Deciding to be Shoved and Made

There is an interesting phenomenon I have been watching sweep the online librarian world and that is the self appointing of Shovers and Makers. As you may have noted in a previous post Library Journal publishes a yearly list of those whom it deems are the Movers and Shakers of the library world for that year. There are nominations and so forth that go into this decision making process. However there are no doubt thousands of librarians who are incredible powerful although less popular that wonder if there might be some way that some year they too will get recognized. Well they need wait no longer, we can all now shout from the rooftops our gloriousness through the Shovers and Makers site created by The Library Society of the World. All one needs to do is write up all the things one has done to make this award possible and graciously accept. Post it , they will approve (assuming you have followed some simple guidelines) and your in!

Part of me shyed away from this at first wondering if it wasn’t another reminent of the “everybody who plays gets a trophy” generation. Part of me kept hearing Oprah say “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!” (just substitute car for “award” and there we are.) However then I began reading the entries. What an inspiration! So many talented librarians all over the world doing extraordinary things. Those who write up there Shover and Maker acceptance posts are those who are loving their jobs too. We are a special beast the technologically inclined librarian who is passionate about their job. The person whose friends know that if libraries are casually brought up in a conversation we may just burst with our opportunity to enlighten and gush over the fabulousness that is our profession. And so it went, I too wrote up my acceptance and graciously handed myself my self appointed award as one of this years Shovers and Makers. Not only might I help inspire someone else it may help keep me inspired on a less than sparkly day. Out of my way, I’m making a difference!