I am reviewing a presentation I am giving tomorrow night to the San Andreas chapter of the Special Libraries Association in San Jose CA. In it I talk a bit about embedded librarians - information specialists who do not necessarily work in a traditional library, but with a specific group within an organization. I am encouraging attendees at the event to consider the new career opportunities available to them thanks to semantic technologies - careers around knowledge organization and representation. I liken it to Database Journalism, which seems to be having a bit of a renaissance. This is a practice that began in the 1950s, where journalists would use computers and databases to retrieve and analyze data of interest. The semantic web stack is giving librarians a similar kind of renaissance in the realm of information management.

So I thought to myself, why not embed journalists? Newspapers are struggling, but how else do we get news? We could get it if each entity was responsible for managing its own data. But organizations need someone to manage that data, and report it out.

But wait you say - aren't those folks called PR people? And, don't they put a spin on things?

Yes. And that's the last thing we need. We need people who can remain unbiased and report fairly. How many organizations would be willing to allow a 3rd party to roam its halls? With appropriate trade secret protections, would an embedded journalist serve as much as an ethics officer as reporter?

This would likely be a less than full time position for most organizations. But it would have the trust and authority that comes with the organization providing the journalistic staff. Could the NYTimes or the WSJ embed a reporter in firms on Wall Street? Or would it be too tempting to cheat?

Perhaps I'm too much an optimist. I certainly don't want Big Brother either. Anyway, it's just an idea, and ideas are good.