The Death of the Anonymous Librarian

Abstract

Privacy and anonymity in the profession of librarianship was one of the themes emerging from the Internet Public Library (ipl2) institute in March 2010, questioning whether new trends in librarianship are leading to the demise of the "anonymous librarian." This article examines the research literature on how privacy and anonymity issues can affect users and librarians. The rise of new initiatives such as embedded librarians, on-site liaison librarians, and personal librarians appears to be a shift toward increasing professional visibility and away from anonymity in professional practice.

Connecting Faculty Researchers to Librarians via Departmental Associates

“…As noted by Mon and Harris (2011), the self-effacing work culture of librarians can result in users not knowing who reference librarians are, where they are, their expertise, or what they can do. The authors advocate increasing professional visibility and promoting librarians' skills and knowledge via a personal connection with faculty: "The 'personal' or 'embedded' librarian represents expertise that Internet search engines cannot deliver-an in-depth research consultation, reference interview, reader's advisory, instruction at the point of need, and personalized service" (Mon & Harris, 2011, p. 362).…”