian Service Model, its Effectiveness and Sustainability.” Library Management. 29, 1/2 (2008).

In the area of distance learning, however, the embedded librarian concept does seem to promise more success. Several articles in the professional literature have examined the innovative role that librarians can play bringing information literacy instruction to students who are otherwise unable or unwilling to come to the library to receive such assistance. One method used in many initiatives has been to add librarians as instructors in Blackboard. In this way, librarians can engage students directly through the courseware’s discussion forum. This has the advantage of making the librarian immediately available to students at the site of their coursework, and it also means that all students reading the exchanges can benefit.

Another interesting concept is to create library courses specific to certain curricular areas. For example, a library information literacy course designed for the social sciences could provide tutorials, links, and a discussion board. Victoria Matthew and Ann Schroeder have discussed plans for such a program at the Community College of Vermont. In this model, teaching faculty would have a choice between having a librarian embedded in their classes’ courseware, or having their students sign up for the library course, much as one might sign up for an additional lab in a science or language course. See: Victoria Matthew and Ann Schroeder. “The Embedded Librarian Program.” Educause Quarterly. 29, 4. (2006).

To my mind, these are all exciting innovations. The main caveats, of course, are that libraries must proceed based upon the availability of resources. It should be kept in mind that these projects with take some time away from traditional duties, and that they will require a great deal of staff time in terms of preparation on the front-end. Finally, the teaching faculty must be prepared to meet the librarians in a collaborative way. Many faculty members (indeed, many department heads) may be loath to open their courses up to what they might perceive as interference by outsiders. A good deal of trial and error will likely be involved, and the good will of teaching faculty will be most important to ensure success.