Program Objective: The Greenblatt Library, on the health sciences campus of Georgia Regents University, has implemented embedded librarianship, which uses a service model that incorporates librarians as active university participants at the college level as opposed to the traditional role of service providers. Participants: Georgia Regents University, Greenblatt Library, and GRU/UGA Medical Partnership Campus Library Program: The increased use of online information resources requires health sciences librarians to seek new roles outside of the physical library. Greenblatt Library responded to decreased library visits by exploring a service model that allows librarians to provide information at the time and location of need: embedded librarians. Embedded librarianship has been implemented in the Colleges of Allied Health Sciences, Dental Medicine, Nursing, the Medical College of Georgia, the Georgia Regents Health System, and the GRU/UGA Medical Partnership in Athens. Embedded librarians maintain weekly office hours in academic departments, round in clinical rotations, provide curriculum-based instruction and assist students and faculty with research. Main Results: The number of contact hours and embedded activities for each college were collected, including office hours, meetings, teaching sessions, and research consultations. The results indicate that varying designs of embedded services are being delivered across the colleges. Conclusion: As the program continues to grow, the embedded librarians plan to launch new collaborations throughout the enterprise by actively partnering with GRU faculty to seek grant funding, develop open access journals, facilitate group projects, teach health information literacy competencies, and contribute to scholarship and discovery. Additionally, a review of the literature revealed a lack of evaluation methods for embedded librarian service models. Greenblatt Library will explore the development of a formalized assessment tool by establishing baseline data through survey methods.

1. The Art of Embedded Librarianship at
Georgia Regents University:
Collaborations in Research and Teaching
Kim Mears, MLIS, AHIP
Lindsay Blake, MLIS, AHIP
Julie K. Gaines, MLIS
Kathy Davies, MLS
Peter Shipman, MLIS
Brenda L. Seago, MLS, MA, PhD

2. 2012 – Embedded Librarian Program
launched
2013 – Formal Liaison
program launched on
Summerville campus
1998 – Liaison Librarian Program
Established
2002 – 1st Clinical
Librarian hired
2010 – GRU/UGA
Librarian hired as
embedded librarian
2012 – Embedded librarians in 5
colleges on the Health Sciences
Campus
The History of Embedded Librarian Program at
Georgia Regents University Libraries

3. Embedded Models

4. Results
4 Hours, 5%
14 Hours, 40%
40 Hours, 100%
10 Hours, 13%
5 Hours, 20%
2 Hours, 3%
AVERAGE CONTACT HOURS PER WEEK
AUGUST 2012 – JULY 2013
Davies
Blake
Gaines*
Mears
Shipman
Ballance
*Gaines is located at a satellite campus.

5. Results
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Davies Blake Gaines Mears Shipman Ballance
NUMBEROFTEACHING,GRANTSAPPLICATIONS,AND
PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS
LIBRARIAN BY LAST NAME
Teaching, Grant Applications, and Publications/Presentations
August 2012 – July 2013
Teaching
Grant Applications
Publications/Presentations

6. Results
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Davies Blake Gaines Mears Shipman Ballance
NUMBEROFSEARCHESANDGENERAL
CONSULTATIONS
LIBRARIAN BY LAST NAME
Literature Searches and General Consultations
August 2012 – July 2013
Literature Searches
General Consultations

7. Future
Directions
• Individual
Goals
• Improved Data
Collection
• Evaluation Tool

8. Current Statistics: August 2013-Present

9. Resources
Brady, Kimberly. Embedded and clinical librarianship: administrative support
for vital new roles. Journal of Library Administration, 52:716-730, 2012
Freiburger, Gary. Embedded librarians: one library’s model for decentralized
service. JMLA 97(2) April 2009 139-142.
Shumaker, D. (2009) Who let the librarians out? Embedded librarianship and
the library manager. Reference & User Services Quarterly. 48(3): 239-242
Shumaker, David, and Alison Makins. (2012) Lessons from successful
embedded librarians. Information Outlook May/June 2012; 16, 3.
Wu, Lin. Sustaining librarian vitality: embedded librarianship model for health
sciences libraries. Medical References Services Quarterly, 32(3): 257-265,
2013.