Sometimes it is only with hindsight that you realise you’re going about things the right way, professionally speaking. Over the past year I’ve been reflecting on how the law library profession has changed over the last two decades. When I
concluded that ‘I like to think of library services being an 'information centre'; we are at the centre of the firm and information revolves around us, whilst we ensure it gets to the right place’, I had no idea that I was describing embedded librarianship. Although I was actually referring to communications, the latest
SLA event on the 20th April at the
Sage offices emphasised the importance of physically being in the middle of things.
We heard two very different speakers; Jacqueline Beattie, Information Services Lead at
Neftex Petroleum Consultants Ltd, and Genny Franklin, Clinical Librarian at
Barts Health NHS Trust. Both offered a tale of embedded librarianship in their respective fields: geoscience and obstetrics and gynaecology. A brief overview of their roles and their employers will inevitably draw out differences between the two roles, but there are inherent similarities. And it was these similarities to which I found myself nodding my head.