I just love that feeling of serendipity when I find that people are thinking about the same things I am at the same time. Karin Dalziel made an impassioned case for every librarian to learn how to program. Dorothea Salo responded to it and described how she thinks technology should be taught in library school. At the exact same time, I was engaging in a debate with a library school student on a similar topic. He took issue with my highlighting Drupal in my column as an option for libraries without programmers on staff, stating that only a few small handfuls of librarians are capable of making it work. He feels that to use Drupal, libraries must understand its inner-workings and be able to debug things themselves. He and I agree that library schools should teach technologies as a critical part of the LIS curriculum, but he feels that all librarians should come out of library school with programming skills. He thinks that only people like John Blyberg, people with lots of tech training and experience, can use Drupal. Were that the case, I’d never have been able to use it for the three classes I taught. I don’t think any librarian could get Drupal up and running, but I think most people with a small amount of tech-savvy, A LOT of patience, the willingness to mess around with it and break it a few times, and the willingness to query the hive for help are capable of installing it and using it.
Does someone really need to understand the back-end of a system to capitalize on it? I don’t believe that’s true. Most people don’t know how to build a car; they don’t understand all of its internal mechanisms. Yet we still drive cars. We just know where to go when we need help. I have no clue how to debug things in Drupal. I’ve never made any attempt to understand the internal mechanisms of it. Does that mean I shouldn’t have used it the three times I have for classes? No way! I can install it and I can use it for the purposes I’ve had for it. I can’t do a lot of the fancy things a lot of people do with Drupal, but it worked fine for what I needed it to do. All my limited knowledge means is that when I have a problem, I need to look up the answer or rely on the community of Drupal users and developers for help. I did just that and thanks to the community, I was able to fix any problems I’ve had.
Yeah, I’d like to know how to fix every little thing in Drupal and create my own modules, but I’d also like to know how to fix my car. Priorities. In my position, it’s much more important that I know a lot about instruction and a decent amount about instructional technologies. Programming is not a necessary skill-set (not that I wouldn’t like to have mad coding skillz). If I’m going to engage in professional development, it will be to learn more about information literacy instruction and assessment, not to take a class on PHP or JavaScript. I’ve even done stuff with PHP and JavaScript, but it just involved messing around with stuff that already existed. I’d break it, figure out what I did and how it impacted things, and then fix it. Eventually I’d usually get it to do what I needed it to do. Yes, I’d love to have a better understanding, but it’s not a priority with my job and there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to learn everything I’d like.
Should library schools require technology classes? Without a doubt! I don’t think anyone should come out of library school without basic web design skills, a basic understanding of library technologies and Internet technologies, the ability to assess technologies, the ability to be fearless with trying out new technologies, and probably a whole host of other things I’m not thinking of right now with pregnancy brain. But does everyone need to come out knowing how to code? No! While technology is a part of every job, not every librarian needs to know how the back-end of the catalog works or needs to know how to debug a Drupal module. Instruction is a critical part of most of our jobs as librarians too (be it formal instruction, reference assistance, or staff training), but not everyone is required to take classes on instruction. And probably most people don’t need to know as much about instruction as I (and other people in similar positions) do.
People can do so many different things with a degree in Library and Information Science. I think it’s important for everyone to have a certain baseline of technology skills, but beyond that, it’s really dependent on what sort of job you want. The technology skill-sets you need to be a head of instruction vs. a systems librarian vs. a web developer vs. a reference librarian vs. an archivist are very different. I think for any library school student, it’s a good idea to hedge your bets and not just train yourself for a single job. It’s important to take tech classes, but if you know you don’t want to have a job where you’ll need to program, you shouldn’t have to. Focusing only on technology and not at all on public service-type classes is an even bigger mistake, since anyone developing tech for libraries needs to understand user behavior and how to train librarians on how to use the technologies.
Dorothea already wrote a lot of really brilliant things about teaching tech in library school, so there’s really no point in my going into more depth when she already said it all. Like most things she writes, I agree with 99% of it.
But my mind is on all of those people who are already out of library school and didn’t have the opportunity to take tech classes (or perhaps just chose not to because they didn’t think it would be important). Those are the people I write my column for. And the reality is that there are many libraries where no one has good programming skills (mine included) or the money to hire/rent talent. There are also many libraries where no one has an MLS at all, so the issue of tech in LIS education is irrelevant to them. I started writing my column because I saw too many articles that only highlighted things that could be done for a lot of $$$ or with serious programming talent on staff. I wanted to highlight the things that people could accomplish at almost any library so long as they are willing to experiment, maybe break things once, twice (or twenty times), and rely on documentation and the robust user communities that are a part of most of the tools I highlight. I like to show the range of what can be done with any technology, from things that require significant programming to the very simple nearly-out-of-the-box job. That way, they know what’s possible with the software at both ends of the spectrum.
