Moving & Shaking 2007!

CONGRATULATIONS to the Class of 2007 Movers & Shakers, announced this week by Library Journal!! I am honored to say I’ve had the opportunity to talk to some of these folks about libraries, technology and change. Their perspectives and insights inspire me. I want my students to become “reflective practitioners” like the folks below as well as everyone on this year’s list. Go forth Movers & Shakers – change the world!

Michael Casey: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6423425.html “I wouldn’t be in librarianship if I couldn’t combine so many of my passions,” explains Michael Casey, whose interests range from technology to photography. Casey’s major passion, though, is reserved for improving library services. He coined the term Library 2.0, “a model for library service that encourages constant and purposeful change by inviting users to participate in the creation of both physical and virtual services.” The sometimes heated conversation around Library 2.0 has shaped and inspired others’ thinking about library services and change. Casey’s blog, LibraryCrunch, has been a sounding board for his ideas about Library 2.0 and technology since September 2005; he also uses other Web 2.0 tools to highlight innovative ideas, programs, and services. “Never underestimate the power of blogs!” says Casey.

🙂 I agree!

Helene Blowers:http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6423431.html Beyond encouraging staff to take responsibility for their own learning, Blowers urges others to take advantage of Learning 2.0. She realizes that other libraries, even small, cash-strapped ones, could duplicate it with just a little ingenuity and effort and is “thrilled to see other libraries taking up the challenge and encouraging their staff to ‘play’ around with these new tools as well.” Nearly two dozen libraries and library systems, from Virginia to Australia, are doing just that.

Casey Bisson: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6423424.html Using a plugin within a WordPress framework, he created Scriblio (formerly WPopac), which provides keyword searching, faceted searching and browsing, stable URLs for easy linking, and an easily configurable record display. He received the prestigious Mellon Award for it in 2006. Scriblio reflects Bisson’s mantra of “usability, findability, remixability,” born of his conviction that libraries must use, expose, and make their data available in new ways.

Amanda Etches-Johnson: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6423430.html What Etches-Johnson finds most rewarding is knowing how valuable her work is to other librarians. She’s become accustomed to receiving their effusive thanks for the wiki she built that made it easy to learn how libraries are using blogs, but she says hearing it still “puts a big dumb smile on my face.” Etches-Johnson is struck by the power of social software to build relationships with distant library users and with librarians throughout North America. Without her blog, she doubts she’d have gained a reputation or been offered so many professional opportunities and honors. For her, librarianship is “one of those professions that you just are rather than something you do.”