With just one day remaining, I am honored and delighted to join the 2009 roster of Shovers & Makers!

Since 2003, I’ve been the e-resources librarian at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

I received my MLS from Indiana University with concentrations in library instruction, electronic resources, and intellectual freedom. Additionally, I completed a masters in Educational Technology/Instructional Design from San Diego State University in December 2007.

The work that excite me the most, and coincidentally, appears to be the most Shover & Maker worthy, includes the collaborative creation of an open source ERM with my colleague, William Doering, and, becoming an embedded librarian so that I could “know thy user” and better teach information literacy. Perhaps just as exciting as being an embedded librarian is seeing a colleague and friend get excited about it too!

I also initiated and again worked with William Doering to create a price-sharing project that enables University of Wisconsin librarians to share e-resource subscription information so that we can more effectively negotiate subscriptions and form buying groups.

Recent professional development participation includes FB, FF, and Twitter.

I’m Nancy Spaid, and I’m proud to be among such distinguished company as the LSW Shovers and Makers! Although my title of Systems Librarian at Jane Bancroft Cook Library, a shared service of New College of Florida and USF S-M, has remained the same over nearly 7 years, my duties and activities have morphed considerably.

I’m generally responsible for all of the library’s tech needs. Among other things, I provide support for all library computers – staff and public. I serve on the FL State University Libraries OPAC subcommittee. I also act as liaison for Circulation, ILL, and Technical Services staff in the use of Ex Libris’ Aleph system. I’ve also spent several semesters staffing the reference desk.

I’m currently collaborating with a team of people from diverse departments at the College in the creation of a new digital image database for Art History faculty – and perhaps someday Archeology and other disciplines Faculty as well – to use for teaching their classes. This exciting new project means new skills – cataloging cultural objects and database management – and new technologies – MDID and imaging.

I love using the new social networking tools available to keep abreast of what other LSW members are doing in their respective fields! It’s amazing how much I’ve learned from others over the past year or so, and I look forward to someday having something relevant to share that may help others as well.

I can be found as nspaid in various places around the web: FF, FB, twitter, gmail, flickr, delicious, etc.

PS – Go Rays!

Gosh, I’m tickled to have been nominated as a Shover and Maker, but it *is* better to win, especially since the company is so awesome. To borrow @Candy’s phrase, I’ve been making new librarians since 2003, after @Candy helped make me a librarian back in 1999. I graduated from, and currently teach part-time at Simmons’ GSLIS – which has been a delight.

I also like to shove resources around at work, which most recently was as an Electronic Resource Librarian at the University of Connecticut. I am currently shoving my way south where I will direct the Park Library at the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (starting June 1). I look forward to rejoining my NewsLib colleagues after a 10-year absence; hopefully there will be some cross-pollination between my favorite f2f group and my favorite online group, the Library Society of the World.

My talents include assessing and pontificating about web usability, shoving resources into my patrons’ faces, serving as a dental hygienist to my feline companions, and making “best of the year” mix CDs for my friends. I’m very good at ordering clothing and shoes online, and I’m a pretty good teacher and librarian-maker. I’m relatively consistent at blogging, too, about matters relating to cognitive science, librarianship, and related topics; take a peek at CogSciLibrarian.

I would like to thank the LSW Academy for the award, and I congratulate all of my S&M colleagues!

I’d like to thank LSW and all the people who made this award possible: my husband, Librarian X; my cats, Calvin and Marley; my agent; and all the people who helped along the way.

I got my MLIS from Florida State University last year and got my first professional position in October as the Digital Collections Archivist at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. I’m currently setting up our digital collections and implementing some outreach sites on Flickr and Facebook, as well as redesigning the website and starting a departmental blog.

In my copious spare time I’m hoping to grow tomatoes in my backyard this summer and to begin the MSIS program at KSU in the fall.

This librarian first heard her calling in 7th grade, when she discovered she could shove aside her boring study hall for the opportunity to volunteer at the library. Her ability to make young children stay in line (being the oldest of 5, you learn a few things) had Jennifer quickly picked to help the librarian with the Kindergarten class that visited the school library at the same time as my aforementioned cursedly boring study hall.

The following summer she found herself shoving her way into library politics by writing a letter to the neighboring town’s public library regarding their policy to only employ resident teenagers, rather than the most qualified person for the job. That successful foray into library politics earned her the next open page position with that library. Needless to say, her parents were thrilled. (Sadly, her father is still waiting for Jennifer to become a full chapter.)

So her shoving and making started early and hasn’t stopped. Most recently, as Head of Technical Services at The College at Brockport, she has had success shoving thoughts back and forth with colleagues. Locally, that has resulted in the creation and implementation of a Banner-based library material ordering module that automates the movement of requests through a two-step approval process. State-wide she’s been an active member of the group making progress in cooperative collection development projects across the SUNY comprehensive colleges sector. (Let’s go C4D!)

…and so is just Making her Shoviness known a few days before the deadline. In fact, I’ve been meaning to poke my head into the Library Society of the World for literally years. Alas my to-do list is long and sometimes keeps me from taking on new projects and making new friends. Among my tasks

• Participating in Radical Reference, supporting activists and independent journalists “online and in the street”
• Curating the zine collection at Barnard College
• Making my own zine Lower East Side Librarian
  (available in Winter Solstice Shout-out and Reading Log editions)
• Blogging about Library of Congress Subject Headings (what would Sandy do?), reviewing books and zines, and commenting on whatever all else strikes me at a moment when I have a moment to write it down
• Writing and talking
• Feeling guilty about not doing all the other stuff I stuff I feel should be doing
• Worshiping my cats
  

So anyway, thanks for this award. I’m proud to be in such fine company.