I want small libraries to realize that they can have a decent website without necessarily knowing HTML or having a web designer on staff. I’ve learned over time that most librarians have no idea what they’re capable of doing with tech. I certainly didn’t think I was capable of doing anything with Drupal until I tried it out and realized that it wasn’t as beastly as I’d imagined (though the whole taxonomy/node stuff really took me a while to understand properly). I want to encourage people to try things out and to realize that they’re capable of so much more than they think they are. So, while I’d love for every library to have someone on staff with mad tech skillz, it’s important for people to realize that they still can do a lot of great stuff with tech even if they don’t have tons of money or programming talent.
A valued mentor of mine, when this subject came up, told me, “You don’t need to know enough programming to know how to program; you need enough so that when the computer guys tell you, ‘We can’t do that,’ you can tell them, ‘Yes, you can.'”
This was in 1983.
OH HECK YES. 🙂
Maybe that’s the next windmill to tilt at…
Wow, I agree with you 99%! I’m in library school now and am struggling with choosing appropriate classes. It’s compulsory to take a technology class, in which I learned a lot about new technologies I hadn’t picked up before. The question is: do I take more? Do I take classes that the systems librarian-wannabes are taking because that’s where the jobs are? Because that’s what people think we should do?
I agree: technology is important and librarians need to be aware of the changes, trends, and day to day operation of what’s necessary for their library. However, we all need to find our niche in this profession. One person can’t do everything – collaboration and cooperation are the keys to success.
Great post Meredith, I agree that although it would be nice to learn how to program (it’s something I’ve been wondering about learning how to do) there are so many other important skills to learn as an academic librarian. Instruction and teaching is something I’m passionate about too and I think it’s far more important in my current role to gain skills to improve that side of my work.
I am hoping to play with Drupal soon (it’s something I may do over the Christmas break); I think it will be far more achievable than learning to code! I also think WordPress is an excellent tool for using as blogging software or as a CMS.
I’ve recently finished the taught part of my distance learning Masters course (in the UK) and we didn’t have any “techy” options, let alone core modules. I was shocked to find that so many students on the course had no idea about using social software in libraries. I really wish there was more of this sort of stuff covered in library school.
I agree with you that social software and Web 2.0 technologies are such a powerful tool for libraries and I’m currently trying to do my bit by promoting it within my workplace, helping others learn how to use it, and hopefully through the Learning 2.0 programme (I’ve recently put in a project proposal – fingers crossed!).
I think that the need for technology coursework that revolves around what future library work is something that gets neglected quite a bit. (Part of this is the impression that somehow the same tools are going to be useful for every single
library).
All librarians should at least feel comfortable doing the basics like email, web surfing, word. These courses should not be taught by library school, there’s better professional teachers out there for these courses everywhere.
So I can imagine a cataloging track. For those folks I’d like to see some basic understanding of html, but not necessarily a lot. What I would think would be important would be:
* The ability to understand the historical legacy of MARC. Why the fixed fields are there, what purpose they serve and details like that.
* Understanding of modern approaches to document structure. Particularly a bit of XML. Mostly in relation to Information Retrieval.
* Character sets. Understanding how they have been implemented and how they will be implemented.
* They should have a basic understanding of Information Retrieval theory and indexing. Also the how relational databases work.
For a “final project” that related to tech I’d hope to see something like catalogers indexing some documents or document surrogates and using them for searching. Extra points for exploring things like authority control, etc. Extra extra points for throwing a web front end on. 😉
For archivists I could see something like
* Understanding electronic documents inside and out. Know xml etc. Know lossy formats vs non-lossy formats
* Understanding of OCR, recent implementations, how to use it.
* Manipulate documents on a mass scale, whether through applications or if necessary command-line scripts.
* Institutional Repository software.
well, I’m babbling, but you can see where I’m going with this.
I liked the Drupal/Car analogy. I have been fiddling with a couple of CMS’s trying to figure out which one would be best for our library. I feel that CMS’s are tools like cars that are supposed to make your life easier overall (albeit with some frustration when repairs are needed). So I would definitely take your side in that debate.
As for teaching tech in library school, I wholeheartedly agree with Dorothea. I took the first iteration of her class and did my first WP install in it. Classes like that are very beneficial simply because they open up new worlds to people who see some of these technologies as something foreign and unapproachable. A very general class like Dorothea’s or yours I’d imagine are great in that they allow people to actually play and experiment and see that they can actually do the whole tech thing if they are not afraid to fail multiple times.
