Embedded librarians as research partners in South Korea

Abstract

Recently, many articles co-authored by librarians have been published in non-library and information science journals. This may indicate that embedded librarians are actively working as research partners in various fields. However, studies have rarely discussed the roles and experience of embedded librarians and, unlike the USA and European countries, the activities of embedded librarians in Korea are not well reported. This study collected and analysed co-authored articles from Korean faculty and librarians. In addition to identifying the role of the embedded librarian by analysing the author-contributions texts of the articles, the study examined the backgrounds of librarians and the difficulties of collaborating through interviews with librarian authors. The results of the analyses show that the number of collaborative articles by faculty and embedded librarians increased over the years and, of these, almost 70% were medical publications. The roles of the librarians outlined in the author-contributions texts were as reported in previous studies but, in many cases, their role was more significant than traditional liaison work, such as reporting the study’s methodology or approving the final draft. In the interviews, the embedded librarians expressed that they had experienced some difficulties, such as lack of time, insufficient guidelines and an inadequate curriculum in their library and information science department. For librarians to be recognized as research partners, they need to communicate well with team members and have knowledge, skills and abilities related to the research. Further, to achieve this collaboration, the curriculum of departments should be reformed. If such efforts are made, it is expected that embedded librarians will continue to excel in their role as liaison librarians, which has contributed to supporting research projects.

The state of embedded librarianship in the university research processes in selected African academic libraries

“…The efficient structures and policies that can guide the daily activities of an embedded librarian are other critical factors that, in absentia, can complicate the transition of a librarian from the traditional liaison responsibility into an embedded librarian in the day-to-day activities of researchers. The findings of this study corroborate the results from other scholars, such as Carlson and Kneale (2011) and Shin (2021), that the lack of established approaches, paths, policies and guidelines and technological infrastructure hinder libraries' efficient embedment of librarians into research processes.…”

“…The librarian's embedding in the research process is at its infancy stage in Africa (Machimbidza et al ., 2022; Mushi et al ., 2020a, b). There are limited services provided for research profiling, systematic and scoping reviews and research profiling (Shin, 2021). Studies such as Mushi (2021), Mushi et al .…”

“…However, they have inadequate skills in the research cycle and lag in their understanding of trends in research practices. Shin (2021), in his study to assess the competencies of librarians embedded in the research process in South Korea, discovered that librarians have skills and knowledge at different stages of research processes.…”

Librarians’ competencies for implementing embedded librarianship in university libraries

“…Other competencies such as organization; preservation and sharing of research outputs; developing data preservation policies; creating wikis; generating bibliometric reports are important to the librarians (Brown et al, 2015; Robinson-Garcia and Torres-Salinas, 2011); ability to work in research teams (Kesselman and Watstein, 2009; Shin, 2021); finding sources of funds; accessing funding databases; and project fund application (Auckland, 2012). Apart from that, librarians must be able to provide researchers with advice on research data management and creation of databases (Brown et al, 2015).…”

Fair Data: History and Present Context

“…They reported that the librarian's role as author-contribution was varied-for instance, search strategy, data curation or reading and approving the final manuscripts. Then, embedded librarians increased over the years, transforming their role as supportive in research projects (Shin, 2021).…”