About

The Embedded Librarian blog is dedicated to exploring the development of embedded library and information services in organizations of all types. It starts from the perception that the trend of moving librarians out of libraries, both physically and organizationally, is growing, can be of great value to the organization, and can be very rewarding to the librarian — if done well.

 About the Author

I am a faculty member at the School of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Before joining the School, I spent a lengthy career in Information Services at the MITRE Corporation. While at MITRE, I expanded embedded information services, and since coming to CUA, I’ve made this trend my primary research focus. See the blog for more!

2 Responses to “About”

  1. Amy Maule Says:
    December 20, 2008 at 1:56 am | Reply

    Hello Mr. Shumaker,
    I am a fairly new librarian (2 years post-MLS) and a very new embedded librarian (3 months) working for an engineering firm’s future technologies department. I never planned on having this sort of job, but I like the challenge and the increased involvement in the company. On the other hand, the added stress of being involved in the company at a higher level and having a boss that knows nothing about librarianship is making me a bit crazy.

    I’m an SLA member, and I know there must be tons of other embedded SLAers, but I haven’t found any SLA groups related to embeddedness. Do you know of any movement in SLA to create an embedded librarian division (if so, I’m interested in being involved)? Or can you recommend any other organizations?

    Thanks for your great blog! I first read it (and your paper on embedded librarianship) when I was deciding whether to become embedded and it helped me make the decision.

    Amy Maule

    • davidshumaker Says:
      January 24, 2009 at 6:12 am | Reply

      Amy–

      Thanks for your comment. It had never occurred to me to start an “embedded librarian” group at SLA, but what a great idea! I don’t know of any existing organization focused on embedded librarianship.

      Based on your idea, I’d like to use this blog to get something started. I’m thinking an informal meeting during the SLA Conference and discuss followup activities to work on after that.

      More to follow!

      –Dave

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