I am TJ Striepe from University of Georgia School of law – I am going to talk about the embedded librarian model Now I work at an Academic Law Library – so my presentation is going to obviously have a little slanted towards academic law libraries – but law firm librarians – don’t despair I wrote my chapter with a librarian that focuses her research on law firms libraries and will also provide some insight on law firm libraries as well.

Not too long ago law libraries used to have it easy – people had to come to the library if they wanted to use our resources and then librarians could assist them and let them know about other resources when they came to visit the library. We had a captive audience – we didn’t have to seek out our users – they came to us. It was easy to market our resources and services.

However with the arrival of the internet and online databases and resources Patrons now could access a lot of the library resources remotely! Our audience was no longer captive. This is especially true for law libraries with Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg giving access to all sorts of legal resources. Sadly people just don’t need to come to law libraries as often – and we have lost our captive audience. Therefore we need to change the way we provide service to our users.

Even though people still don’t need to come to libraries – they still need librarians. We all know that legal researchers gain a huge amount of value from law librarians – easily evidenced by those who use us – but what about those who aren’t actively visiting the law library physically. This is where the embedded librarianship model comes into play. We start putting librarians where the patrons are!

I apologize but have to give a little history on embedded librarianship here to help you understand the embedded librarianship concept a little better Most librarians have found that the embedded librarianship goes back to the 1960’s when medical libraries started using having librarians accompany doctors on the rounds so they could better understand research issues. This fundamentally changed the relationship of librarians and patrons from one of service to one of collaboration – it was a relationship that went from we and them to us!

So what exactly is embedded librarianship today. Before we get too far along presentation we need some sort of definition of what embedded librarianship is In literature the terms gets used so generally it is tough to determine what exactly people are talking about If I have a liaison program – am I embedded now or do we have to physically be with our patrons – so what is the definition?

After looking at how the term is used in various articles and other commentary -- I have punted on this and have concluded that embedded librarianship is truly as sliding scale. At one end you have a guest lecture or a liaison program where a law librarian is assigned to a faculty member or lawyer to assist them in their informational needs and the other end you have a librarian fully integrated with the patron – locating his office with his/her patron base

In essence the scale of embedded librarianship depends upon the amount of collaboration between the librarian and the patron. We need to start basing our relationship with our patrons to win of collaboration versus a transactional role. The ultimate goal of embedded librarianship is to have the librarian working with the individual or a team throughout a project so that the librarian can provide all of the informational needs – we want to form a partnership with our users working towards a common goal. Whether it is publishing the article, writing a brief or assisting students in a clinic. We want to transforming the relationship from “we and them” to simply “us”

This nice thing about embedded librarianship is that every law library has some sort of embedded librarianship program already in place Almost everyone has some sort of liaison program or gives guest lectures from time to time – that’s a start – we just need to take it a step further – move a little further right on that sliding scale so that we are having more and more collaboration with our patrons.

In order to move further right on that scale - law libraries need to embrace the philosophy of embedded librarianship so that we can continue to provide exceptional service to our patrons with the increase of electronic materials. We know that Libraries are only going to become more and more accessible remotely – therefore the time is now to take this model and start going where the patrons are There are two different ways to implement this model – virtually and physically

Many libraries are already digitally embedding by providing tutorials, research guides and libguides online – but the key is to place it where the students are. Don’t bury it on the webpage – put it where they are likely to be course pages, links on catalog webpages, have links from class descriptions or on student groups web pages

One easy way of going where students are is by having a presence on course management systems like TWEN/Blackboard/ or other online systems Posting topics Providing links/customized research guides for class Posting tutorials Having exercises

Physically embedding is the other way to collaborate with patrons while this will take a bigger time commitment the dividends received from this are huge! We have been doing this at UGA for about two years – and it has given us huge kudos from faculty members Can have formal/informal programs Can have office hours near faculty offices Roam the faculty hallways with iPad and do some mobile reference

One thing to keep in mind when embedding – is to build relationships – don’t always talk about library stuff – don’t want them running away every time they see you – keep it casual so you can build the relationships between you and your patrons. Provide food, talk about birthdays, events – non-library stuff!

The future of embedded librarianship in law libraries is very promising. By using this model it allows us to become a partner with out patrons rather than a transactional service provider as we have been in the past. Even though people are not coming to the library as much this model allows us to provide better service to our patrons by partnering with them rather than being a transactional service provider.

The nice thing for academic and law firm libraries is that they can look to pioneering law firms as to where they should go with respect to their embedded librarianship program. Many law librarians within firms are five years ahead of academic libraries – they have relationship building as part of their job descriptions – continuous meetings with the patrons, developing personal relationships

One way to move further right on the scale - is through the classroom One way to move further right on the scale - is through the classroom. Many of you of have probably read about the University of D.C. program where the librarians embedded throughout the semester with clinical classes. Law librarians could also do this for doctrinal classes – by having guest lectures throughout the year, creating legal research problems for students or handouts. Librarians could embed to create a research component for every doctrinal class offered at their law school. Embed in classes with writing component

Librarians in law firms have starting moving their office out of the libraries. They locate their offices within a practice group so they are there at a point of need. This is raising accessibility, visibility and relevance. Attorneys find themselves asking questions they normally would not have asked – and it is very easy to develop relationships when you are right their in the mix. I can see in the near future in academic law librarians to have one or more librarians move out of the libraries and put their office by the faculty members to get the same exposure and benefits that had occurred in the private law firms.

It’s also important to seek out different types of patrons to embed or collaborate with. You always have the obvious patrons of attorneys, faculty members and students – but remember there are all different other departments and individuals to embed with and show the value of the library and make their lives easier. At Georgia we starting collaborating with our career services and professional development department to create programs and displays to help students, librarians in firms are collaborating to assist business development, work with administrative assistants to help them retrieve articles/cases for faculty members or attorneys. Be creative!

I want to conclude with this quote I want to conclude with this quote. Because it really is applicable to embedded librarianship – we really need to change the way we think of our relationship with our patrons from we and them – and just focus on us. If we take this mindset when we look at how we provide services to our patrons it really does change how we want to do things. We realize we need to focus on the relationship building with our organizational communities. Make ourselves visible, relevant and reliable.