Hi! I’m Meredith Farkas. Currently, I’m the Head of Instructional Initiatives at Norwich University in Vermont, but I’m probably better knows for my blogging, writing, speaking, teaching, etc. outside of my “day job.” Still, my day-job is something that’s very important to me and I’m proud of having helped to improve the way we are teaching students at our University how to do research. It’s awesome when a faculty member tells you that students are now using better resources for their papers since taking your class.

Being small often means that you have to do a lot of shoving in your early years to be able to see things at museums, concerts, magic shows, etc. I think that early preparation helped make me the expert shover I am today, though now I do a somewhat different kind of shoving. I like shoving my way into opportunities that – in many people’s opinions – a new-ish librarian in the profession probably shouldn’t be able to do. And in shoving my way into things, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really cool people and make some really cool stuff. Now, when someone tells me I can’t do something, it just makes me all the more determined to do it. One case in point was Five Weeks to a Social Library, an online learning program, which was largely motivated by my wanting to thumb my nose at someone who said that an online course that teaches people about social software using only free collaboration tools was impossible. It’s definitely one of the projects I’m most proud of being involved with, because of the impact it had on participants and how it inspired others to do cool things with free learning opportunities.

While it wasn’t much fun being called “shrimp” in kindergarten, I’m pleased that my shortness helped turn me into the shover and maker I am today.