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Category: Communication

Description: Many science librarians view research support for faculty and information literacy instruction for students as separate and distinct library services. Providing either of these services often places librarians in passive roles, awaiting invitations from disciplinary faculty to collaborate on research projects or student assignments. While subject liaison models of librarianship that emphasize outreach have shifted some science librarians into more active roles, the efficacy of this model is limited by the physical, technical, and cultural barriers that separate researchers from librarians. In an attempt to close this gap, a group of science librarians at a major research university became members of lab groups on campus. This lightning talk will provide a brief overview and discuss some of the early findings of this pilot project. While this initiative was launched to provide faculty with research support and to encourage team science, this project also revealed that important student learning occurs during the course of routine lab meetings. Consequently, this presentation will suggest that lab meetings offer an opportunity for science librarians to support both the research enterprise as well as the teaching mission of their institutions. Attending lab meetings enables science librarians to deliver point-of-need research support and to provide instructional services in an authentic context that highlights the utility of information literacy skills to faculty and students alike. [Slides from a conference presentation at the 2016 Science Boot Camp Southeast at the University of Georgia].