Beyond embedded: Blended roles for information professionals in the 21st century knowledge economy

Twenty-first century librarians work with diverse populations with a variety of needs. Information users take multiple roles and institutional affiliations, collaborating across disciplines and domains of expertise. Librarians at the Gerstein Science Information Centre (Gerstein) of the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) in Ontario, Canada have embraced the challenge of providing services that not only expand across traditional boundaries of public, academic and corporate information services, but also reach beyond a local user base. They meet this challenge by taking on embedded and blended roles as market intelligence information specialists at the MaRS Discovery District (MaRS), an innovation centre that works closely with the University of Toronto community. Working as a cohesive team, information specialists and industry analysts at MaRS serve clients that have diverse information needs, which span multiple industry sectors: information, communications and entertainment; life sciences; clean-tech and advanced manufacturing & materials; and social innovation. In the absence of a physical library, the market intelligence team leverages proprietary electronic subscriptions and publicly available information to deliver quality information services in a unique and sustainable way. This chapter will provide a case study that examines the growth of the operation from a single information specialist to a larger team over time, explains the current structure of the team, and explores the complementary strengths and skill sets of the various team members.