I was really interested in what Stacey Aldrich said about Scouts during her presentation at the OCLC Symposium. I’m really a fan of the idea of “Scouts.” It’s what I do informally in most spheres of my life. She just articulated the things doing (or would like to be doing in cases that involve money). She discussed the need to formalize the role, and I can certainly see benefits for that. If the “Scout” were officially doing scout-like things, it would be easier to propose ideas to the library staff, communicate about directions people would like to see the library go in, and would allow the scouting to work in a more ideal way with strategic planning efforts.
The “Librarian 2.0” and “NextGen Librarian” postings we saw several months ago were scouting positions. I didn’t realize it at the time, in fact, I felt strange that there would be jobs entirely focusing on technology. However, if these technology-oriented/outreach jobs really are about surveying the current users’ environment and putting the library on the cutting edge of their experience, then I say that is a job that has some sticking power. When current social networking sites no longer are popular, a scouting librarian would still have a job to do while the “Web 2.0″ librarian might not.
So, where to find a scouting librarian position? 
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