Yes. Exactly. It's like saying you can't go to the doctor or hire a
lawyer without a bit of medical or law school. Doctors and lawyers need
to be able to explain what they're doing.
Another skill that would be useful is understanding databases, by which
I do not mean learning SQL. Too many people's idea of working with data
is Excel, which provides no structure for data. Type in any data in any
box. There is none of the data integrity that a database requires.
Here my ideal is "Database Design for Mere Mortals" which teaches no SQL
at all but teaches how to work from data you know and use and arrive at
a structure that could easily be put into a database. It's not just
data, but data structure that needs to be understood. I've seen plenty
of evidence that people who build commercial database-backed software
don't understand database structure.
Chris
On 2/15/2013 9:45 AM, Diane Hillmann wrote:
Folks:
This 'everybody-should-learn-to-code' theme has gone around the block so
many times it's amazing that it still has legs. And I still don't buy it
(this was part of my keynote at C4L two years ago). I'm all for people
learning to code if they want to and think it will help them. But it isn't
the only thing library people need to know, and in fact, the other key
skill needed is far rarer: knowledge of library data.
Not all librarians or catalogers have these skills--knowing how to catalog
does not necessarily translate into real knowledge of the data itself and
how it is structured and how it works (and doesn't). It certainly helps to
have some experience of cataloging, but is not necessarily required. Karen
Coyle knows library data inside and out and has never been a cataloger. She
also knows more coding than I ever will, but that combination is rare. More
useful, I think, is for each side of that skills divide to value the skills
of other other, and learn to work together. I've never found it necessary
to take classes in coding of any kind to learn how to work with developers
(which is just as well since there were few if any opportunities for me to
do so). Knowing the data as well as I do gives me a very good sense of what
is possible when working with a developer, and the good ones know how
important my skills are.
Jason Griffey spoke in this thread about 'owning your abilities'--and I
think that's what I'm trying to assert here. If I were advising a new-ish
librarian (and I do that regularly) I would suggest that they learn more
about RDF and OWL, about vocabulary development in a variety of contexts.
That's where I see the gaps, not with a dearth of librarian coders.
Diane
