Embedded librarianship service describes the practice of librarians integrating actively into the user's environment, rather than remaining in the library to await requests for service. This paper examines the concept of embedded service in the recent literature, within the past 5 years. It reports on a survey of embedded service in Chinese academic libraries conducted mainly in the "985 Project" universities. The paper focuses on some incipient embedded librarian programs, as well as the obstacles to achieving embedded practice, and identifies some best practices in China. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)