When I was first told I had made the Shavers and Bakers I immediately whipped up a pan of brownies, put them in the oven for 35 minutes at 35o degrees, put a fresh 3 blade on my Gillette Mach3, and gave myself a nice clean shave.

There’s nothing like eating a brownie fresh out of the oven knowing that your face is smooth as a baby’s bott…

What? Shovers and Makers? Oh, I though this was Shavers and Bakers. Uh, never mind.

I, Jessy Randall, am pleased to be chosen for a Shovers and Makers Award, but I must refuse the honor on moral grounds.

Yes, it’s true that I put massive amounts of text online for Special Collections at Colorado College, thus breaking the (inane) rules of Dreamweaver (re. how much you can copy/paste) and helping researchers all over the world find unusual materials in our collections (thereby tripling my workload).

Yes, it’s true I put together a fabulous library-themed issue of the online poetry magazine Snakeskin.

Nevertheless, I cannot accept this award, because it has come to my attention that the judge, Jessy Randall, was inordinately biased. She should have recused herself from judging on the grounds that she is I. How this was ever allowed to happen I do not know, but I believe it shows a profound flaw (or possibly strength) in the Shovers and Makers philosophy.

My name is Amelia Luzzi, and I manage the web content for student support at a UK university. Since “student support” covers 15 websites over 9 departments, and each department has its own idiosyncratic approach to site content, a better description of my job is: I herd cats. And I blog about it when I have the time.

My days are mostly spent educating staff members about websites and online tools; anything from training staff on wikis to persuading directors to mention the website in their plans for the service. Yesterday I showed Google Calendar to a colleague as a way of putting together a cross-university Fresher’s calendar. A week ago I presented a service-wide web strategy to our senior managers. Today I produced one-page guidelines on writing for the web in response to a staff request. I’ve only been here six months, but I can see people’s attitude towards the web change from “I don’t get it” to “oh, look, I can do it, and it’s useful”.

Being a librarian by trade and training stands me in good stead now. The look of the site isn’t under my department’s control (there’s a University-wide template for pages) so I help people focus on improving the quality and relevance of their content. As an information professional I have the expertise and tools to do that.

I also carry over from my library days the idea that students (or other end-users) are really important, and we should probably make our websites useful to them. Even small projects – persuading departments to let students sign up for workshops online – have had tremendously positive response from students.

I put work hard at advocating the web as a great way of connecting with students. I am proud of the results I achieve with even simple projects, and prouder still that I communicate my enthusiasm for the web to other staff, who are beginning to develop their own ideas. This is what being a Shover and Maker means to me – not just doing stuff, but pushing other people to try it for themselves.

Talk about shovers and makers, Astrid always does the shoving to keep me moving when it comes to our blog “PDL’s Public Displays of Law Library Books“.  My name is Rosemary LaSala and I am the Reference/Government Collections Librarian at the Rittenberg Law Library, St. John’s University School of Law. In addition to creating displays for the Depository Collections I manage the Federal, New York State and United Nations Collections. By performing the cataloging of these documents I shove the information about the Depository Collections to the faculty, administration, students, fellow librarians and staff so as to inform them about the importance of Depository status and what can be found at our library. I also manage the Law Libraries Micro Form Collection. I am part of the reference team at the library as well as one of the librarians that conduct instructional tours of the library for undergraduate and law students with an emphasis on Legal Research.

My name is Astrid Emel. I am one of the PDL’s from Public Displays of Law Library Books where I, along with my partner in crime, blog about our monthly displays.

We do a lot of shoving & making for our displays and I am proud to display the Shovers & Makers award on our blog.

In addition to creating displays I manage the Circulation/Reserve department and collection, the A/V Collection, Archives & the Rare Collection, perform book repairs and am part of the reference team. I am also the co-editor of the Word @ Rittenberg, the law library’s newsletter.

I have been called Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm my entire life because of my “sunny” personality. This definitely plays a huge part in why I want to work in libraries, helping people and giving the profession a “sunny” outlook.

Currently I am the children’s services librarian for the Frankton Community Library; however I know I don’t want to work with children forever. Initially, I thought children’s work would be my niche, but I’m definitely moving toward the technology and academic atmosphere. With that in mind, I am currently working on my MLS degree (graduate May 2010) and am taking courses to make myself as marketable as possible (a genealogy class here…library systems class there…). Course work also includes a technology certification, with the hopes of being the “best” candidate for any library job.

