This month’s reflection touches on the changing role of librarians.  A correspondence in a recent issue (October 18) of Nature spotlights one of ten challenges identified during an international meeting “Envisioning the Future of Science Libraries at Academic Research Institutions” held at The Banbury Center on April 1 – 3, 2012 in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.

Working with my co-meeting organizers and authors we wanted to highlight an emerging role that was discussed during this meeting – the Science Informationist and describe a collaborator/partner who truly goes beyond managing published literature.

We also wanted to increase awareness of the value of this role and what this individual brings to the research community.  As research practices and workflows continue to evolve, our intention was to alert our research community that we too are evolving in order to continue to support and facilitate the discovery process.

For those researchers who have read our correspondence, I have two questions for you — do you recognize your librarian as a Science Informationist? And how can we better integrate this role within your team? 

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services