MOVERS AND SHAKERS 2006

Library Journal has named its “Movers and Shakers 2006: The People Shaping the Future of Libraries.” Forty-nine (mostly) librarians are profiled, in these eight categories: Collaborators, Marketers, Mentors, Teen Activists, Community Builders, Advocates, Storytellers, and Innovators. I’d like to tell you about a few of them.

Most of the Movers and Shakers work in public or academic libraries (big surprise), but Laurel Graham is a special librarian (and, I think, an OPL). She is Corporate Librarian/Web Site Indexer at the American Dietetic Association. I love this quote from her: “I took the Pepsi Challenge and chose Coke. I am a contrarian.” She founded Free For All, a consortium of medical librarians to provide free articles from the medical literature for librarians in less developed areas.

Jill Stover is the author of one of my favorite blogs, Library Marketing—Thinking Outside the Book. This uber-marketer is the Undergraduate Services Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. She’s young but wise beyond her years.

I met Sophie Brookover at one of my workshops—in New Jersey, where she’s Senior Children’s and Teen Librarian, Camden County Library, Voorhees. Sophie is co-moderator of one of my favorite electronic lists, NEXGENLIB-L. LJ calls her a “pop culture evangelist” which sounds like a good description. Again, a young librarian ahead of her time.

John Blyberg is the Network Administrator at the innovative and user-friendly Ann Arbor (Michigan) District Library. He is actually implementing Library 2.0, not just talking or blogging about it.

Finally, LJ honors the “indefatigable” Sabrina Pacifici, editor of the online journal LLRX. She used to be a law librarian, but now is a fulltime editor, blogger (BeSpacific), teacher, and speaker. And in her spare time she is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland’s Center for Information Policy. I’ve heard her speak and urge you to do the same if you have a chance.

All the Movers and Shakers will be honored at a luncheon at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans in June. Look for them to be the library leaders of the future.

URLs:
Free for All: http://geocities.com/wfb_2/freeforall.html
American Dietetic Association: http://www.eatright.org
Library Marketing—Thinking Outside the Book: http://librarymarketing.blogspot.com
Virginia Commonwealth University Library: http://www.library.vcu.edu/
NEXGENLIB-L: http://lists.topica.com/lists/nexgenlib-l/
Camden County Library: http://www.camden.lib.nj.us/
Ann Arbor District Library: http://www.aadl.org/
LLRX: http://www.llrx.com/
Be Spacific: http://www.bespacific.com/
University of Maryland’s Center for Information Policy: http://www.cip.umd.edu/