Jon, completely agree! When I think about the sort of tech stuff a good archivist would need to be aware of, it is SO different for what I need as an instruction librarian. It would be nice if we could say “just learn to program and you’ll have all the skills you need to do anything in libraries” but I think it ignores how different the technology skill-sets are for different types of library work. I like your list of competencies. 🙂
Andy, good luck with the CMS experimentation! I think my class and Dorothea’s are great first steps into tech. Like you said, once people aren’t afraid to fail, experiment and break things, they become much more capable of taking on bigger and more difficult tech. I’d say that any student who took my class could take on Drupal, because they just need to be able to read documentation and ask for help when they get stuck. They got a lot of experience with that in my class.
Lisa, I think you have to base your decision of what tech classes to take on what you really want to do. I knew that I absolutely would never want to be a cataloger or a systems librarian. I enjoy tech, but I’m a public services person through and through. So I learned the sort of tech that was valuable to reference/instruction/distance learning librarian work (instructional tech, web 2.0 tech, and web design). And I’ve built upon that knowledge on the job, stretching my skills way beyond what I could do when I graduated from library school. If you are sure that you want to work in a specific area of librarianship (or have at least ruled out what you don’t want to do) then focus on the sort of skills relevant to the sort of work you’re interested in. Being able to maintain an ILS will not get you a job as a Reference/Instruction Librarian.
Good post–but I’m moved to comment thanks to T Scott’s comment. Other than “right on,” I’ll elaborate:
I got started on what apparently was a 39-year distraction from writing, namely systems analysis, design and programming (a LOT of programming) at UC Berkeley–where I designed and implemented a punch-card circulation system in 1968, primarily based on deep knowledge of UC’s five call number systems (from years as a student page). The “brains” of this system was an IBM 188 Collator, essentially the input mechanism for early System/360s with two card readers and five output bins–and, I think, something like 64 bytes of core (or RAM, if you prefer).
The temporary distraction became a career, I think, when our IBM rep brought some higher-ups in for a tour and I described the system and what the collator was doing. The response: “You can’t do that with a collator.” I was hooked.
And have always been a little suspicious of “you can’t” when it comes to programming. Sometimes it’s true, but that’s only acceptable after you’ve applied some creativity to working around apparent impossibilities. You don’t need to be a trained programmer to apply creativity, think about alternative meanings of what “that” (which is “impossible”) really is, and push the envelope a little.
Great post! If we all had to know programming to use these technologies there would be a lot less blogs, websites, etc. The hard part in my experience is getting those who have never had any classes on technology to feel comfortable with new systems.
Hi Meredith.
My name is Andrea Ævars and I’m the LIS student from Iceland, you talked about in one of your posts 🙂
I’d just like to say I’m glad to have found your site and will tell my fellow students about it if you don’t mind!
Thanks for a great lecture and I hope to have the good fortune to meet you again someday.
All the best.
I was in Michael Stephens’s Library 2.0 class this past semester, and as part of it, a group I was in created a mock library website using Drupal (which is still online). None of us had any prior Drupal experience at all, the project lasted about a month, and I think that what we have up there would be a perfectly good site for the small library we designed it for, certainly much better than what they actually have online now.
It is very doable, you just have to be willing to dive right in and search around for answers when you’re stuck.
@Walt – thanks for sharing your experience. Many of the decisions I’ve made in my life have been based on someone telling me I can’t do it as well. It’s fun to push boundaries!
@Andrea, great to hear from you again! Hope you’re still pushing the professors at your library school to give students more practical library experience during the program. Of course you can share my website with others and please feel free to email me any time if I can be of help. 🙂
@Chris, that is AWESOME! Very nice work. I think it’s so great to get experience like that while in library school and I assign a similar project for students in my class. I’m happy to see that my projections about Drupal aren’t completely off.
Hello, Meredith (and others),
First, Meredith, great post — you do a great job articulating some frequently overlooked points, particularly with regards to how we prioritize our time. Also, we frequently have perfection as our goal (which is great to aim for); however, if we allow the goal of perfection to impair our ability to experiment we also curb our potential to grow.
@Jon Gorman, re the list: to the xml item, I would add an overview of metadata formats and what types of information they can carry. For example, knowing the difference between Atom and RSS, or the uses and potential of Dublin Core, RDF, etc, would all be useful things to understand.
@Chris O: the site you and your group members list is a great example of what can be done with Drupal, without any custom code. Have you considered writing it up as a case study in either the Library or Education group on groups.drupal.org? There are many people who are looking for exactly that type of information.
@Meredith, re: “I’m happy to see that my projections about Drupal aren’t completely off.” — one of the most pernicious Drupal myths is that you need to be a developer to access the power of Drupal. As you and others in this thread discuss, this just isn’t the case. Much of Drupal’s power and flexibility can be leveraged without writing a line of code, or knowing any html.
