Our thanks to Peter Wilson, who kindly accepted to offer a review of the event on Embedded Librarianship, which took place at the end of April in London. Peter is working as an embedded Knowledge and Information Officer in Slaughter and May’s Pensions and Employment practice group.
On 20th April, SLA Europe gathered for an evening in London to discuss embedded librarianship with talks from Jacqueline Beattie (Neftex, a geoscience product supplier and consultancy) and Genny Franklin (Barts Health NHS Trust).
Jacqueline’s talk was a great lesson on how information professionals can be embedded in the business process workflows of an organisation. This was all the more interesting because of the unique setup at Neftex and Jacqueline’s Content Management Team, where geoscientists are assigned for their first couple of years whilst they learn essential knowledge and information skills. It was clear this team is producing remarkable results, with 3 information professionals collaborating with 20 new geoscientists to find, analyse and index data for a market leading and very impressive resource.
Jacqueline laid out three key elements of embedded librarianship at Neftex. Firstly, information professionals are positioned close to practice at the centre of Neftex’s office and take a proactive role in networking and transferring their skills to colleagues. Secondly, Jacqueline closely manages information workflows in the wider organisation to ensure that best practice is being implemented and improved upon. And thirdly, by moving closer to the firm’s strategic core, Jacqueline’s role of leadership within the firm has been well established. It was inspiring to hear how embedded librarianship can develop the value of information professionals and the strategic importance of information skills.
Genny’s talk on her career as a clinical librarian was equally captivating and especially useful for understanding the personal and professional impact of becoming an embedded librarian. She demonstrated how effectively her embedded service had taken off since setting up with the Obs & Gynae department at Barts Health NHS Trust, supporting their evidence-based practice by conducting research on the front-line and sitting with practitioners for two days per week.
Genny provided an important insight on the challenges of setting up a new embedded service, as well as the rewards for doing so. Her experience of “feeling trapped between two worlds” certainly struck a chord with me: handling the communication and resource issues of working away from a central library team, and attempting to fit into the very different working patterns of another profession. It was a great encouragement to hear how Genny became her own champion in the department and established herself there through patience, resilience and dedication. Even better, Genny’s experience suggests this hard work pays dividends with a great deal of satisfaction to be had from working closer to practitioners and having a more direct approach to work.
The talks were closed by some final remarks from SLA President Sam Wiggins and an address from Mark Lord of Sage Publications, who kindly ushered in a fantastic night of networking.
This event highlighted SLA Europe’s excellent network, with insightful talks from two very different sectors and perspectives from many more. With no ‘one size fits all’ roadmap for setting up an embedded service, the evening was invaluable to my own work in this area. Learning from the support and experience of fellow professionals is hard to match by any other means.
*Jacqueline Beattie’s presentation slides: A Tale of Embedded Librarianship
* Genny Franklin’s presentation slides: Being an Embedded librarian in Barts Health NHS Trust