The Art and Environment of Embedded Librarianship

Abstract

Moving beyond typical embedded librarianship, Purchase College (State University of New York) introduced in 2010 an interdisciplinary course hosted by the library. Art and the Environment was a second-year elective co-taught by an art librarian and an environmental studies assistant professor. Successes included outreach to infrequent library users, student satisfaction, and collegial relations. Challenges stemmed from the “gray zone” librarians occupy in academic settings, with librarians and teaching faculty viewed distinctly by the administration.

KEYWORDS:

• Art
• collaboration
• embedded librarianship
• environmental studies
• instruction
• library programming