Embedded librarians, connected with students and faculty inside the classroom, lab and studio, have new opportunities for preparing students for research and for collaborating with faculty on course-integrated information literacy, research assignment design, teaching, assignment interpretation, and timely student assistance. What makes embedded librarianship a good fit for an institution? How different is this from the traditional librarian support of student and faculty research based in the library? The answers may be found by looking at the evolution of partnerships and embedded librarians in an online nursing course and an on-campus biology learning community at one institution.