An Embedded Librarian at BCBSF

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An Embedded Librarian at BCBSF

• Presentation at SLA 2007
• Kathy Shearin
• Navigy, Inc. / Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
  Florida, Inc.
• June 4, 2007

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Embedded Librarian BCBSF

• Introduction
• My background
• Business Alliance Development / Navigy
• Librarian role
• Responsibilities
• Library / Knowledge Management
• Project teams
• Relationship to corporate information center
• Closure
• Advantages
• Disadvantages
• Do it again?

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Kathy Shearin

• Masters degree in Library and Information
  Studies from Florida State University
• Cataloger / Reference librarian in a public
  library
• Media Specialist in a junior high school and a
  senior high school
• Electronic Resources / Reference librarian at
  Jacksonville University
• Embedded librarian for Business Alliance
  Development at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
  Florida, Inc.

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BlueCross BlueShield of Florida

• Independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue
  Shield Association
• Not-for-profit, mutual company
• Health insurance and related products in Florida
• Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida
• Over 7,000 employees
• Serving over 4 million members

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Navigy, Inc.

• In 2000, BCBSF established Navigy, Inc. as a
  wholly-owned subsidiary to pursue innovative
  health industry solutions
• Reorganized in 2004
• The legal entity, Navigy, was retained to hold
  ownership in its subsidiaries and to provide
  legal structure for future endeavors
• The working group became Business and Alliance
  Development, an enabling area for the Corporate
  Strategy Office.

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Business and Alliance Development

• Key capabilities of Business Alliance
  Development
• Business Development
• Business Venture Management
• Strategic Consulting
• Alliance Management and Relationship Development
• Organization effectiveness

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Organization Structure
Business and Alliance Development is aligned
within the Corporate Strategy Office.
Executive Vice-President Strategy
Vice-President Business Alliance Development
Executive Administrative Assistants (2)
Business Development Consultants (7)
Principals (5)
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My Role

• Facilitate Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives
  in Navigy
• Research
• Teach the Navigy team members to fish
• As Navigy evolved into Business Alliance
  Development, the role expanded to providing
  insights and thought leadership on business
  development initiatives

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Responsibilities Library KM

• Education of team members
• Research and analysis
• Acquisition and management of information
  resources
• Apply expertise to improve information retrieval
  and use
• Consult with corporation on KM practices
• Vendor management

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Responsibilities Projects Initiatives

• Prepare compendium of research materials at
  beginning of projects
• Provide guidelines for document tagging and
  storage
• Ongoing research and analysis
• Provide insights and thought leadership
• Preparation and presentation of reports
• Citation management
• Project management

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Responsibilities Corporate

• Collaborate with information professionals in the
  corporate business research and information
  center
• Cost sharing of select resources
• Consult with various departments as a subject
  matter expert on document management and
  retrieval
• Participate on work groups for development of a
  corporate content management system

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Advantages

• Convenience
• Rapid response
• Increase in team productivity
• In depth knowledge of needs and interests of the
  team as a whole and individually
• Ongoing education of team
• My ongoing education
• Flexible environment

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Disadvantages

• None really, but
• It may be difficult for Human Resources to
  understand the position
• Not a traditional library role
• Would be difficult if you did not like the topic
  or industry
• Requires a great deal of flexibility
• Behavior change may be resisted

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Would I do it again?

• Yes, definitely

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Thank You

• Kathy Shearin
• kathy.shearin_at_bcbsfl.com