I am Jill Hurst-Wahl and after decades of hard work, I’m honored to be a Shover & Maker! Currently I’m president of my own consulting company, Hurst Associates, Ltd., and a Professor of Practice in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. I have several areas of interest including digitization, copyright, digital libraries, social networking tools and virtual worlds (Second Life). While many people know me from my blogs (Digitization 101 and eNetworking 101: The Blog), I am also a frequent speaker. One thing I am passionate about is getting people jazzed about information and information tools, and I hope that comes through in all the things I do.

In 2008, I celebrated my 10th year of being an independent information professional, having started my business in 1998 after 15 years in the corporate world. Over the course of those 10 years, my business changed from providing competitive intelligence research to corporations to guiding cultural heritage organizations (libraries, museums and archives) in their digitization efforts. In addition, I frequently give presentations and workshops on the use of social networking tools.

Being a person who must keep busy, in 2001 I began teaching at Syracuse University in the School of Information Studies (iSchool) primarily as an adjunct. In 2008, I applied for and was accepted as a full-time Professor of Practice in the iSchool. This move puts me in the classroom (a 3-3 load) and allows me to still do consulting.

Since it is evident that I never sleep, I have plenty of time to teach graduate classes, consulting on projects, speak at conferences, write blog posts, work in my garden, compost, think about how to be environmentally friendly as well as shove and make!