The Sufficiently Embedded Librarian: Defining and Establishing Productive Librarian-Faculty Partnerships in Academic Libraries

Abstract

How does an academic librarian become embedded in a department or college that is reluctant to accept reference, research or instruction services from the library? In such cases, the would-be embedded librarian may have to settle for “partial” embedding, offering some services where possible and tactfully abstaining from offering others that were not well-received. Definitions of successful embedding will depend on the level of service accepted, and the librarian may become, if not fully embedded, sufficiently embedded. This article recounts the experience of a would-be embedded librarian at Saint Cloud State University's James W. Miller Library and her attempts to embed herself in the G. R. Herberger College of Business (HCOB).

KEYWORDS:

• business
• embedded
• liason
• partnerships