[Web4lib] Another web book/web job advice

[McHale, Nina]

I'd like to add one more book to Amy's excellent list:

Michael Sauers, XHTML and CSS Essentials for Library Web Design.

He has a knack for explaining technical things to non-technical people,
and as you can see from the title, the focus is *library* web design.

I'm another one who got sucked in to the library webosphere; my first
job (and most of my library school electives) was in reference, and when
the director asked me if I wanted to "do" the library web site, I said
no. She said, "Tough!" signed me up for a Dreamweaver class, and here I
am, two library webmaster jobs later.

One thing that helped me transition from reference to systems was to
stress in an interview my public service background--an archivist could
do the same. If you have public service experience, you likely have a
better sense of your patrons' wants and needs than one who's a straight
technologist. This experience is obviously helpful to the person who's
designing the library's online presence. I was short on programming
skills, but I was up front about that, and indicated that I was more
than willing to learn. (And since I've been here, I've been able to
receive training in PHP/MySQL.) Don't be apologetic about your past
experience; show the employer how it's relevant to what you want to do
now, and how it lead you to this point.

Nina

Nina McHale, MA/MSLS
Assistant Professor, Web Librarian
Auraria Library

Serving the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences
Center-Downtown Campus,
Metropolitan State College
and the Community College of Denver

1100 Lawrence Street
Denver, Colorado 80204
303-556-4729

nina.mchale at cudenver.edu