York, Amy C., and Jason M. Vance. “Taking Library Instruction into the Online Classroom: Best Practices for Embedded Librarians.” Journal of Library Administration 49.1/2 (2009): 197-209.
Online class numbers continue to proliferate within higher education, with reports pointing to the need for libraries to take note as it translates to fewer students on campuses and in physical libraries. Already, we see students turn to the web or their friends before they turn to the library website or a librarian for help. The authors use the phrase embedded librarianship to describe “any librarian who takes an active role inside the online CMS classroom” (199), as they outline best practices for librarians to follow to expand services within a CMS using a review of the literature and an online survey.
As classes are developed within a CMS, York and Vance expect that fewer students will explore library websites and instead continue to access web search tools. From hybrid courses to all online classrooms, the authors point to new avenues of instruction for librarians, especially on campuses where online enrollment is expanding and a library’s staff remains the same. Writing that in 2000 the professional literature had little mention of library involvement in online learning environments and none in reviews for individual systems, they point to a number of more recent articles often “bemoaning” the lack of librarian integration or involvement in CMS development. Those that do are from individual sites, describing the successes, challenges and “dreams” of librarians as they move face-to-face services to the web.
The consistent theme from the literature is the ongoing mantra for librarians — collaboration with faculty and administrators is essential. Finally, results from York and Vance’s online study provide the following best practices for librarians working to embed in a CMS (202-207):
- Know your campus CMS and administrators
- Include a library link in the CMS
- Go beyond just a link to the library – embed in individual courses.
- Don’t overextend – learn about the CMS and provide online learning modules.
- Think strategically about courses to focus on, selecting courses that have research assignments.
- Actively participate in the class.
- Market library services and embedded librarian offerings.
There are many articles offering best practices, with “imperatives for librarians to get on board” (207), yet in perusing the research, I am once again struck by disconnects between the literature in composition/rhetoric and librarianship. For example, to further explore the topic of “embedded librarianship” in the literature for composition and rhetoric, searching MLA International instead of databases focusing on library literature, with the following search 150+ results are returned – a good base set to review.
((Distance OR online) AND learning) AND (“rhetoric and composition” OR “first year”)
When AND library*is added, there is 1 result, the PhD dissertation of the Dean of Library Services at Southeastern University, Grace Veach, whose research I have used in previous papers.
Search for “embedded librarian” in any context in MLAand no results are returned.
All of these searches return results in library literature. As I noted in other blog posts, I have discovered plenty of room for research exploration and collaborative opportunities!
Carol Wittig 
I've felt guilty about our librarians beavering away on our behalf. Your posts may inspire me to go over and chat about where our interests coincide. I know they have a lot to offer me as an instructor, but I don't understand much about how a digital world has changed the what librarians do. I'd like to understand it a little better, especially since we are all part of the same team.
Laurie–don't ever hesitate to ask your librarians for help…that is what we are here for and without student and faculty collaboration, it diminishes what we are able to do to help support teaching and learning within the curriculum,.
As fas as digital, I don't think of it as a change in “what” I do, rather in the “how” I do it. I focus on learning and how resources impact what it is a student wants to learn…and the format only becomes a piece of that. I do think that my job is more critical in a digital world, as the amount of information makes finding and understanding formats and evaluating information sources so much more time consuming and yet purposeful.
While I agree with the mantra for librarians you quoted – “collaboration with faculty and administrators is essential” – I can’t help but feel that their discipline, not so unlike ours, is also in a period of flux and redefinition. All too often, librarians are locked away in the stacks, and to a certain extent, do not appear to be as “actively” involved with faculty and admin. But, their role is also shifting from being the guide within the labyrinth of books, to also being a facilitator for locating digital and online resources for students – often in an online environment, rather than F2F. And just as English instructors are finding themselves at a unique nexus in the evolution of education, and are having to step up into a more technologically savvy and more involved role with admin, I think librarians, too, are in a similar predicament. They have to maintain a physical presence for the masses of information that has not yet become digitized and still only exist (gasp!) in traditional textual form, but also have to be able to accommodate the constantly changing and shifting world(s) of information available online.
That said, I do think that having librarians contributing to the development of CMSs, alongside English instructors, would not only result in better student experiences, but would also assist those disciplines as well. But, then again, with the growing corporatization of academia, this may lead to an increased financial allotment to the institution’s library service – a situation that many admin would be all-too-eager to cut whenever possible. And perhaps that’s a bit cynical, but when profitability becomes the order of the day, I fear that library services (much like the humanities in general) often become the sacrificial lamb.