Comments for The Embedded Librarian

Comment on Why I will vote against the SLA name change by Crystal Megaridis

Crystal Megaridis — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:01:24 +0000

Your post was a breath of fresh air to read, and I concur with your thoughts wholeheartedly.

To me, “Knowledge Professionals” sounds like glorified “Knowledge Workers”, the term now commonly used for anyone who sits behind a computer screen all day.

It felt great to click on the “NO” button.

Comment on Why I will vote against the SLA name change by David Edmonds

David Edmonds — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:13:32 +0000

David,

I couldn’t agree with you more. I voted “no” as well…..really nice blog post….

Comment on Why I will vote against the SLA name change by Eric

Eric — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:40:50 +0000

I 100% agree with you and I’m glad to see a voice of reason. Through all of these discussions, I keep asking myself how it is that “librarian” became such a dirty word.

Our profession is undergoing such a bad identity crisis and we are doing ourselves no favors by abandoning one of our core strengths. Why adopt a new “title” and then go about establishing what that title means, when we have a perfectly good, respected title (librarian) that carries a great deal of weight. Why not reinvent ourselves and the meaning of the word librarian?

I don’t see doctors or lawyers changing the name of their profession, despite the use of other terms such as “medical professional” “healthcare professional” and “legal professional”. We are knowledge and information professionals, but it would do us more good to work toward having those things associated with the title of librarian rather than wiping the slate clean. We are librarians and we should be proud. The shusher and the bunhead was not always the stereotype, and it is something fleeting at that, so why not work to create a new image for ourselves as librarians. I think the ones who are doing that are getting into a position for greater success in the future.

I voted an emphatic “no” in the hopes that at some point in the future we can produce a name that respects the history of our profession while conveying greater meaning behind it. At this tumultuous time in our profession, I really don’t think it is a good idea to make any hasty decisions, especially considering we are having such an identity crisis.

Comment on Why I will vote against the SLA name change by Judith Siess

Judith Siess — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:01:21 +0000

amen. i too will vote against any name that does not include the “L” word.
why not just add library and make it association for strategic library and information professionals (though I would like to see international or globall in there too)?

Comment on Science Fiction Writers, Homeland Security and Embedded Librarians? by marytalley

marytalley — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:34:40 +0000

Tim,
Thanks for your comment. Here’s a cite for a paper discussing the metrics and outcomes for the program:

DiBiasio, D., Mello, N.A. (Fall 2004) Multi-level Assessment of Program Outcomes:
Assessing a Nontraditional Study Abroad Program in the Engineering Disciplines.
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, vol. 10, p. 237-252.

The institution (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, named in the paper) has approximately 4000 students and 300 faculty. The paper notes that in 2004, 500 students applied for 380 program positions. You can find a discussion of the embedded librarians’ involvement in the program and the positive performance outcomes credited to their work in the Appendix B, pages B10-14 of our Research Report

Hope this helps,
Mary

Comment on Science Fiction Writers, Homeland Security and Embedded Librarians? by Tim

Tim — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:00:58 +0000

Thank you for the interesting article. I am interested in the scale of the program you describe. How many students and faculty were involved? Would you care to share the name of the academic institution?

Best regards,

Tim Kern
Accidental Embedded Librarian

Comment on Do Embedded Librarians Have More Fun? by eileen

eileen — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:06:39 +0000

I know I do!

Comment on Do Embedded Librarians Have More Fun? by davidshumaker

davidshumaker — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:25:15 +0000

Hi Judy–

I’ve posted a PDF version. Hope this helps.

–Dave

Comment on Do Embedded Librarians Have More Fun? by Judith Siess

Judith Siess — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:32:15 +0000

the file has a pptx extension and my version of PowerPoint won’t open it. can you save it as a .ppt?

Judy

Comment on Science Fiction Writers, Homeland Security and Embedded Librarians? by Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:01:59 +0000

Hip Hooray for interdisciplinarianism! This post underscores the theme of Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind (DC/SLA will meet to discuss this book later this month.) . The gist is that machines are doing much of our “left brain” activities now – and they excel at it – which not only frees us, but obligates us to complement machine automation with more humanistic and “right brain” skills such as design, empathy and synthesis. He mentions Peter Drucker a lot!