[Web4lib] Programming Languages?

[Thomas Krichel]

  Darr, Jonelle writes

> Can anyone recommend which programming languages would be most useful
> for staff to learn if they are managing our Horizon library catalog and
> our website?  php?  XML? what else?

  I can't comment on the specific problem of your Horizon library catalog,
  but I think that PHP is a good language for beginners to learn, 
  provided that they know some (X)HTML beforehand. 

  I also think that system administration skills are important. 
  Just get an ubuntu cd and install it on an old computer
  that you would otherwise through away. It can still serve as a 
  web server, mail server, and with some additional disks
  built in, it can back stuff up for you. 

> Are there any good online sources for training?

  I have the powerpoint from my courses available. Recent versions
  are

http://wotan.liu.edu/home/krichel/courses/lis650n07s/
http://wotan.liu.edu/home/krichel/courses/lis651n07s/

  I would not claim they are good, but at least they are online. ;-)

  The biggest problem are not the languages, but the analytical
  reasoning skills required to use them. 

  Cheers,

  Thomas Krichel                    http://openlib.org/home/krichel
                                RePEc:per:1965-06-05:thomas_krichel
                                               skype: thomaskrichel