Creating Opportunities: Embedded Librarians

Embedded librarianship focuses on the user and brings the library and the librarian to the user, wherever they are—office, laboratory, home, or even on their mobile device. This article provides an overview of the various ways libraries and librarians are embedding themselves into research and learning environs. Several roles are highlighted, including course-integrated instruction librarians as members of research teams, librarians collaborating with faculty in scholarly communication activities and librarians as partners in multidisciplinary, global, and virtual collaborations. Definitions of key terms precede the overview and provide context; consideration of the human resources side of the equation follows. Reflections on organizational structure conclude the article.