Community Research Project · LIS Historical Commons
Library Journal has named Movers & Shakers since 2002 — over 1,400 people the profession identified as exceptional. No one has systematically studied what happened next. This is that project.
Why This Project
LJ Movers & Shakers is the profession's most consistent longitudinal recognition dataset. These honorees had already done something substantial when named. What happened to their careers afterward is an open question — and the answer may reveal something important about how the profession treats the people it celebrates.
The Research Question
Does professional recognition predict career trajectory? And does the profession actually support the people it identifies as exceptional — or does it celebrate them and move on?
The Dataset
Over 1,400 honorees across 24 years make this the most complete longitudinal recognition record in LIS. No comparable dataset exists for tracking the profession's own identification of talent.
The Gap
We know who was named. We don't know where they are now — who reached named chairs and endowed positions, who left the profession, who returned, and what shaped those trajectories.
The Flourishing Lens
Adaptive infophilia asks whether professional recognition leads to flourishing — for the individual, for the communities they serve, and for the field itself. It draws on arivu, anbu, aram from the Thirukkural — knowledge, care, and right action — on Robin Wall Kimmerer's reciprocal epistemology, on Rosi Braidotti's and/and rather than and/or logic, and on anekantavada, the Jain principle of many-sided truth. Career trajectory data is not neutral. It is a record of how a profession uses — or fails to use — the human capacity it identifies as exceptional. That record belongs to the field. Making it open is an act of care.
Community First
This begins as a community knowledge project with the library history community. Within 12–18 months it becomes a grant-funded peer-reviewed study with full IRB oversight. Contributors will be acknowledged.
Why You
Library historians and community members hold knowledge that databases don't — personal connections, institutional memory, awareness of career changes that never make the news. That knowledge is irreplaceable.
What Happens Next
Community-verified data informs a grant application for funded research. The resulting study will be open access. All contributors acknowledged by name unless they prefer anonymity.
Contribute
You can submit information about any LJ Movers & Shakers honoree — a current position, a career milestone, a correction to existing data, or a note that someone has left the profession. All submissions go directly to the research team and are reviewed before being added to the dataset.
Fields marked * are required. Your contact information is never published — it is used only if we have questions about your submission. Submissions are sent directly to ljmovers@infophilia.org and reviewed by the research team.