From Embedded to Liaison Librarian - promising new concepts?

Abstract

 In the last years the concept of „embedded librarians“ was much discussed and it was stated that a straight link of librarians to projects, committees and faculty work is a prerequisite for the integration of librarians in knowledge and information businesses of their responsible bodies. Since 2009 ARL has announced a secondary concept called „liaison librarian“. A special issue provided detailed information about the changes for librarians especially in the university and research libraries.  “Building relationships is becoming the essence .. - one that connects users with their information needs, ..”  The new concept aims at building individual relationships between librarians and customers and at creating electronic libraries according to customer needs. The university library of Christchurch, New Zealand, put this concept into practice after two massive earth quakes left the library badly damaged and no longer usable. The liaison librarians contact every professor at least once, in case of greater interest even twice a year, they gather the information needs via special interviews, give advice about the collection and talk about new acquisitions, which are mainly electronic media. Even after less than one year the concept meets the general approval of the customers.  The article discusses the change of the concepts from „embedded“ to „liaison librarian“ and its fields of activity. Furthermore the overall conditions and reasons for introducing this concept are presented. The main aspect is the „weakest“ link, the electronic collections, which remain invisible as library services without active marketing .