I am thrilled to be so honoured as to be self-elected for a Movers and Shakers award. Thanks to all my nominator. I have been shoving LIS students out into the world and making librarians since about 1978. I am on the faculty of Simmons College GSLIS in Boston and Mount Holyoke, and I am surprised (or maybe not) to see very few faculty here. My major LIS accomplishments of the past couple of years have been making doctoral students (yes, more faculty), managing to keep up with work while also keeping up with social networks, editing a very respectable quarterly professional journal (yeah, I know, but it’s pretty good), and working with 25 students in a class each year to put new digital libraries on the web. I teach the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into library services (information organization, subject analysis of all kinds, metadata, digital libraries). When I was a working librarian (at Concordia U. in Montreal) I was a cataloguer. My blog is really only for students, but I am in the middle of moving to WordPress and will probably have a “real” blog sometime – though I am not sure I have enough to say. I am a resident alien Canadian (hence the spelling).

Hi, my name is Jo Alcock and I’m proud to be named a Shover and Maker. I’m a Resources Librarian at University of Wolverhampton, UK. I blog as Joeyanne Libraryanne and write abour anything I find interesting (generally things to do with new technologies such as Web 2.0 and how they can be used in academic libraries).

I’m a newly qualified librarian; I finished my PGDip in October 2008 and started my first professional post (my current job) in November. I should really be working on my dissertation to complete the MSc but I’m so busy shoving and making (and settling into my job) that I haven’t got round to starting that yet.

In my professional role, I’m particularly proud of the shoving and making I am doing to help prepare our academic library services for the future and provide support for our students who are spending increasingly less time on campus. One of my main projects is a Facebook Page, and I’ve also produced blogs and utilised other Web 2.0 services such as social bookmarking, online document sharing, and online calendars for event promotion. A lot of this I did before I was in my librarian post but I shoved until I could get things done, and it definitely proved worth the effort.

In my spare time, I’m proud of the work I’ve been doing on my blog, Joeyanne Libraryanne. I’ve found my blog, and also Twitter, incredibly useful to shove my way into librarian networks and make new contacts, many of whom I now think of as friends. These networking avenues have opened up new opportunities for me such as writing and co-writing articles for journals and speaking at conferences (I have my first one in July).

I’m proud of how far I’ve come in the last year or two, and am looking for to more shoving and making in future.

My name is Martha Hardy and I’m proud to be a Shover and Maker! Most recently, I’ve shoved myself through library school and endeavored to make myself a kickass librarian. During the past tumultuous year, I’ve obtained the MLIS, applied for professional jobs, wrenched myself away from my beloved peeps at the Bio-Medical Library at the U of MN and landed my dream job. Seriously, during my library school years I frequently said to myself, “Self, you know what would be the most awesome, cool, challenging, relevant, meaningful and fun job? Reference and instruction librarian at Metro State, that’s what!” With a multitude of service learning programs, constant outreach to the community, a mission to serve non-traditional and returning adult students and the most diverse student population in the state, Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN is the antithesis of an ivory tower institution. Many academic librarians espouse the gospel of empowering students as citizens and lifelong learners by teaching them to access information, but the Metro librarians make this manifest every day. As a proud Metro alum, I couldn’t be more pleased. I’m a lucky duck.

During the past couple of years, I’ve conducted a series of workshops, webinars and conference presentations on Extreme Googling (originally co-developed with Scott Domansky of Bio-Med). I meet the users where they are in the familiar territory of Googleland and teach them some basic search skills: to define their research questions, search broadly and narrowly, to consider which types of information resources best meet their information needs, to search iteratively, etc. I also market the hell out of the library collections and enthusiastically promote library services such as reference, RefWorks and ILL. I teach about the Deep or Invisible Web and emphasize what they will find on the open Web and what is still only available through the library. My next workshop is on using Google tools for current awareness. Wish me luck.

LSW may be a virtual, nebulous, anarchic organization, but its impact is real. My LSW Friends in the Computer have provided me with mentorship, support, context, friendship, feedback, and much-needed uber-silliness at exactly the right times. Just as we have shaped LSW into what we need and want, we can transmute Libraryland from the inside out. Go forth and transmogrify!

Hi. My name is Justnathan and I am a Shover and Maker. I work for the Roanoke Public Libraries as their Community Technology Center Librarian. When I asked where my Community Technology Center was, they said “If you see a computer in the library, that’s your Community Technology Center.”

I work on lots of different projects; I’ve done Web 2.0 and basic computer training for our staff and computer classes of all sorts for our patrons. I’m known as the computer guy so I regularly get questions on everything from how to connect to our wifi to uploading pictures on to dating sites to downloading ringtones on to cellphones. I do my best to answer these questions; I work at our reference desk a good bit of the time and think that the title “curiosity satisfaction technician” may be my ideal job title. After all, that’s pretty much what I do.

I’ve worked in other fields over the years and I can honestly say I’m in love with being a librarian. I love the fact that I can shove people out of their hard-wired patterns and make them think a little. I love the fact that other librarians (and assorted smart folk) can shove me out of mine. I love the fact that my self-imposed job description is to make my community stronger; to give them skills that can help them connect and succeed.

I blog on occasion at www.justnathan.info and I’m Justnathan on lots of sites around the Internet. If libraries get your mind racing and your heart pounding, give me a shout. I’m sure we’d have a lot to talk about.