The Resource Shelf Pointed The Way to Research Information: December 2009/January 2010.
Programming skills could transform librarians’ roles
At the simplest level, this may be data manipulation through mashup editors, although for real innovation to occur within the library community we will require more expert skills. Whilst the librarian’s skill set may be supplemented in part by their user community and by outsourcing to programmers, for libraries to be truly innovative, librarians need to be aware of potential opportunities, and this only comes from experimenting with the data and the platforms themselves.
So in other words…
Don’t get an MLIS, get a MS in computer science and supplement it with a few courses in information management & organization…
if I knew what this meant, I would comment on it
how many more qualifiers can you add to this?
“Programming skills could transform librarians’ roles”
just like culinary skills could transform librarians’ roles. because of all the hungry people in my library.
again, we make this assumption that everyone in the world is going to have some smart device and librarians will need to “jack in” (is that some obsolete cyberpunk term?) to serve them.
really, innovation for what? data manipulation? what data? I don’t even know what the hell this is about. data manipulation for the sake of data manipulation? how many times does it need manipulating?
let’s say it’s web data and librarian A builds a front end to sort through it… do I really need to be a programmer to use it? I agree, programming is great if you have a reason for it, but I don’t see any (okay, a very few places) place for it in my library. my patrons still google yahoo.
“…librarians will then have a recognisable set of skills that can differentiate them in the minds of the users.” which users? again, I don’t even know which data for which users.
on the flip side, if you build it, they will come…. you won’t know how you can use the programming skills until you learn them… then you might look at repetitive, tedious Web tasks and find simpler solutions. if only the author had said it that way instead of his pompous-ass obfuscations.
Well…
If I got a a computer science degree I could make a lot more money outside librarianship. That’s why I’m skeptical this would work.
Access to programmer
I had a programmer that worked for our library. I could interject any library concepts that needed to be applied. When I had full access to a programmer there was no need for me to have any programming skills.
I am not saying that for some librarians some skill might be useful but a programmer is a career on its own. The programmer that was working for us is now out making double the money outside the library world.
The way libraries should use programmers is to pool our money and to find worthwhile projects that need to be done and hire a good programmer to do them. The tools they build can be used by all that contribute to the cause.
Consider the source
So here’s a non-librarian programmer (under a different job title), who lost me in the first paragraph (both the sweeping dismissal of physical collections and the wildly limited understanding of what librarians do)…
Funny, I didn’t need to read any further. Note, for the record, that I am (or at least was) a damn good programmer, systems analyst and designer for five decades, so I’m not dismissing the importance of those skills… but librarians needing them to “remain relevant” is nonsense.
hey, Walt, earning your keep?
as a 2010 blogger to read by posting useful commentary? how dare you. how many of those other “winners” come back after the votes are cast?? (or ever)… shouldn’t you be basking in the Caribbean?
The honorarium hasn’t arrived yet…
…but, hey, as soon as the $2 million shows up, I’m outta here. Or not. I did notice (and appreciate) the small spike in pageviews when the list came out–and the larger one when ALA Direct linked to the list. [Oops: There are humor-challenged readers on LISNews. NO, THERE IS NO MONETARY AWARD FOR BEING ON THE 10 BLOGS LIST.]
Actually, given that we live in California, we’d more likely be basking in Hawaii or the Society Islands (and by air, the Society Islands–Moorea, Bora Bora, etc.–are as close as the Caribbean).
Brad Spry
Librarians who can think algorithmically and communicate effectively, would be very valuable. Algorithmic thinking is essentially pre-programming. Each librarian has their own unique processes for helping people find informration. We could learn a lot from their processes and possibly transform their knowhow into powerful algorithms and usable designs.
Librarians should be all that they can be or want to be. If they want to be quantum physicists working on quantum search algorithms, that would be great. Until then, simply thinking and communicating algorithmically would be a big step forward.