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The Library & Information Science Professional's Career Development Center |
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Getting
Technical by Bob Persing |
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Librarians as a whole are not generally a reactionary group. Even so, many experienced librarians have made this sort of comment at some time: "I didn't become a librarian to spend my time fixing computers." And yet there is really no avoiding the growth of technology in libraries. No matter what type of library position you are seeking, you should expect to deal with automation. Systems librarians obviously deal with hardware and programming languages constantly. But all other librarians will interact with the Infernal Machines, too. You'll probably have a PC on your desk, which will need some care and feeding. Public service librarians will be asked a steady stream of "techie" questions, involving running CD-ROMs, downloading data and transferring files. Technical services librarians must not only use their library management systems (LMS), but also bibliographic utilities, vendor-supplied databases, not to mention word processors and spreadsheet programs. If you are a
supervisor, you must also be prepared to do basic tech support for your
staff. Don't be lulled by
the presence (in some cases) of dedicated tech support staff.
No matter how good they are, they go to lunch like everybody
else, or take vacation days, or get called away to other branches with
more urgent problems. You may still be the person expected to do triage on a
recalcitrant PC or delete a frozen print queue. This may sound daunting if you, like many librarians, are more interested in scholarship and public service than in technology. Don't lose hope yet, though. No one expects every librarian to do detailed computer support. Think of yourself instead as a "part-time techie." This involves a few simple principles:
It's not hard to keep up a basic knowledge of the software industry and its products. Regularly read or scan a couple of general-interest computing journals, like Wired and PC Magazine. (Or web sites, if you think printed paper is quaint and old-fashioned.) A very basic knowledge of software packages can go a long way. Even just knowing their names is useful. When someone asks for help with ProCite, knowing that it's software for constructing bibliographies -- even if you know nothing else about it -- puts you one step ahead. When you need more
detailed information, remember one of the old axioms of librarianship:
"You don't have to know everything, just where to look."
There's a lot of online help within programs, and a lot more on
web sites. So long as you
can do a basic web search (a ubiquitous skill these days), you can find
something about almost any software package. Lots of problems do not
require deep knowledge so much as common sense.
My institution recently introduced a new Java-based accounting
system. Minimizing the
client screen causes a major memory blockage, slowing all other programs
on the machine down to a crawl. Diagnosing
this problem took no knowledge of Java or advanced Windows technology.
All it took was knowing how to find the memory status screen in
Windows NT. I also didn't need fancy knowledge to implement a solution: I
tell people not to minimize that application.
(Pragmatism is often an excellent tool.) While keeping up with
new advances, try to spare a few little grey cells for computing
history, too. You may think
the days of DOS scripts and the "autoexec.bat" went out of
style with Miami Vice. But
you'll be amazed at the software still floating around, maybe even in
your library collection. Work
at a federal depository library, and you'll find a remarkable collection
of old programs on CD-ROM. Chances
are someone will try to use one sometime.
Chances are it will be your night on the reference desk. Even for areas with
which you have little contact, or which are covered by other librarians,
"talking techie talk" can still be very important for you.
Let's say you need data extracted from your LMS.
If your library has a systems librarian to write reports, you
don't need to know much about Perl or SQL or Access.
It's better if you know what they are, though, so when the
systems librarian mentions them, you don't stare at them blankly. (It's not polite, anyway, and it unnerves them.)
Your SQL guru may know the system's underlying table structure
backwards and forwards. But if you can't clearly describe the data you need and the
results you want, it will likely take you more time and trouble to reach
satisfaction. The technical skills of
any part-time techie also require continual refreshing.
You don't necessarily need to be ahead of the technological
curve, but you can't be very far behind it, either.
Even something as simple as opening a Microsoft Word document can
be technically challenging, if it was made with a later version of Word
than the one you're using. You
need to keep your mind flexible to deal with such little problems. The more knowledge you
have, the more opportunities may arise.
I recently had the opportunity to work with a library software
company on redesigning LMS staff screens.
The company didn't expect me to know any code or do any
programming. But when their
programmers talked about which Visual Basic controls they had licensed,
they expected me to at least generally understand the concept.
Knowing a little of the vocabulary allowed me to keep up while I
figured out the rest. Exhausted thinking about keeping up with the tech world? Here's a more positive thought for you: computing knowledge can also potentially lead you down new and exciting career paths. Most of the older systems librarians today started in other specialties. Lots of them wandered into systems work by the "back door," learning programming and analysis because no one else on staff had those skills. In recent years, web masters and HTML gurus have been sprouting from the same seeds. There will certainly be other similar opportunities in future. Maybe, after volunteering for some project, you might find an unexpected path opening up for you. Bob Persing is the serials librarian at the University of Pennsylvania Library. He received his MSLS from Simmons College in 1992. He has been active in NASIG, ALCTS and the Voyager Users Group, and edits a column for Serials Review. Article submitted Apr 2002 Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.
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Page last updated
10/03/2005
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