In the past, I have been a Page, a Reference Assistant, and a part time Circulation Clerk. Unfortunately, these jobs have been in public libraries, so I have no academic experience. That’s not to say I can’t learn…and learn fast!

So without further ado, I present your next Shover and Maker for whatever job you have for me! I’m a hard worker…I love people…and am 100% devoted to the library profession. *raises hand saying “pick me…pick me!”

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines plucky as “having or showing courage and spirit in trying circumstances”. I attribute this rather positive character trait to my title because I am brave despite my own self. At the risk of opening myself up to a world of ridicule (which would be deserved) I will tell you that the only one who keeps me from becoming THE most world-famous, most awesome librarian EVER, is me. :-)

Despite the plaguing self-doubt that I experience almost daily, I have managed to do something in my position as Technology Librarian at the Allen County Public Library that I think is useful *and* fulfilling: I make videos of myself and put them on YouTube. Do I know how to have fun or what?

Deb Noggle, one of our branch managers sent me an e-mail the other day that was so complimentary of these videos, but she describes very well what they accomplish:

Melissa,

I know I e-mail you about this almost weekly, but I just have to tell you how exciting it is watching you become the face of the ACPL. You exude knowledge, helpfulness, and a genuine friendliness in your weekly video of events. It’s really great that there is a person that patrons can watch and feel like they’re making a connection with. You talk to the camera like you are someone’s next door neighbor giving out helpful advice about what’s going on for the weekend! I really enjoy watching your spots each week, and can definitely see a progression of comfort level for you—and that is something that’s not really easy for everyone to do. It just keeps getting better and better.

This is really great work. (And I will try to stop stalking you with my weekly messages!)

DN

My goal in making these videos to is make a personal-feeling connection with patrons to tell them about stuff they don’t want to miss at the library. I hope that’s what they’re getting. I’m feeling pretty good about them.

When my manager asked me to start doing them, I told him, “I always wanted to do commercials!” This was not completely untrue. I grew up with TV and was a reluctant reader, and in my kid imagination I always thought it would be cool to do commercials or act. A couple of years ago, I did some community theater, and really enjoyed it. So my stagefright and camerafright, if I ever had any, are nonexistent; and I really do feel comfortable in front of the camera. I have quite an imagination, and I just try to translate that into my videos. Maybe it’s good that the childlike part of my brain never quite went away!

What a thrill to be honored alongside so many other impressive S&M-types! As a Young Adult Librarian in Henrico County, Virginia, I work tirelessly to make teens feel valued by offering them programs they are sometimes interested in, listening to them go on at length about Twilight or Percy Jackson, and affording them opportunities to earn those treasured volunteer hours required by a number of local schools.

This year afforded me several opportunities to shove furniture around, push massive book sale donations into corners, yank out shelves and put them together in more useful arrangements, haul around comic books, tote snacks for ravenous teens, and even roll book trucks around on the occasional shelving mission. I value each of these exciting opportunities for personal growth.

I have been know to say a word or two about libraries on my blog, Capital City Desk and to use other flashy web 2.0 thingies like Flickr. I even learned to podcast this month — a sure sign that it is no longer cool.

Thank you for this honor!
Lisa K, Henrico, Virginia

I am a Collection Development Librarian at the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District in Washington (that’s the state, btw). I am humbled to be included with all these other fabulous Shovers and Makers.

I am inspired every day by my fellow members of the Library Society of the World, and they all make me want to do great things. Collection development is my passion in the library world, and I have many ideas on how to shove and make collections relevant for libraries in the future. Stay tuned.

Thank you all for this wonderful honour. I’m blushing, really.

I’m Kendra K. Levine, the “Whatever” Librarian for the Institute of Transportation Studies Library at UC Berkeley – I’m responsible for a little bit of this, that, and some other things. For the most part I like shoving the interests of the user to the forefront of our charge and making people love the library for all the services we provide. (Ok, I also shoved myself into the bookdrop.)

I’ve been really shoving things around in the transportation realm, and I hope this all pays off with cars that drive themselves.

Aside from being a member of the LSW and SLA, I’m also a renowned mover and shaker. I sometimes blog at Library Attack, but mostly just make pithy remarks on Twitter, @kendrak.

Thanks!