Today, I am just going to pass on a couple of links to articles that I thought were interesting and might promote discussion.
First,  Why Community College Students Need Great Books, from the Chronicle of Higher Education's Commentary page.  This is a thread that has been around for a while, but I think as we notice the lowering of standards and in student' abilities and level of preparation for college or life, it is something that is still worth talking about.  What is it that helps people learn to think?  Thinking through great books is certainly not a bad idea, and writing about ideas causes people to think through those as well.  I would prefer not to quibble over what titles are selected, although I would agree that there are some titles that everyone should be familiar with, just as there are certain historical events and people that everyone should be familiar with.  These books, events, and people might be different based on where a person lives, etc., but cultural literacy is important to all societies.  It is what makes a culture cohere.  In a world where everyone seems content to think that life is all about themselves, perhaps we could use a little more investment in teaching our students about culture and the world beyond their own skin. 
Second, from the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, this post about how embedded librarians are being used both effectively and more frequently in law libraries is somewhat encouraging.  I have been reading about and thinking about embedded librarianship for quite some time, now.  A presentation I recently gave with a colleague about using the embedded librarian model in k-12 schools in in the sidebar of this blog.  The embedded librarian makes sense for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it offers targeted services for specific patrons.  Think of it as a guided missile rather than a shot gun, with the shot gun being the old "one shot lesson" approach.