snippets from a LITA-L post on technical skills for the librarian (a hobby horse of mine)

Thanks To Karen G. Schneider www.bluehighways.com and Leo Klein for their posts to the LITA-L listserv which prompted this blog post.



K.G. Schneider wrote:
I have experience in the library industry. Terminology, practices, and goals are really what matters for the head of library IT plus the ability to communicate effectively.

That works both ways, as well. One reason some organizations insist on an MLS is that there is the assumption that it will be easier to communicate with an MLS. (This isn't articulated in most cases, but I've definitely heard it implied in rationales for using someone with an MLS.) But this doesn't address the communication skills required by the MLS to communicate with the IT specialist, whether or not that person has an MLS. For that matter, it doesn't address the responsibilities of the MLS to understand how technology fits into the library's mission and goals and to stay abreast of the major... shall I say Top Tech Trends? :)
Karen G. Schneider
kg@bluehighways.com


Let me combine Leo's earlier statement with Karen's:


Leo said: "I'm sure requirements vary but having a 2nd Masters is par for the course in most academic places I've ever worked. I'd say far more horrifying is requiring a knowledge of "Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Javascript, HTML, CSS, Metadata, C++ and Java or Visual Basic". To which I generally reply, why not Greek and Latin as well? --LEO"


Is not this the elephant in the room?


Library education does not USUALLY include database design, scripting languages, or server administration as part of the curriculum, but any
IT employee in a library should have these skills (as a library student in 98, there was only one student who ran a linux server as extra credit. The other techy students were getting Masters of Information Science degrees). Karen's point is well taken. It is terminology, practices and goals which make a successful IT manager not a masters in computer science.


The model of the systems librarian or IT librarian has fundamentally changed. The skills for the front line worker are not taught in the library education, and the managerial skills only come from experience. Public service oriented librarians have gleaned just enough about Web services and Web 2.0 technologies to be hungry, and there is no one staffed in most libraries who has the time to help them. If there is someone who can implement open source or commercial software, it is usually because they just happen to have the skill because they are techy by nature. What libraries need now are skilled Web developers who either have the MLS or equivalent job experience, or librarians who have been properly trained in programming, networking and administration to successfully perform in house library software development.

Steve Brantley
brantles.blogspot.com