Chris Stearns replied to my posts with an interesting take on this subject:
Steve
I know exactly what you mean. That describes a lot of places. I've been
at Auburn since July and was very lucky to get in at a time when our
systems department got its first official Director of Library
Technology, who recognized the need to broaden the dept's skill set, and
he hired several new full-time people to fill in some gaps he
identified as deficiencies, so I was hired as the
programmer/developer/database guy, even though I'm not a "real"
programmer, though like you I'm trying to learn and improve in that
area. I've been using Ruby/Rails almost exclusively since I got here
and that's forced me to get really deep
into Ruby, which has forced me to try and learn the kind of stuff most
real programmers could do without blinking. I had been a staunch PHP guy
previously, and looked into Python and Java, but couldn't get real
enthused about them. Mainly I'm just trying to do a good job and not
make my boss regret dedicating one of his positions to programming!
Steve Brantley wrote:
Chris, thank you, an astute observation. My institution falls right into
this category:
"So libraries tend to have people who can configure and maintain
third-party systems, and people who can manage websites with FrontPage
and Dreamweaver, but have tended to have trouble getting people who can
provide advanced scripting/programming and database skills to do
everything from generate custom RSS feeds to build solid database apps
from scratch."
It would be great if we could somehow manage a way to hire "Any smart,
capable coder with a decent professional attitude" but even better would
be if I was supported to learn to be an adept coder. There never is
quite enough time to teach myself. ;)
Steve
Chris Stearns wrote:
Libraries tend to see themselves as "libraries" but not as large
organizations with a broader set of technological needs.
It seems to me that part of the problem is that, traditionally, many
libraries have employed a "systems librarian" and a "webmaster".
Typically, the systems librarian configured and maintained the ILS
machines in conjunction with their vendor, and also probably dealt
with other third-party databases as they came into the picture. This
person, or another server person, probably knew a little perl or
something similar and did a little scripting from time to time.
Additionally, the webmaster was often a current or former librarian
(in bigger libraries/systems) who used FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. to
publish web pages. This person may or may not have become a coder in
the process. So libraries tend to have people who can configure and
maintain third-party systems, and people who can manage websites with
FrontPage
and Dreamweaver, but have tended to have trouble getting people who can
provide advanced scripting/programming and database skills to do
everything from generate custom RSS feeds to build solid database apps
from scratch.
This need didn't exist ten or even five years ago in the way it does
now. I can remember back in the 90s how nobody really trusted
web-based apps because they tended to be slow and difficult to use. Back
then we wanted something to load locally and serve over the LAN.
Now that's flipped to some degree, and people expect to be able to do
some sophisticated things online. As Steve has pointed out, so much more
is expected from an online
presence these days, and rightly so. The rub is that the career goals
and personalities of librarians and programmers/coders tend to focus
their interests in different directions. Sure, you can find some
hybrids, but coders tend to want to write code, not go to library school.
Any smart, capable coder with a decent professional attitude can learn
the ropes in his industry, whether that's online catalog sales,
insurance applications, or libraries. Just the view from here.
--
Chris Stearns
Software/Programming
Auburn University Libraries
http://www.lib.auburn.edu
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