Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 – 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Room V2-221, Clinical Support Building (CSB), Children’s and Women’s Hospitals Oak St. campus, Vancouver BC
Contact: Tricia Yu
A presentation from our esteemed colleague and former HLABC President, Devon Greyson, will precede the meeting:
Embeddedness is a buzz word in librarianship right now, but what does this really mean? How do health librarians work in embedded ways?
What is research-embedded health librarianship, and is it the career path for you? Who are research-embedded health librarians, and what do they do?
Come hear the results of a national study of research-embedded health librarians, and discuss the merits and challenges of the trend toward embedded librarianship.
Abstract: Embedded librarianship has emerged as a “hot” topic in LIS, evidenced by a growing assortment of workshops, reports, articles, and a recent book on the topic. From hospitals to universities, librarians integrated into non-library contexts are challenging the traditional librarian-patron relationship and changing infrastructures for knowledge creation and use.
The literature has focused on three genres of embedded librarianship: medical informationists, course-embedded academic librarians, and special librarians within corporations. Research-Embedded Health Librarians (REHLs) are an additional subset, providing tailored, intensive information services to health research teams within which they are integrated. To date, there have been no studies of REHL work or experiences, although anecdotal evidence indicates that this phenomenon may be both prominent and growing.
This talk will present results of a mixed-methods study, conducted by a team of current and former REHLs, which aimed to describe the Canadian REHL workforce, as well as understand issues of identity, contribution and challenge among REHLs. Following the presentation of results, we will have a facilitated discussion of “embeddedness” within multiple genres of health librarianship.
Presenter bio: Devon Greyson is a health librarian and gender studies teacher currently pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.