On Sep 11, 2008, at 10:44 AM, Deemer, Selden S wrote:
> Unfortunately, far too many of the librarians I have worked with
> over the past 35+ years have an attitude of "I can't do this unless
> someone teaches me to do it." What a crock. Today's libraries are
> inseparable from computers and IT. Someone who can't motivate him/
> herself to keep up with the technology should get out of the field
> and find some activity that doesn't require knowledge of computers
> (although that's increasingly difficult in today's world).
While I am certainly not going to say that every librarian needs to
know everything about computers, far from it, but I will say that a
library as a whole needs to know about computers and their
applicability to the profession.
To that end I wrote a blog piece for the LITA a couple of years ago,
and I think it is still relevant today. [1] In summary, the posting
advocates knowledge of:
* XML - modern-day MARC
* relational databases - the organization of information
* indexing - the searching/finding of information
* Web serving - making the information available
* programming/scripting - binding all of the above together
In the current environment, each one of these things plays in
important role in the creation, implementation, maintenance, and use
of "next generation" library catalogs.
P.S. I'm hiring. [2]
[1] http://litablog.org/2005/08/07/technical-skills-of-librarianship/
[2] http://libstaff.library.nd.edu/hr/documents/crra09022008.pdf
--
Eric Lease Morgan
Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department
Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
(574) 631-8604
Received on Thu Sep 11 2008 - 12:18:05 EDT