[Web4lib] Skillset for new librarians

[Susan Barribeau]

Hello,
Also delurking...I have been following this thread somewhat and I would 
just like to say apropos of nothing that the subject line keeps scanning 
for me as "skillets for new librarians". I'm an old librarian but we 
probably need similar skillets.

Nearly all my tech skills were learned on the job(s) both formally and 
informally. Imagine graduating from lib school in 1991 (me) as opposed 
to 2003 and thinking about your tech skills. Lib school tech classes 
were/are not always current with trends (said euphemistically). Lib 
schools had to adapt to some serious changes, which they have done and 
still do. Working for the lib tech support group when in lib school was 
the best foundation I had for gaining an understanding of academic 
library tech from system level down to ripping out and replacing a hard 
drive. I met a lot of campus librarians, got paid (not much) and had a 
good CV/resume item to include.

This isn't to say that formal training isn't necessary. It is and was. 
But actual job immersion forces you to be current. And "it" is 
ubiquitously part of libraries. "it" (ha ha - "IT") in libraries. I 
think taking courses (community college or wherever) is an excellent 
choice. It can't hurt, right?

My experience of learning the rudiments of (primitive) HTML long ago 
(and ftp, servers, etc etc) and having to TEACH it to others opened a 
lot of doors to opportunities. Tech skills will open doors to serving on 
committees, managing and building complex websites,  being in involved 
in organizing and managing huge ILS changes. The more perspectives you 
have, the better your options.  Keeping up is the challenge. Managing 
the change. And managing the costs of the change.

That is what interests me now about collection dev. and mgmt. and the 
technologies and economics that drive it in an academic research library 
today. Hence my current job. At the root of the library is its 
collection. Without it, it would not be a library. And without the tech 
our collections would be a lot less useable, available, and searchable.

Interesting times. Great thread. Worthy and timeless topic. Libraries 
are everywhere. Go libraries!

Susan Barribeau

Todd Michael Grooten wrote:
> Delurking to chime in -
> 
> Interesting discussion.  Having graduated with my MLS in 2003 I feel 
> like my skill-set rather outdated now.
> 
> I have been toying with the idea of going back to community college to 
> beef my my tech skills.  I have been wondering what technology/computer 
> skills are current and marketable, not just in the library world, but in 
> general.  I figure there's job safety in having this knowledge, not 
> always the case in library land.
> 
> Cheers,
> Todd in Fort Wayne
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-- 
*******************************************************************
Susan Barribeau
English Lit. & Humanities/Comm. Arts/Linguistics Bibliographer
University of Wisconsin - Madison, Memorial Library, Room 278D
728 State Street, Madison WI  53706-1494
Phone:  (608)262-9585     FAX:  (608)265-2754
Email:  sbarribeau at library.wisc.edu