At heart, I’m a
scholar. I like reading and learning new
things, but not necessarily for any practical
reason. And I love the challenge of being able to uncover a piece of information
that someone needs. I don’t really care what they need it for, only that it’s
hard to find.
In my old department and in
the traditional library setting I got to investigate interesting topics ranging
from business to technology to law to medicine.
I passed off the results of my investigations to let someone else make
the decisions based on the information I found.
Things are different in the
new area I work in. The topics are more
focused, but they’re also topics I’m really interested in. But the biggest difference
and the one that’s causing me the most angst is:
I’m being asked to analyze the material I find and
draft recommendations/decisions on it.
In addition to the finder of material, now I’m also an analyst of
the material. Librarians in special
libraries have been headed this direction at least since I entered the
profession around ten years ago. But adding
interpreter to finder in my skill set raises some uncomfortable questions. What if I recommend the wrong
technology? What if I misinterpret a
trend or miss a crucial piece of data?
What if a path of action I suggest leads the company in the wrong path
and costs us a lot of money?
In the end, the best anyone
can do (librarian or not) is be thorough and make the best decision you can
with the best data you have available. That said I’m finding out being an “embedded
librarian” carries with it a bit more weight and responsibility than my
previous traditional role.
What do you think about
this? Is there more responsibility when
you are asked to analyze material? Or am I simply being overly dramatic?
