Today in class we talked about the concept of embedded librarians in relation to our readings for this week. I was glad for the opportunity to go over this concept more in class because I felt that the readings had some clarity issues, which I don't think are necessarily their fault, but rather that the subject has some foggy areas.
One of my classmates shared that she had found it difficult to distinguish between what exactly defined someone as an embedded librarian versus just having a well organized and integrated library system. I have to say that I identified a lot with this feeling because it seems that in many instances the differences are not clear. I think that overall I am okay with a certain amount of uncertainty around this subject because I suspect that part of it is that whether embedded or not a librarian's job description is going to vary by institution and therefore what may be defined as an embedded librarian at one institution may be defined differently as another. While this may make it somewhat hard to talk about, I think that so long as each given library is clear as to what is expected of their librarians, it is okay.
Another thing we talked about was the fact that most of us have never utilized our own librarian at SI. I can't speak for the rest of my class, but for me it is part a matter of accessibility and part a matter necessity. My days are very full (as I'm sure are those of my peers), and I don't really have time to specifically go by someone's office hours, not to mention the fact that I work during hers. The other is that while I have written research papers, all be it fairly minor ones, while at SI I haven't felt that I needed help finding resources.
In my previous grad program in English I had a very different experience, and regularly sought out our librarians for assistance. There were however a few very big differences. For one we had a small subject specific reference library where we as grad students were each given a shelf for our books, but we were not allowed to remove the books from the library. The library was literally connected to the building we had classes in. Finally there were two main librarians whom we got to know very well through simply being in the library and through the research skills class, which they taught, and which we were all required to take in our first term. All of these elements combined to give us as students a very strong connection to our library, its staff, and the resources it contained. Out side of the physical properties of the library and our familiarity with the staff we were also writing much more in depth and lengthy research papers.
Although I have worked in and around Hatcher since I arrived as SI, my relationship with the building is no where near as intimate as it was at my former graduate program. This is partly just due to the size of the library and its staff. I do however wonder if having SI's librarian somehow participate in our 501 or 500 class, preferably 501 since it is our first big class at SI that everyone is required to take, might have fostered a stronger relationship between her and the students simply by raising our awareness of her.
One of my classmates shared that she had found it difficult to distinguish between what exactly defined someone as an embedded librarian versus just having a well organized and integrated library system. I have to say that I identified a lot with this feeling because it seems that in many instances the differences are not clear. I think that overall I am okay with a certain amount of uncertainty around this subject because I suspect that part of it is that whether embedded or not a librarian's job description is going to vary by institution and therefore what may be defined as an embedded librarian at one institution may be defined differently as another. While this may make it somewhat hard to talk about, I think that so long as each given library is clear as to what is expected of their librarians, it is okay.
Another thing we talked about was the fact that most of us have never utilized our own librarian at SI. I can't speak for the rest of my class, but for me it is part a matter of accessibility and part a matter necessity. My days are very full (as I'm sure are those of my peers), and I don't really have time to specifically go by someone's office hours, not to mention the fact that I work during hers. The other is that while I have written research papers, all be it fairly minor ones, while at SI I haven't felt that I needed help finding resources.
In my previous grad program in English I had a very different experience, and regularly sought out our librarians for assistance. There were however a few very big differences. For one we had a small subject specific reference library where we as grad students were each given a shelf for our books, but we were not allowed to remove the books from the library. The library was literally connected to the building we had classes in. Finally there were two main librarians whom we got to know very well through simply being in the library and through the research skills class, which they taught, and which we were all required to take in our first term. All of these elements combined to give us as students a very strong connection to our library, its staff, and the resources it contained. Out side of the physical properties of the library and our familiarity with the staff we were also writing much more in depth and lengthy research papers.
Although I have worked in and around Hatcher since I arrived as SI, my relationship with the building is no where near as intimate as it was at my former graduate program. This is partly just due to the size of the library and its staff. I do however wonder if having SI's librarian somehow participate in our 501 or 500 class, preferably 501 since it is our first big class at SI that everyone is required to take, might have fostered a stronger relationship between her and the students simply by raising our awareness of her.
Hearing about your previous grad program and library experience is really interesting. SI is my first (and very likely, only) grad program, and it's easy to think that every program is like this one and that every research library is like Hatcher. Clearly, though, that's not true. It sounds like your previous librarians really cared about their students and wanted to help them succeed. Seeing this model of "embedded librarian" makes it even hard to draw the line at exactly what "embedded" means.
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