Libraries' Seminar series

An enterprising member of our faculty started a seminar series so libraries faculty have a regularly scheduled venue to share our research with one another. Previous presentations have focused on digital initiatives, consumer health resources, and visual literacy. My turn is next week, when I'll be talking about an embedded librarian project I tried out last semester. It will be a bit of a dry run for my LOEX of the West program in June, and I'm hoping to get some helpful feedback from my colleagues here.

I've heard of embedding into courses for several years now, but it really seems to be catching on lately. A couple of months back, I read an article by Russell A. Hall in C&RL News that really echoed my own experiences. The time commitment was huge, and while the benefit to students was obvious and positive, this benefit is difficult to measure. A project like this really takes systematic planning and assessable outcomes.

It's a little scary to present about a project that was only partially successful. I'm sure my audience at the conference will include some librarians who know how to do it better than I did. My big hope is that the program will generate a lot of discussion and we can all learn from one another.