Cheers,
Bill
Another perspective that you don’t touch on is regarding the corporate world, which many people who actually want full-time jobs and benefits will be entering after library school. I spent many years in the corporate world and while it is full of people who will understand the technology much better than most MLSers will, there is a huge need for people who can sit between the technology people and the line / business people and articulate needs. This will require some understanding of the technology while letting others accomplish the dirty work. For these people, things like requirements documents and the core technologies are useful to understand, while also having an understanding of the business that the company actually does. This can potentially be an MLSer/MBA/programming type of hybrid who can speak the language of programming and of business to a certain extent, but does not have to be a master of either. I know many library students are scared of or uninterested in the corporate world, but if you are in the right company this type of thing can be a really fulfilling and interesting role (potentially with great pay!)
As far as public libraries are concerned, knowledge of Drupal implementation should not be considered the culmination of a library education. If it is, then students are being miseducated. An apt comparison is to my classes in dialup Lexis-Nexis and Dialog, the technology of which is essentially dead but which offered more useful core skills. More important is a general comfort with technologies and a lack of fear in playing with them and offering them to your clientele. I work in a small library that will not likely be using Drupal, but which is doing lots of cool and useful stuff online, all of which is being driven by user needs.
I agree that hardcore programming is not really a necessary skill set — even for webmasters like me, it’s possible to survive with some basic HTML knowledge and learn whatever else is necessary as we go along. For cases where we encounter something that actually requires the services of a real programmer, we can often outsource this type of work as long as we are earning at least a modest amount of revenue from our other activities.
http://slislife.spartasocialnetworks.com/messageboard/MBView.do?tc=77b1ae6be955316d7234f2bc5a409cdd
posted on: 01-03-2009 07:05 PM
I have seen really nice usage of technology to encourage students (or patrons) to collaborate with the library staff and other patrons, such as mini videos of book reviews, blogs about certain topics or books, and wikis. One librarian who is a friend of mine showed me this nice, neat little site called teacherlibrarian.ning.com, where she had a page life Facebook, and she had an entire virtual tour of her library (which was helpful in tooting her horn, because the principal of this school doesn’t even walk in the door all year, much less care what goes on in there). She also had several pod casts, book reviews, and it was just a really impressive use of several types of technologies. The teachers aren’t even half as sophisticated and should take note of what she has done.
I tried creating a wiki of my own on pbwiki.com (I named it a really long name: librarydevelopmentpowow) and found it rather user friendly. It will allow collaboration with other teacher-librarians as they are free to share their views, introduce other ideas, and add it to my wiki.
I am also engaging in online collection development through nice, easy collection analyses that yield tons of data about a collection that one couldn’t possibly do manually. It earns libraries money by showing their needs and makes a HUGE difference in how teacher-librarians work on their libraries–they take their emotion out of the equation and just work with the facts. Without technology, I don’t think type of online collection analyses could happen.
Thanks for letting me add my 2 cents worth!
Tim Trevathan
Posted on: 01-06-2009 02:24 AM
Nicole,
Can your Wiki be accessed from the outside world ? I would like to highlight home-grown examples from our student base as we come across usage and real life examples of web 2.0 technologies in place at SJSU…..
Nicole Mardian
Posted on: 01-09-2009 00:12 AM
Hi Tim!
To access it, one can just go to http://www.librarydevelopmentpowow.pbwiki.com (which I know is WAY to long). But I have not allowed anyone to actually have access to changing or adding anything yet. This may or may not be something I ever allow for awhile. If I chose to, however, I can put in someone’s email and assign certain privileges. I hope that intelligently answers your question, given my growing (yet limited) knowledge of Web 2.0 skills.
Nicole,
once you come to understand what the instruments of Web 2.0 are, things like RSS feeds that ‘push’ information out to your email instead of having to find time to surf all of the website you may like, and things like youtube, facebook, twitter, wiki’s and other tools that already exist, it is just a matter of finding out where these tools can be effectively used to deploy our assests as information managers and community organizers of activities that aid our user community, we can look at many examples of how other libraries are using these tools to reach out to our user communities to stay relveant and offer other facilities for social contact, job opportunity development for communities, training capabilities for those un-employed or under-emplyed and stay viable as assets to our communities to stay literate in both information and technology. Our evolution as librarians is assured to be a steep one, but a fun challenge. The best way I know is to sign up for accounts on all of these tools [one at a time], play with them a little bit, see what they have to offer and how people use them and offer same services or access to these services and extend their aplication into library environments. The most active usage I have seen is in libraries that continue to offer more terminals and access to be able to download podcasts, access social networks and create points of connectivity and outreach to the community as the page you suggested shows;
Posted on: 01-06-2009 02:47 AM
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