Being Embedded without Being a Pest

I’m finding that being an embedded librarian involves working more closely with teams than I did before.  In the past, I’d do one-off projects and my clients and I would go our separate ways.  The new gig is a bit different.  While I’m not exactly part of the team, I often feel like an extension of the team.  There’s an ongoing relationship between myself and the clients.  I’m around them every day.  I sit in on their meetings (sometimes).  I’m regularly providing them passive research on topics of interest.  Most importantly, however, my new masters are checking in me from time to time and making sure I’m really tied in with these teams as opposed to sitting in my cloth covered cage cubical surfing porn all day.  When performance time comes around, my masters will talk with these groups about the work I’ve been doing for them. 

This creates a bit of a dilemma: There’s a fine line between making sure people know you can help them (marketing and outreach), offering people help, providing relevant and regular updates on certain topics… and just being a pest. 

So where do you draw the line?  It’s all about context and reading people’s subtleties.  There’s a couple ways to do that:

• Proceed cautiously at first.  You don’t run up on a horse shouting how happy you are to meet it.  That’s a good way to get kicked in the teeth. You approach slowly.  You offer a bit of apple or oats.  The same goes for teams.  Approach slowly and quietly.  Let them know your there, but don’t spook ‘em.  Proactively offer them what you think is relevant information and see how they react.  And adjust your approach from there.  
• Admit that you want to be helpful, but not intrusive and let the team set the comfort level. 
• Meet with the manager.  Get a feel for how the manager sees his folks in relation to the services you provide.  What are they already doing that you’re offering?  What aren’t they already doing? 
• Meet with the team to introduce yourself and offer the services.  Take note of how individuals react during your elevator speech.
• If you make a friend, use that as an entry point to the team.  
• Sit in on team meetings and simply listen.  (Then send a relevant bit of follow up information afterward and see if anyone reacts.) 

In the end, the process is a function of time as well as doing good work.  It takes a lot of time and a lot of trial and error to find out the nuances of an individual or a team’s research needs.  And it takes time to build trust.  You just have to hope you become pleasure before you become a pest.