Reinventing Science Librarianship: Themes from the ARL-CNI Forum (Feb. 2009)

On October 16–17, 2008, more than 230 science librarians and library directors gathered at the ARL-CNI Fall Forum in Arlington, Virginia, to consider the implications of e-science and e-research for science librarians and the changing nature of their work. The forum, “Reinventing Science Librarianship: Models for the Future,” was orchestrated by the ARL E-Science Working Group and brought together panels of scientists, science librarians, and research library directors to address the needs of scientists working in distributed and collaborative networked environments, the priorities for retraining science librarians, and the importance of new directions in library practices. A comprehensive collection of forum resources is available from the ARL Web site and the author’s blog; this article focuses on three thematic threads woven throughout the various panels and presentations: