[CODE4LIB] JOBS: 1 new job for 2014-05-29
Interface and Application Developer University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia Apache HTTP Server, Apache Tomcat, Application programming interface, Application software, Cascading Style Sheets, Git, GNU/Linux, HTML5, Interface, JavaScript, jQuery, MySQL, Open source, PHP, Python, Ruby, Software Developer, Unix, XML schema http://jobs.code4lib.org/job/14685 To post a new job please visit http://jobs.code4lib.org/
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Laura Krier [laura.kr...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:22 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Hi Riley, Congrats on starting college in the fall! If you like to learn, college is pretty much the best place ever. College next fall, but almost there, pretty scary :) I second others in not necessarily recommending a bachelors in library/ information science. I would actually suggest computer science if you're at all skilled with math and logic. You'll probably have the best post-graduate opportunities even if you change your mind about libraries. But make sure you get a well-rounded liberal arts education. Take advantage of gen ed courses to study things outside of your major whenever you can. All people are served well by having a broad base of knowledge, in my opinion. And you'll need solid writing skills no matter what you do in life so make sure you practice those every chance you get. :-) I am meh on liberal arts, my high school is Liberal Arts and I really don't like it Basically, as long as you learn to be a lifelong learner, it doesn't really matter what you major in I think. You'll always have to learn new things anyway. Congratulations again! Laura PS- To more directly answer your question, I majored in literature and women's studies in college. Now I'm a web services librarian. I kind of wish I had a more solid computer science background but I'm still able to learn what I need to. Sent from my iPhone On May 28, 2014, at 9:49 PM, Amy Drayer amost...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Riley et al: I was thinking the same thing as Coral. I have a humanities undergrad degree; a computer science oriented degree would certainly have been beneficial, especially with an emphasis on network and server administration, or even web development depending on your interest (as a systems librarian I also managed the website and catalog). The library-oriented education can wait until grad school. Honestly, I think we come from a variety of backgrounds. My liberal arts foundation works for me (I feel my education was well rounded in a way a science or IT degree may not have been), but I would definitely have wanted some more technical classes such as I mentioned above if I had known I would be in this field. In peace, Amy In peace, Amy M. Drayer, MLIS Senior IT Specialist, Web Developer amost...@gmail.com http://www.puzumaki.com On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:24 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess co...@sheldon-hess.org wrote: Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want librarians to have the MLIS. And what if you change your mind after a few years and don't want to get the masters? Do something you could get a career in--or work in, part time, to afford the MLIS. If you want to be a systems librarian, why not get a degree in systems engineering or IT? (Seriously, there are degrees in IThttp://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=332now, what a world!) Computer science wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind theory, and you can get some good foundational stuff that will help with the information science part of libraries and information science. The school where I got my MLIS had an Information Science department that was mostly IT, too. So, that's a possibility. -- Coral Sheldon-Hess http://sheldon-hess.org/coral @web_kunoichi On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] Is it possible to stop the mailing list from striping DKIMs
This is a thing with the listserv software, but the list admin can elaborate further... Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes From: Simon Speromailto:sesunc...@gmail.com Sent: 5/29/2014 12:01 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDUmailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Is it possible to stop the mailing list from striping DKIMs Mail from gmail accounts is flagged by gmail as possible phishing, because the DKIM header has been stripped. How do we know what's OCLC approved if gmail insists on waning of possible royt impersonators? This header looks blame-worthy. X-DKIM: OpenDKIM Filter v2.1.3 mail-mx3-prod-v.cc.nd.edu s4T2573P017562 V/R, Simon Spero (I think...At least an Identity Crisis is better than a Civil War)
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
If you want to be a systems librarian, I wouldn't bother with the MLIS, honestly. Yes, it's still a requirement on a lot of job postings _now_, but more and more that's being dropped from systems roles in lieu of relevant experience. The other sad reality is that an entry level systems librarian position probably makes less than a developer or sysadmin position in the same department. Fwiw, I have no masters in anything, a BA in theatre (the BEST degree, but that's another thread), and have worked in library technology professionally for 20 years (oh, hey there, ravages of time). While not having an MLIS has kept me out of consideration for some jobs in the past, almost all of them just wanted a masters in _something_, which, in that case, get a masters in CS or CE. -Ross. On May 28, 2014 11:18 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] Jobs Digest - I definitely didn't rip off someone else's job posting
YAY FULL JOB POSTINGS
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:40 PM, BWS Johnson abesottedphoe...@yahoo.comwrote:
Research Analyst I
Royt's Treehouse
The prestigious Tennant's Treehouse is accepting applications for the
position of Research Analyst I for the Juniper Club Library. A
collaborative position in nature, the Research Analyst I will indenture
themselves to the library duhrector artisanally collecting redundant data
via Diebold-O-Tron. The Research Analyst I will be abused at any given
opportunity, be paid only in hard liquor, maintain all digital object
collections, regardless of relevance or irrelevance of said collection and
shepherd digital humanities projects, whatevertheheckthoseare.
The successful candidate will have 17 years experience in Koha despite
this being an entry level position that only freshly minted graduates may
apply to and that proficiency not possibly existing in this reality,
archiving meaningless discussion threads, ragging on royt at any given
opportunity, and collating mimeographs since we forgot to take this out of
our job description sometime when MARC was merely a glimmer in a data
nerd's eye. None of these skills relate in the slightest to counting votes,
but that's what HR told us, and ours is not to reason why.
We will not tell you where Royt's Treehouse is located since you are meant
to already know. As with conference, you were meant to apply for this post
prior to it making the rounds in your hemisphere, so if you are located
outside of the continental United States, too damn bad.
For further information, feel free to contact abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com,
where your email will fester in a pile since your résumé will be thrown out
for having a funny name or not matching spurious keywords.
All applicants are REQUIRED to have a beating a dead horse Code{4}Lib
t-shirt.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Jobs Digest - I definitely didn't rip off someone else's job posting
THIS IS NOT EXACTLY WHAT WE AGREED TO
On May 29, 2014 7:38 AM, Andreas Orphanides akorp...@ncsu.edu wrote:
YAY FULL JOB POSTINGS
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:40 PM, BWS Johnson abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com
wrote:
Research Analyst I
Royt's Treehouse
The prestigious Tennant's Treehouse is accepting applications for the
position of Research Analyst I for the Juniper Club Library. A
collaborative position in nature, the Research Analyst I will indenture
themselves to the library duhrector artisanally collecting redundant data
via Diebold-O-Tron. The Research Analyst I will be abused at any given
opportunity, be paid only in hard liquor, maintain all digital object
collections, regardless of relevance or irrelevance of said collection
and
shepherd digital humanities projects, whatevertheheckthoseare.
The successful candidate will have 17 years experience in Koha despite
this being an entry level position that only freshly minted graduates may
apply to and that proficiency not possibly existing in this reality,
archiving meaningless discussion threads, ragging on royt at any given
opportunity, and collating mimeographs since we forgot to take this out
of
our job description sometime when MARC was merely a glimmer in a data
nerd's eye. None of these skills relate in the slightest to counting
votes,
but that's what HR told us, and ours is not to reason why.
We will not tell you where Royt's Treehouse is located since you are
meant
to already know. As with conference, you were meant to apply for this
post
prior to it making the rounds in your hemisphere, so if you are located
outside of the continental United States, too damn bad.
For further information, feel free to contact abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com
,
where your email will fester in a pile since your résumé will be thrown
out
for having a funny name or not matching spurious keywords.
All applicants are REQUIRED to have a beating a dead horse Code{4}Lib
t-shirt.
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
You could do worse than an undergrad degree in pure math, especially if you're interested in doing hard CS at some point. In general, math gives you lots of good background for things like data and object structures, flow control, etc. Math is also really useful for framing the world as a series of problems to be solved, which is often productive in a work context, especially in areas like application development, tech services, etc. As others have mentioned, undergrad degrees in library science are not particularly useful. You might find an information science degree useful if you're interested in something like data analysis, text mining, hardcore metadata stuff, though. For a systems librarian gig, you might not even need a masters degree in LS or IS -- it depends on the institution -- though having a theoretical understanding of the principles behind library operations can be really handy. In the library jobs sphere, your actual on-the-ground experience ultimately matters a lot more than what it says on your transcript (except for the whole ALA-accredited degree required thing, as applicable). As long as you keep pursuing interesting projects and challenging yourself with the kinds of things that matter to libraries, it almost doesn't matter whether you get an undergrad degree in theater, math, comparative literature, whatever. But if you know the direction you want to go, and it interests you from an academic perspective, it'd be hard to go wrong with something like math, computer engineering, systems engineering, even chemistry. One valuable thing you can try to get through an undergrad degree is the ability to think about problems in some sort of formal way, so any pursuit that gives you a means to do that could be of value. Regarding liberal arts, you'd be surprised at how much a little background in language, history, art, etc., can inform your work in a science or engineering discipline. -dre. On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 7:38 AM, Ross Singer rossfsin...@gmail.com wrote: If you want to be a systems librarian, I wouldn't bother with the MLIS, honestly. Yes, it's still a requirement on a lot of job postings _now_, but more and more that's being dropped from systems roles in lieu of relevant experience. The other sad reality is that an entry level systems librarian position probably makes less than a developer or sysadmin position in the same department. Fwiw, I have no masters in anything, a BA in theatre (the BEST degree, but that's another thread), and have worked in library technology professionally for 20 years (oh, hey there, ravages of time). While not having an MLIS has kept me out of consideration for some jobs in the past, almost all of them just wanted a masters in _something_, which, in that case, get a masters in CS or CE. -Ross. On May 28, 2014 11:18 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] Jobs Digest - I definitely didn't rip off someone else's job posting
Is there anyone that found the original job postings to the list
actually MORE distracting and inconveniencing than the incessant
discussion of what to do about them?
Jonathan
On 5/29/14 7:44 AM, Ross Singer wrote:
THIS IS NOT EXACTLY WHAT WE AGREED TO
On May 29, 2014 7:38 AM, Andreas Orphanides akorp...@ncsu.edu wrote:
YAY FULL JOB POSTINGS
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:40 PM, BWS Johnson abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com
wrote:
Research Analyst I
Royt's Treehouse
The prestigious Tennant's Treehouse is accepting applications for the
position of Research Analyst I for the Juniper Club Library. A
collaborative position in nature, the Research Analyst I will indenture
themselves to the library duhrector artisanally collecting redundant data
via Diebold-O-Tron. The Research Analyst I will be abused at any given
opportunity, be paid only in hard liquor, maintain all digital object
collections, regardless of relevance or irrelevance of said collection
and
shepherd digital humanities projects, whatevertheheckthoseare.
The successful candidate will have 17 years experience in Koha despite
this being an entry level position that only freshly minted graduates may
apply to and that proficiency not possibly existing in this reality,
archiving meaningless discussion threads, ragging on royt at any given
opportunity, and collating mimeographs since we forgot to take this out
of
our job description sometime when MARC was merely a glimmer in a data
nerd's eye. None of these skills relate in the slightest to counting
votes,
but that's what HR told us, and ours is not to reason why.
We will not tell you where Royt's Treehouse is located since you are
meant
to already know. As with conference, you were meant to apply for this
post
prior to it making the rounds in your hemisphere, so if you are located
outside of the continental United States, too damn bad.
For further information, feel free to contact abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com
,
where your email will fester in a pile since your résumé will be thrown
out
for having a funny name or not matching spurious keywords.
All applicants are REQUIRED to have a beating a dead horse Code{4}Lib
t-shirt.
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley, First, I wonder if there's anyone on this list who doesn't wish they had your foresight! You already have rare opportunity in that you're thinking about this now and not in your mid-20s, so way to go! We spoke about this a little @ the c4l conference, but I'll say more. I majored in music performance and even did a masters in it as well, which means that practically speaking I have a high school education. :-) I don't really mean that, but until you've had the experience it's difficult to explain (or at least I find it difficult) how relevant a degree in the arts/humanities can be to a job in technology--and there's no shortage of people who have taken this exact path. I did do an MLS, but see above re: high school education. At the time (~13 yrs ago) I felt like I needed to do it to get a job (I also didn't necessarily expect to wind up in systems, but that's another story), but, honestly, everything I know I learned on the job, or /a/ job, or the overnight hours between going to said job, which leads me to my point: Wherever you go to school, and regardless of your major, if you ultimately want to wind up working in a library, you should start now. Any brick and mortar university is going to have student jobs available (work study or otherwise) at the library, and while it may just be as a desk clerk or whatever, keep your ears open (we already know you're not shy): at some point there's going to be some stats that need munging, some Access (or even worse) database that needs migration, some web work to be done, or whatever and, et voilà, you're off! The point is, professional degree != professional experience, and--frankly--you probably don't want to be working at a place that requires a systems librarian to have a MLIS anyway, and certainly not in 4-5 years. Get as much experience as possible, do a CS degree, but also learn how to write and communicate OR do an arts degree, but also learn how to program (etc.), and you'll be fine. -Jon On 05/28/2014 11:17 PM, Riley Childs wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
My undergrad degree is in English, and it actually has come in handy at times. Good communication is important, regardless of what you end up doing. If I could do it again, I'd seriously consider informatics - but I didn't know it was a thing until I started library school. http://www.soic.indiana.edu/informatics/ As far as IT, I learned a lot from the tech-support job I had right out of college, and after that I'm self-taught. I imagine it's a steeper learning curve than if I had some sort of tech degree. If you're going for an ML(I)S, major in whatever interests you. Librarians come from all kinds of backgrounds. In my class there were a ton of English and History degrees, but we also had people with degrees in astrophysics, soil science, and accounting. Laura C. Henry, MLS Assistant Systems Librarian Beaufort County Library 311 Scott Street, Beaufort, SC 29902 Phone 843.255.6444 lhe...@bcgov.net www.beaufortcountylibrary.org For Learning ♦ For Leisure ♦ For Life -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Amy Drayer Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:50 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Dear Riley et al: I was thinking the same thing as Coral. I have a humanities undergrad degree; a computer science oriented degree would certainly have been beneficial, especially with an emphasis on network and server administration, or even web development depending on your interest (as a systems librarian I also managed the website and catalog). The library-oriented education can wait until grad school. Honestly, I think we come from a variety of backgrounds. My liberal arts foundation works for me (I feel my education was well rounded in a way a science or IT degree may not have been), but I would definitely have wanted some more technical classes such as I mentioned above if I had known I would be in this field. In peace, Amy In peace, Amy M. Drayer, MLIS Senior IT Specialist, Web Developer amost...@gmail.com http://www.puzumaki.com On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:24 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess co...@sheldon-hess.org wrote: Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want librarians to have the MLIS. And what if you change your mind after a few years and don't want to get the masters? Do something you could get a career in--or work in, part time, to afford the MLIS. If you want to be a systems librarian, why not get a degree in systems engineering or IT? (Seriously, there are degrees in IThttp://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=332now, what a world!) Computer science wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind theory, and you can get some good foundational stuff that will help with the information science part of libraries and information science. The school where I got my MLIS had an Information Science department that was mostly IT, too. So, that's a possibility. -- Coral Sheldon-Hess http://sheldon-hess.org/coral @web_kunoichi On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley - Here's my question to you: WHY do you want to be a systems librarian? And even more specifically, why a systems librarian and not just an IT person? What do you think a systems librarian does all day? The title is as varied as other any job title in library world -- I'm a systems librarian and I can name at least half a dozen other system librarians who have wholly different job duties than I do yet we all have the same title. What do you _really_ want to do and not do? Now on to Ross: On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 7:38 AM, Ross Singer rossfsin...@gmail.com wrote: If you want to be a systems librarian, I wouldn't bother with the MLIS, honestly. Yes, it's still a requirement on a lot of job postings _now_, but more and more that's being dropped from systems roles in lieu of relevant experience. I mostly agree with this, but it will vary from market to market and industry to industry. The other sad reality is that an entry level systems librarian position probably makes less than a developer or sysadmin position in the same department. As someone fairly new in the field, and in her first position out of school, it varies from market to market and industry to industry. I'm a systems librarian at a community college in a mid-sized city and I make $62K. Other job postings I've seen have ranged from $35-80K -- but cost of living, location, industry, experience, and more add whether or not you're going to have hookers and blow lifestyle. Fwiw, I have no masters in anything, a BA in theatre (the BEST degree, but that's another thread), and have worked in library technology professionally for 20 years (oh, hey there, ravages of time). While not having an MLIS has kept me out of consideration for some jobs in the past, almost all of them just wanted a masters in _something_, which, in that case, get a masters in CS or CE. To reiterate Ross' point about experience -- I worked as a network engineer for nearly a decade before dumping it all and going back to undergrad and doing a double major in English/Art History, then on to two masters (one in humanities and then my MLIS). I took some unix classes while my first foray into college and loved it as well as some programming classes and hated those. During my networking career, I was working on my CCIE but everything I learned was either self-study or on the job training and experience. I wouldn't have had it any other way. (Interestingly, when I graduated from undergrad, I couldn't get hired for beans in any field I was applying because it was assumed I was going to jump ship back to tech, which wasn't the case.Which is why I went on a Masters obtaining spree. But in the long run, my having two masters means I can command more money in academia so hey, it worked out in the end.) YMMV. -- Lisa M. Rabey | @pnkrcklibrarian http://exitpursuedbyabear.net | http://lisa.rabey.net
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
My advise is to get the broadest possible liberal arts education you can as an undergrad. I went through some big changes in my sophomore year that set me on a mission to seek that path at the University of Michigan, a huge school which, at least in in that era, seemed to be focused on prepping undergrads for their grad school paths. The path I chose was not easy, and the school was little help, although a lot of my profs were very helpful in guiding me. Really, even a surgeon can benefit from Russian lit, a poet can occasionally draw on organic chemistry, and an attorney can build a case for differential equations. Librarians, of course, need to know everything. Cary On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I highly recommend a Physics degree. 1) not as many required courses as engineering so more electives, more opportunities to study the important Russian Literature you might need as a surgeon :) 2) heavy math, heavy computer science but in a solve-a-problem sense, not in a maintain-a-server sense which gets out of date quickly 3) fascinating stuff in class 4) people who graduated with me went on to PhDs but others went on to do MDs, law degrees, and some started work immediately as computer scientists :) Christina, BS, MLS Oh, and adding a BS after your name is fun, too! -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 11:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I have an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from a college they had a strong liberal arts curriculum. I also took many credits in computer science, religion, philosophy, and communications. Others have said this earlier in this thread, but I highly recommend whatever you do decided to get a degree in, that you make sure you get a well-rounded liberal arts eduction. This is especially helpful in a library setting where you will be interacting with people from all different academic disciplines; Having a little background goes a long way. I'd also recommend a school where you are able to (easily) have significant interaction with full-time faculty and not have many or most of your courses taught by adjuncts or doctoral students. It is not that adjuncts and doctoral students can not be excellent teachers (in fact some of the best professors I have had were adjuncts) but the connections and the help navigating your way into grad school (should you choose to go in that direction after you receive your bachelors degree) will be valuable. If I were to do it all over again and had the resources and grades, I would go to a highly ranked smaller liberal arts college and get a well-rounded education (probably would still major in math) for an undergraduate degree and than go to a highly ranked graduate program at a research university (most likely a PhD program). I guess that isn't much different than I did, except for the PhD part, but my undergrad degree wasn't from the highest ranked school ever, even if it was a good school. FWIW: I also have a MLS and unlike some people, I thought it was an extremely useful and worthwhile degree (but that is another topic). Edward On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Pikas, Christina K. christina.pi...@jhuapl.edu wrote: I highly recommend a Physics degree. 1) not as many required courses as engineering so more electives, more opportunities to study the important Russian Literature you might need as a surgeon :) 2) heavy math, heavy computer science but in a solve-a-problem sense, not in a maintain-a-server sense which gets out of date quickly 3) fascinating stuff in class 4) people who graduated with me went on to PhDs but others went on to do MDs, law degrees, and some started work immediately as computer scientists :) Christina, BS, MLS Oh, and adding a BS after your name is fun, too! -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 11:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I'd echo what others have said and say either CS/CSE or MIS/IT. You might want to make that choice depending on the school you go to--my undergrad's MIS program is fantastic but I know a lot of people weren't as happy with the CS department. I'd also like to +1 what Lisa said about what you want to do as a systems librarian. I worked as a systems librarian in a public library and I most definitely did not need a CS degree, but MIS or IT would have been very useful. Look at job postings, see what sounds like what you want to do, and then go from there. Also see what you like in terms of classes! You might find the CS theory stuff less interesting than more hands-on type IT work, or you might fall in love with Physics (you can always grab a minor in CS, since there's quite a bit of overlap for the gen eds). I also wouldn't completely ignore the liberal arts--if you want to work in libraries, being able to communicate with your co-workers and with patrons is VERY important. While you might get a job that's just IT or programming work all day, more than likely you will have to interact with non-tech people. Being able to coherently express yourself, and being able to break things down for people, is crucial to having a good working relationship with your co-workers. At my public job, I was also the person who more often than not helped patrons with their tech questions, from computer trouble shooting to setting up an iTunes account, to even helping someone build a website once. For the record, I was a history undergrad who took a few CS courses, who then got an MLIS and took a few more CS/IT/Tech courses. I work at a university, which means I have the benefit of being able to take free classes (which I plan to take advantage of to take some MORE CS classes :-D). Good luck! -Maura On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Pikas, Christina K. christina.pi...@jhuapl.edu wrote: I highly recommend a Physics degree. 1) not as many required courses as engineering so more electives, more opportunities to study the important Russian Literature you might need as a surgeon :) 2) heavy math, heavy computer science but in a solve-a-problem sense, not in a maintain-a-server sense which gets out of date quickly 3) fascinating stuff in class 4) people who graduated with me went on to PhDs but others went on to do MDs, law degrees, and some started work immediately as computer scientists :) Christina, BS, MLS Oh, and adding a BS after your name is fun, too! -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 11:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes -- Maura Carbone Digital Initiatives Librarian Brandeis University Library and Technology Services (781) 736-4659 415 South Street, (MS 017/P.O. Box 549110) Waltham, MA 02454-9110 email: mau...@brandeis.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley, ’m one of the more over-degreed individuals around here, having a B, M, and now a Dr. all in music, which means I know next to nothing! I do also have masters in information science which *really* means I know next to nothing. Having held a couple of systems librarian jobs, I can truly say that nothing I learned in my 4 degrees in higher education came into any direct use on the job. What your higher education should be is lesson in how to teach yourself, and to understand that learning is never complete nor ever finished. A computer science background might have helped me, but that just means I have a little catching up to do. Thankfully, there are a lot of brilliant people in this community to help me out with that. …adam On May 28, 2014, at 23:17, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I have a BS in telecommunications, a minor in CS, and an additional master's in information science. All of which have been extremely helpful in learning programming and usability. However, I believe its worthwhile to also pursue what you're passionate about that aren't related to technology, such as art, music, or literature. I suggest studying something you're truly interested in, and if you have a background in computers, to get a CS or related minor or major. I also agree with others that a bachelor's in library science probably isn't that useful. Also, a lot of institutions offer dual-degree programs where you can concurrently work towards a MLS and another master's degree. Best, Junior Tidal Assistant Professor Web Services and Multimedia Librarian New York City College of Technology, CUNY 300 Jay Street, Rm A434 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.260.5481 http://library.citytech.cuny.edu Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com 5/29/2014 1:16 AM I was planing to major in CS or CE, but I am not sure. At c4l I was told by several people to not major in LS, some people said I need a masters from a university, some said an online degree would work. I am really not sure, hopefully more peope will pickup this thread in the morning! Riley Childs Junior IT Admin email: rchi...@cucawarriors.com office: +1 (704) 537-0031 x101 cell: +1 (704) 497-2086 Please Think Before Hitting Reply All I Do Web Design! RileyChilds.net/services From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Coral Sheldon-Hess [co...@sheldon-hess.org] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:24 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want librarians to have the MLIS. And what if you change your mind after a few years and don't want to get the masters? Do something you could get a career in--or work in, part time, to afford the MLIS. If you want to be a systems librarian, why not get a degree in systems engineering or IT? (Seriously, there are degrees in IThttp://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=332now, what a world!) Computer science wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind theory, and you can get some good foundational stuff that will help with the information science part of libraries and information science. The school where I got my MLIS had an Information Science department that was mostly IT, too. So, that's a possibility. -- Coral Sheldon-Hess http://sheldon-hess.org/coral @web_kunoichi On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.comwrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... �� Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I think you'll find tech-oriented librarians come from a variety of backgrounds. What we have in common is a sense of actionable curiosity, and we all seem to enjoy breaking things (I think, because we learn so much putting them back together). My programming background is entirely self-taught. A.S. Galvan Digital Reformatting Specialist Head, Interlibrary Services The Ohio State University Health Sciences Library angela.gal...@osumc.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:17 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was planing to major in CS or CE, but I am not sure. At c4l I was told by several people to not major in LS, some people said I need a masters from a university, some said an online degree would work. I am really not sure, hopefully more peope will pickup this thread in the morning! Riley Childs Junior IT Admin email: rchi...@cucawarriors.com office: +1 (704) 537-0031 x101 cell: +1 (704) 497-2086 Please Think Before Hitting Reply All I Do Web Design! RileyChilds.net/services From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Coral Sheldon-Hess [co...@sheldon-hess.org] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:24 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want librarians to have the MLIS. And what if you change your mind after a few years and don't want to get the masters? Do something you could get a career in--or work in, part time, to afford the MLIS. If you want to be a systems librarian, why not get a degree in systems engineering or IT? (Seriously, there are degrees in IThttps://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p%3D332k=ux7ohqYFcw1oDo0gOpSLlw%3D%3D%0Ar=HqiqdHpLzxsCxTpfRs%2BH92aFduchN66GvuvqPRSJHl0%3D%0Am=ZwG%2BuLbfPg7XJb1U2%2Ft2osb15P6XGq0pT4ZmDGPifrE%3D%0As=1c46fbbab48513bdf9ffd4910f8a013f1eefbab1623735277eef3bbc9f3edf31now, what a world!) Computer science wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind theory, and you can get some good foundational stuff that will help with the information science part of libraries and information science. The school where I got my MLIS had an Information Science department that was mostly IT, too. So, that's a possibility. -- Coral Sheldon-Hess https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://sheldon-hess.org/coralk=ux7ohqYFcw1oDo0gOpSLlw%3D%3D%0Ar=HqiqdHpLzxsCxTpfRs%2BH92aFduchN66GvuvqPRSJHl0%3D%0Am=ZwG%2BuLbfPg7XJb1U2%2Ft2osb15P6XGq0pT4ZmDGPifrE%3D%0As=efd8c0dbf465e713c7270cf6156e9c88716e6a15267da3c94f6aa058594c6c98 @web_kunoichi On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.comwrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
On 29 May 2014 22:44, Jon Stroop jstr...@princeton.edu wrote: Riley, First, I wonder if there's anyone on this list who doesn't wish they had your foresight! You already have rare opportunity in that you're thinking about this now and not in your mid-20s, so way to go! Heh, hear hear. My own background was in IT with a degree in data communications (network engineering, effectively). I did that for about eight years, ending up in management accounting, before deciding to refocus on LIS and taking a Master's degree in it. I second the rest of the advice to get as broad an education as you can. In hiring, I'll generally favour people who have done interesting and varied things throughout their career, as opposed to someone who has laser-like focused on a single field. No position is going to be entirely in the one field, so by diversifying you're going to increase the potential number of positions you're qualified for. Cheers, Craig
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley, I have an BA in Anthropology and Music from a small liberal arts school as well as my MLS and MS in Information Management from Syracuse University While I sometime wish I took the computer science path, there are just as many other times when I'm super grateful for my cultural anthropology background. IMHO, if you are going to build systems that work well you need to understand your user's needs. How the system is going to be part of their lives. Good troubleshooting can benefit from this thinking as well. Studying and watching people in their lives is a big part of cultural anthropology. Being able to know how to do ethnography and put on that hat when building systems has been a godsend. I feel like the another virtue of my liberal arts education was the fact I had to develop general critical thinking and analytical skills which I find invaluable in my career. Whatever you degree you choose to get, get real world practical experience as much as possible. Every internship I've had has been worth its weight in gold. Through one I found out what I DIDN'T want to do which saved me countless $$s and time. Best of luck, Karen On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Maura Carbone mau...@brandeis.edu wrote: I'd echo what others have said and say either CS/CSE or MIS/IT. You might want to make that choice depending on the school you go to--my undergrad's MIS program is fantastic but I know a lot of people weren't as happy with the CS department. I'd also like to +1 what Lisa said about what you want to do as a systems librarian. I worked as a systems librarian in a public library and I most definitely did not need a CS degree, but MIS or IT would have been very useful. Look at job postings, see what sounds like what you want to do, and then go from there. Also see what you like in terms of classes! You might find the CS theory stuff less interesting than more hands-on type IT work, or you might fall in love with Physics (you can always grab a minor in CS, since there's quite a bit of overlap for the gen eds). I also wouldn't completely ignore the liberal arts--if you want to work in libraries, being able to communicate with your co-workers and with patrons is VERY important. While you might get a job that's just IT or programming work all day, more than likely you will have to interact with non-tech people. Being able to coherently express yourself, and being able to break things down for people, is crucial to having a good working relationship with your co-workers. At my public job, I was also the person who more often than not helped patrons with their tech questions, from computer trouble shooting to setting up an iTunes account, to even helping someone build a website once. For the record, I was a history undergrad who took a few CS courses, who then got an MLIS and took a few more CS/IT/Tech courses. I work at a university, which means I have the benefit of being able to take free classes (which I plan to take advantage of to take some MORE CS classes :-D). Good luck! -Maura On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Pikas, Christina K. christina.pi...@jhuapl.edu wrote: I highly recommend a Physics degree. 1) not as many required courses as engineering so more electives, more opportunities to study the important Russian Literature you might need as a surgeon :) 2) heavy math, heavy computer science but in a solve-a-problem sense, not in a maintain-a-server sense which gets out of date quickly 3) fascinating stuff in class 4) people who graduated with me went on to PhDs but others went on to do MDs, law degrees, and some started work immediately as computer scientists :) Christina, BS, MLS Oh, and adding a BS after your name is fun, too! -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 11:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes -- Maura Carbone Digital Initiatives Librarian Brandeis University Library and Technology Services (781) 736-4659 415 South Street, (MS 017/P.O. Box 549110) Waltham, MA 02454-9110 email: mau...@brandeis.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley, Like many others here, I came from the humanities and stumbled into this line of work. I have BAs in philosophy and religion. There were virtually zero job opportunities with those degrees, so for various reasons I did an MLS program and at the same time got an entry-level IT job, and from there I have just learned through experience and self-teaching. If I could go back, I would definitely have majored in something computer-science related. There are usually (at least) two tracks of computer science offered at schools: the hard computer science that learns about the inner workings of processors, languages, etc, and the applied computer science that focuses on learning how to design software or administer systems. Personally, I would definitely lean towards the applied branch. As a systems librarian, I don't need to know how to write a kernel or anything, I just need to know how to write web apps and actually do stuff with the computer. Also, there is a pretty huge chance that by the time you get to the end of college you will have changed your mind several times about what kind of career you want. A degree related to software development or systems administration pretty much guarantees you job security _forever_ in the event that you are no longer interested in library work. And, as others have stated, under no circumstances should you major in library science as an undergrad. You can't do anything with that degree except library work, so you have effectively pigeonholed yourself in the event that you are not interested in libraries in the future. There is a strong sentiment among many librarians that even the MLS degree is of questionable value, and an undergraduate library science degree is even more questionable. I'd say get an IT- or CS-related bachelor's degree, and later _if_ you are still interested in working in libraries, _consider_ getting an MLS degree. Something to keep in mind is that you make a lot more money in an entry-level programming job with just a BA as you would in an entry-level librarian job with an MLS. At least in the Midwest, programmer salaries typically start in the $50k range, and library jobs pay something in the low $40k range for professional librarian positions and somewhere between $18k - $30k for a paraprofessional staff job. And then you also have to pay off student loans for the MLS. In perspective, my (very cheap) MLS cost about $20,000, and my loan payments for a 10-year payment plan are $240/month or $2880/year. And that is on top of whatever debt you incur as an undergrad. As far as which school, I'd just look for an affordable public university that has smallish class sizes. IMO the big-wig Ivy-League type schools are good for graduate studies because you get to study with leading scholars, but as an undergrad you will probably be taking classes with TAs and adjuncts. The massive amount of debt you will incur at those schools is not worth the extra bit of prestige that will come from your degree. You want a school that has an established program in your field of study and not huge class sizes. Look for somewhere with 3 or more CS profs and class sizes less than 20 if possible. All my best learning in college occurred when I got to interact with my profs, and that is a lot easier when they don't have 100 other students competing for their time. Well this message got long. Sorry for the textwall. Josh Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022 -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
This is a great thread. I've always been impressed every time I read Riley's signature. My hunch is you're in for a great and successful ride, no matter the particular path. Brian Zelip --- MS Student, Graduate School of Library Information Science Graduate Assistant, University Library's Scholarly Commons University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign zelip.me On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Karen Coombs librarywebc...@gmail.com wrote: Riley, I have an BA in Anthropology and Music from a small liberal arts school as well as my MLS and MS in Information Management from Syracuse University While I sometime wish I took the computer science path, there are just as many other times when I'm super grateful for my cultural anthropology background. IMHO, if you are going to build systems that work well you need to understand your user's needs. How the system is going to be part of their lives. Good troubleshooting can benefit from this thinking as well. Studying and watching people in their lives is a big part of cultural anthropology. Being able to know how to do ethnography and put on that hat when building systems has been a godsend. I feel like the another virtue of my liberal arts education was the fact I had to develop general critical thinking and analytical skills which I find invaluable in my career. Whatever you degree you choose to get, get real world practical experience as much as possible. Every internship I've had has been worth its weight in gold. Through one I found out what I DIDN'T want to do which saved me countless $$s and time. Best of luck, Karen On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Maura Carbone mau...@brandeis.edu wrote: I'd echo what others have said and say either CS/CSE or MIS/IT. You might want to make that choice depending on the school you go to--my undergrad's MIS program is fantastic but I know a lot of people weren't as happy with the CS department. I'd also like to +1 what Lisa said about what you want to do as a systems librarian. I worked as a systems librarian in a public library and I most definitely did not need a CS degree, but MIS or IT would have been very useful. Look at job postings, see what sounds like what you want to do, and then go from there. Also see what you like in terms of classes! You might find the CS theory stuff less interesting than more hands-on type IT work, or you might fall in love with Physics (you can always grab a minor in CS, since there's quite a bit of overlap for the gen eds). I also wouldn't completely ignore the liberal arts--if you want to work in libraries, being able to communicate with your co-workers and with patrons is VERY important. While you might get a job that's just IT or programming work all day, more than likely you will have to interact with non-tech people. Being able to coherently express yourself, and being able to break things down for people, is crucial to having a good working relationship with your co-workers. At my public job, I was also the person who more often than not helped patrons with their tech questions, from computer trouble shooting to setting up an iTunes account, to even helping someone build a website once. For the record, I was a history undergrad who took a few CS courses, who then got an MLIS and took a few more CS/IT/Tech courses. I work at a university, which means I have the benefit of being able to take free classes (which I plan to take advantage of to take some MORE CS classes :-D). Good luck! -Maura On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Pikas, Christina K. christina.pi...@jhuapl.edu wrote: I highly recommend a Physics degree. 1) not as many required courses as engineering so more electives, more opportunities to study the important Russian Literature you might need as a surgeon :) 2) heavy math, heavy computer science but in a solve-a-problem sense, not in a maintain-a-server sense which gets out of date quickly 3) fascinating stuff in class 4) people who graduated with me went on to PhDs but others went on to do MDs, law degrees, and some started work immediately as computer scientists :) Christina, BS, MLS Oh, and adding a BS after your name is fun, too! -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 11:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety
[CODE4LIB] mailing list administratativia
This is some mailing list administratativia.* Buried deep in the dark (unindexed by Google) Web is a paragraph describing the purpose of the Code4Lib mailing list: The purpose of the Code4Lib mailing is to provide a forum for discussing the use of computers in libraries, usually in the form of writing software. Example topics include but are not limited to the strengths and weaknesses of particular protocols or computer applications, the use of those protocols or applications to address library problems, the sharing of cool (or kewl) hacks, position and conference announcements, etc. [1] Nobody is more concerned about the noise to signal ratio on this list than me, the list’s owner. The Code4Lib community has traditionally been rather hands-off when it comes to governance. And consequently strict policies have been kept to a minimum, if not nonexistent. We are humans, and with that come all sorts of beauties as well as blemishes. We must both embrace and accept this. I tend to be a “let a thousand flowers bloom” kind of guy ^h^h^h^h person. So I am able to tolerate seemingly off-topic threads. But when people start sending me messages and when people start unsubscribing to the list, then I know something is a bit off kilter. Believe it or not, I read each and every post that comes across the wire. Such is my responsibility. Now that we seem to be on track again, I am more relaxed. In short, this is a gentle reminder to stay on topic, most of the time. * Apparently “administratativia” is a word of my own design because a search of it in Google returns only postings I’ve written. No wonder my spell checker doesn’t like it. [1] description - http://dh.crc.nd.edu/sandbox/mailing-lists/code4lib/ — Eric Lease Morgan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and Koha
You can export your records from Koha in marc or xml format by using the `Export bibliographic and holdings` option in the tools module in the staff client (quick tutorial here: http://bywatersolutions.com/2012/07/04/exporting-marc-records-in-koha-3-8/). For 1 bib records you should be able to do it in one shot. This is all for hosted Koha installs, if you are running your own, you should be able to run an export.pl script from the terminal. With the .mrc file, it's pretty much ready to go to upload into a fresh install of Blacklight with a rake task. So it's totally doable. -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Justin Coyne Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:20 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and Koha If you can get the records from Koha in any format. It's not difficult to import them to Solr. When you get Blacklight set up you can do: Blacklight.solr.add(id: 12345, title_t: One flew over the cuckoo's nest, author_t: Ken Kesey) Blacklight.solr.commit And you've added your first record into solr. Feel free to ask more on the blackight-development google group or #blacklight on IRC. -Justin On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 10:21 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.comwrote: Does anybody have any direction about how to get koha export to solr so it can be utilized by black light, server power is not an issue (if needed I can dedicate one to it). Has anyone done this if so...benefits, disadvantages? We have a collection of 1 books (small but growing). Honestly this is just something to do as a learning experience, but if I commit, I commit! Thx! //Riley Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] Jobs Digest - I definitely didn't rip off someone else's job posting
Yes. Job postings are quite similar to one another (expect for the
Tennant's Treehouse posting of course). Discussions can be more interesting
and diverse :)
Uldis
On 29 May 2014 15:34, Jonathan Rochkind rochk...@jhu.edu wrote:
Is there anyone that found the original job postings to the list actually
MORE distracting and inconveniencing than the incessant discussion of what
to do about them?
Jonathan
On 5/29/14 7:44 AM, Ross Singer wrote:
THIS IS NOT EXACTLY WHAT WE AGREED TO
On May 29, 2014 7:38 AM, Andreas Orphanides akorp...@ncsu.edu wrote:
YAY FULL JOB POSTINGS
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:40 PM, BWS Johnson
abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com
wrote:
Research Analyst I
Royt's Treehouse
The prestigious Tennant's Treehouse is accepting applications for the
position of Research Analyst I for the Juniper Club Library. A
collaborative position in nature, the Research Analyst I will indenture
themselves to the library duhrector artisanally collecting redundant
data
via Diebold-O-Tron. The Research Analyst I will be abused at any given
opportunity, be paid only in hard liquor, maintain all digital object
collections, regardless of relevance or irrelevance of said collection
and
shepherd digital humanities projects, whatevertheheckthoseare.
The successful candidate will have 17 years experience in Koha despite
this being an entry level position that only freshly minted graduates
may
apply to and that proficiency not possibly existing in this reality,
archiving meaningless discussion threads, ragging on royt at any given
opportunity, and collating mimeographs since we forgot to take this out
of
our job description sometime when MARC was merely a glimmer in a data
nerd's eye. None of these skills relate in the slightest to counting
votes,
but that's what HR told us, and ours is not to reason why.
We will not tell you where Royt's Treehouse is located since you are
meant
to already know. As with conference, you were meant to apply for this
post
prior to it making the rounds in your hemisphere, so if you are located
outside of the continental United States, too damn bad.
For further information, feel free to contact
abesottedphoe...@yahoo.com
,
where your email will fester in a pile since your résumé will be thrown
out
for having a funny name or not matching spurious keywords.
All applicants are REQUIRED to have a beating a dead horse Code{4}Lib
t-shirt.
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley, Don't major in Library Science. As an undergrad degree it's worthless and you'll just have to take the same type of courses for a Masters. You'll miss the chance to broaden your skill set. As an undergrad either major in IT, CS, CE or the like and then minor in something in the Humanities. Something with plenty of writing and speaking. Good communication skills are essential in all professional positions. Or you could do the opposite, major in something in the Humanities and minor in something that will cover networks, coding, databases, and so on. As for scholarships, talk to your HS guidance counselor. They often have access to lots of resources. Also talk to the admissions and student aid office at the college, if they want you they'll often be willing to help you. Community colleges often have great resources for scholarship info, if you have access to one take advantage of them. Your local public library may have a strong collection in that area, wouldn't hurt to ask. As a junior you have some time to investigate. It's good you've started school visits. Your local public library or school may offer test prep courses for free. If you are taking the SAT again this Fall it might be worthwhile to take advantage of this. Have fun with the process, its work, but it is exciting, so many possibilities to choose from. Sincerely, David Bigwood dbigw...@hou.usra.edu Lunar and Planetary Institute http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/ @LPI_Library -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:17 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! I was planing to major in CS or CE, but I am not sure. At c4l I was told by several people to not major in LS, some people said I need a masters from a university, some said an online degree would work. I am really not sure, hopefully more peope will pickup this thread in the morning! Riley Childs Junior IT Admin email: rchi...@cucawarriors.com office: +1 (704) 537-0031 x101 cell: +1 (704) 497-2086
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I wouldn't knock a liberal arts education, especially based only on high school experience. It's sort of the point of college: to be able to learn and understand about a wide range of fields and subjects. Otherwise you might as well go to trade school. College isn't just about getting a job when you graduate, but about learning how to think and understand different perspectives. And liberal arts includes the sciences, which I think people tend to forget. We think oh, liberal arts are the arts and humanities but they really encompass every school and department in a university. And as other people have mentioned, there are key skills you can learn from courses in English, anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology, etc. This is where you learn to write, to communicate effectively, to understand how people think (user experience, anyone?). These are all crucial skills that separate leaders and those who are more successful in their fields from those who are not. I'm not saying you can ONLY learn these skills in college, from a liberal arts education, but it sure helps. I also don't think there's anything wrong at all with going to a trade school or whatever we call them these days, and learning a skill set outside of the realm of a liberal arts education. It really depends on what you want to do and how fast you want to get to doing it. Laura [image: Laura Krier on about.me] Laura Krier about.me/laurakrier http://about.me/laurakrier On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:11 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com wrote: From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Laura Krier [laura.kr...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:22 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Hi Riley, Congrats on starting college in the fall! If you like to learn, college is pretty much the best place ever. College next fall, but almost there, pretty scary :) I second others in not necessarily recommending a bachelors in library/ information science. I would actually suggest computer science if you're at all skilled with math and logic. You'll probably have the best post-graduate opportunities even if you change your mind about libraries. But make sure you get a well-rounded liberal arts education. Take advantage of gen ed courses to study things outside of your major whenever you can. All people are served well by having a broad base of knowledge, in my opinion. And you'll need solid writing skills no matter what you do in life so make sure you practice those every chance you get. :-) I am meh on liberal arts, my high school is Liberal Arts and I really don't like it Basically, as long as you learn to be a lifelong learner, it doesn't really matter what you major in I think. You'll always have to learn new things anyway. Congratulations again! Laura PS- To more directly answer your question, I majored in literature and women's studies in college. Now I'm a web services librarian. I kind of wish I had a more solid computer science background but I'm still able to learn what I need to. Sent from my iPhone On May 28, 2014, at 9:49 PM, Amy Drayer amost...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Riley et al: I was thinking the same thing as Coral. I have a humanities undergrad degree; a computer science oriented degree would certainly have been beneficial, especially with an emphasis on network and server administration, or even web development depending on your interest (as a systems librarian I also managed the website and catalog). The library-oriented education can wait until grad school. Honestly, I think we come from a variety of backgrounds. My liberal arts foundation works for me (I feel my education was well rounded in a way a science or IT degree may not have been), but I would definitely have wanted some more technical classes such as I mentioned above if I had known I would be in this field. In peace, Amy In peace, Amy M. Drayer, MLIS Senior IT Specialist, Web Developer amost...@gmail.com http://www.puzumaki.com On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:24 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess co...@sheldon-hess.org wrote: Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want librarians to have the MLIS. And what if you change your mind after a few years and don't want to get the masters? Do something you could get a career in--or work in, part time, to afford the MLIS. If you want to be a systems librarian, why not get a degree in systems engineering or IT? (Seriously, there are degrees in IThttp://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=332now, what a world!) Computer science wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind theory, and you can get some good foundational stuff that will help with
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
This thread has been really interesting, and has hit on most of the things I might want to say. I've been working in libraries for about 45 years now, and have seen a lot of change. A couple of points bear emphasizing, though, from the point of view of someone who has taught in library school, worked in a number of different libraries, and seen a LOT of change. I started out in the days of typed/printed catalog cards, which should tell you something. One of the things I've loved about working in libraries is that pretty much everyone had a different start, with all kinds of undergraduate majors and specializations. Mine was in TV/Radio, and I only know one other person with that specialty, but it worked well for me in that I'm not afraid of microphones or big audiences (though in the late 60's and early 70's there were no jobs in that field for women). I ended up working full time in the library at Syracuse (I have both a B.S. and M.L.S. from there) as I was finishing up my undergraduate requirements, then moved to Boston and worked at Boston College and MIT libraries, for a total of about 4 years of library staff experience, in a broad array of departments. I worked full time at SU again (3 years) for my master's, again doing a lot of different jobs. What I learned from that is the benefit of postponing specialization for as long as you can, getting as much hand's on experience as possible before you finish your degree and 'declare' yourself. I agree with those who suggested that you choose your undergraduate major based on what floats your boat, but also take opportunities to learn as much as you can outside that major, including a solid grounding in the liberal arts. I started as a cataloger and ended up as a systems librarian, now I do a lot of different things (working with someone without any degrees but a fierce need and ability to learn anything he wants to know). I still think an MLS is a good thing, if for no other reason than the people you meet and what they teach you as anything else. There's also a cultural component to being a librarian that is not to be sneezed at--think about open access and copyright and privacy and how librarians are a big part of all those issues. My MLS courses were pretty terrible--that era was not a good one for library schools--but they've improved considerably since then and the good ones have broadened their scope around information architecture, data, etc., recognizing that they're not necessarily training people for libraries only. I've spent a lot of time around academic computer science types, and sadly have rarely been impressed with them and how they've been taught to think. I also wonder how relevant a degree or specialization in that area would 'age' over time--how useful would that education be twenty (or 40!) years from now? There are lots of technical things I wish I knew more about, but I'm usually better off finding out about them myself rather than consider formal classes or degrees. Diane On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 10:12 AM, Brian Zelip bze...@gmail.com wrote: This is a great thread. I've always been impressed every time I read Riley's signature. My hunch is you're in for a great and successful ride, no matter the particular path. Brian Zelip --- MS Student, Graduate School of Library Information Science Graduate Assistant, University Library's Scholarly Commons University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign zelip.me On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Karen Coombs librarywebc...@gmail.com wrote: Riley, I have an BA in Anthropology and Music from a small liberal arts school as well as my MLS and MS in Information Management from Syracuse University While I sometime wish I took the computer science path, there are just as many other times when I'm super grateful for my cultural anthropology background. IMHO, if you are going to build systems that work well you need to understand your user's needs. How the system is going to be part of their lives. Good troubleshooting can benefit from this thinking as well. Studying and watching people in their lives is a big part of cultural anthropology. Being able to know how to do ethnography and put on that hat when building systems has been a godsend. I feel like the another virtue of my liberal arts education was the fact I had to develop general critical thinking and analytical skills which I find invaluable in my career. Whatever you degree you choose to get, get real world practical experience as much as possible. Every internship I've had has been worth its weight in gold. Through one I found out what I DIDN'T want to do which saved me countless $$s and time. Best of luck, Karen On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Maura Carbone mau...@brandeis.edu wrote: I'd echo what others have said and say either CS/CSE or MIS/IT. You might want to make that choice depending on the school you go to--my undergrad's MIS program is
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
+1 - tho it may seem self-serving as an instructor in an LIS program … but do I agree with Diane, that an MA in LIS is still a valuable degree, due in large part to the professional values of librarianship, that [good] MA programs try to instill. I also agree with Diane that one of the things that makes librarianship interesting is that people come to it from so many backgrounds - so, yes, do pursue what you like in undergrad! (even if saying so makes it plain that I went to college in the 1970s) I am from the wanted-to-be-an-artist, got-an-art-history-degree, worked-in-restaurants-for-15-years path to librarianship, which meant that I wound up a photo archivist and library school instructor teaching web design, org of info and metadata. Not bad. We also try to make technology emphasis in our program (UW-Madison) be on how people use technology, not just tech for tech's sake. deb dsshap...@wisc.edu Debra Shapiro UW-Madison SLIS Helen C. White Hall, Rm. 4282 600 N. Park St. Madison WI 53706 608 262 9195 mobile 608 712 6368 FAX 608 263 4849 On May 29, 2014, at 9:49 AM, Diane Hillmann metadata.ma...@gmail.com wrote: This thread has been really interesting, and has hit on most of the things I might want to say. I've been working in libraries for about 45 years now, and have seen a lot of change. A couple of points bear emphasizing, though, from the point of view of someone who has taught in library school, worked in a number of different libraries, and seen a LOT of change. I started out in the days of typed/printed catalog cards, which should tell you something. One of the things I've loved about working in libraries is that pretty much everyone had a different start, with all kinds of undergraduate majors and specializations. Mine was in TV/Radio, and I only know one other person with that specialty, but it worked well for me in that I'm not afraid of microphones or big audiences (though in the late 60's and early 70's there were no jobs in that field for women). I ended up working full time in the library at Syracuse (I have both a B.S. and M.L.S. from there) as I was finishing up my undergraduate requirements, then moved to Boston and worked at Boston College and MIT libraries, for a total of about 4 years of library staff experience, in a broad array of departments. I worked full time at SU again (3 years) for my master's, again doing a lot of different jobs. What I learned from that is the benefit of postponing specialization for as long as you can, getting as much hand's on experience as possible before you finish your degree and 'declare' yourself. I agree with those who suggested that you choose your undergraduate major based on what floats your boat, but also take opportunities to learn as much as you can outside that major, including a solid grounding in the liberal arts. I started as a cataloger and ended up as a systems librarian, now I do a lot of different things (working with someone without any degrees but a fierce need and ability to learn anything he wants to know). I still think an MLS is a good thing, if for no other reason than the people you meet and what they teach you as anything else. There's also a cultural component to being a librarian that is not to be sneezed at--think about open access and copyright and privacy and how librarians are a big part of all those issues. My MLS courses were pretty terrible--that era was not a good one for library schools--but they've improved considerably since then and the good ones have broadened their scope around information architecture, data, etc., recognizing that they're not necessarily training people for libraries only. I've spent a lot of time around academic computer science types, and sadly have rarely been impressed with them and how they've been taught to think. I also wonder how relevant a degree or specialization in that area would 'age' over time--how useful would that education be twenty (or 40!) years from now? There are lots of technical things I wish I knew more about, but I'm usually better off finding out about them myself rather than consider formal classes or degrees. Diane On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 10:12 AM, Brian Zelip bze...@gmail.com wrote: This is a great thread. I've always been impressed every time I read Riley's signature. My hunch is you're in for a great and successful ride, no matter the particular path. Brian Zelip --- MS Student, Graduate School of Library Information Science Graduate Assistant, University Library's Scholarly Commons University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign zelip.me On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Karen Coombs librarywebc...@gmail.com wrote: Riley, I have an BA in Anthropology and Music from a small liberal arts school as well as my MLS and MS in Information Management from Syracuse University While I sometime wish I took the computer science path, there are just as many other times when
[CODE4LIB] New IIIF API specifications drafts published
The IIIF Editors are pleased to announce draft revisions of the International Image Interoperability Framework Image and Presentation (formerly 'Metadata') API specifications. * http://iiif.io/api/image/2.0/ * http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2.0/ These releases reflect a significant amount of input from both the IIIF working groups and the larger library, archives, and museum communities following roughly a year of experience either implementing or experimenting with the previous versions. A complete list of the changes can be found on the IIIF website: * http://iiif.io/api/image/2.0/change-log.html * http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2.0/change-log.html We welcome your feedback, questions, and use cases, and encourage you to submit them to the IIIF Discussion Listserv: iiif-disc...@googlegroups.com. Drafts will be kept open for comment until the beginning of August, with the goal of final release in September. However, we would appreciate feedback early in order to work on and gain consensus for any necessary changes. Sincerely, The IIIF Image and Presentation API Editors: Benjamin Albritton Michael Appleby Robert Sanderson Stuart Snydman Jon Stroop Simeon Warner -- Jon Stroop Digital Initiatives Developer/Analyst Princeton University Library jstr...@princeton.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I include science and math in liberal arts. Of course, Greek and Latin are also considered liberal arts essentials, and I wish I had studied them. I also have an MLS, which beyond being a requirement for many jobs, makes it easier to comprehend the conversation. I got mine 10 years into working with libraries. Cary On Thursday, May 29, 2014, Laura Krier laura.kr...@gmail.com wrote: I wouldn't knock a liberal arts education, especially based only on high school experience. It's sort of the point of college: to be able to learn and understand about a wide range of fields and subjects. Otherwise you might as well go to trade school. College isn't just about getting a job when you graduate, but about learning how to think and understand different perspectives. And liberal arts includes the sciences, which I think people tend to forget. We think oh, liberal arts are the arts and humanities but they really encompass every school and department in a university. And as other people have mentioned, there are key skills you can learn from courses in English, anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology, etc. This is where you learn to write, to communicate effectively, to understand how people think (user experience, anyone?). These are all crucial skills that separate leaders and those who are more successful in their fields from those who are not. I'm not saying you can ONLY learn these skills in college, from a liberal arts education, but it sure helps. I also don't think there's anything wrong at all with going to a trade school or whatever we call them these days, and learning a skill set outside of the realm of a liberal arts education. It really depends on what you want to do and how fast you want to get to doing it. Laura [image: Laura Krier on about.me] Laura Krier about.me/laurakrier http://about.me/laurakrier On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:11 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.comjavascript:; wrote: From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Laura Krier [laura.kr...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:22 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Hi Riley, Congrats on starting college in the fall! If you like to learn, college is pretty much the best place ever. College next fall, but almost there, pretty scary :) I second others in not necessarily recommending a bachelors in library/ information science. I would actually suggest computer science if you're at all skilled with math and logic. You'll probably have the best post-graduate opportunities even if you change your mind about libraries. But make sure you get a well-rounded liberal arts education. Take advantage of gen ed courses to study things outside of your major whenever you can. All people are served well by having a broad base of knowledge, in my opinion. And you'll need solid writing skills no matter what you do in life so make sure you practice those every chance you get. :-) I am meh on liberal arts, my high school is Liberal Arts and I really don't like it Basically, as long as you learn to be a lifelong learner, it doesn't really matter what you major in I think. You'll always have to learn new things anyway. Congratulations again! Laura PS- To more directly answer your question, I majored in literature and women's studies in college. Now I'm a web services librarian. I kind of wish I had a more solid computer science background but I'm still able to learn what I need to. Sent from my iPhone On May 28, 2014, at 9:49 PM, Amy Drayer amost...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Riley et al: I was thinking the same thing as Coral. I have a humanities undergrad degree; a computer science oriented degree would certainly have been beneficial, especially with an emphasis on network and server administration, or even web development depending on your interest (as a systems librarian I also managed the website and catalog). The library-oriented education can wait until grad school. Honestly, I think we come from a variety of backgrounds. My liberal arts foundation works for me (I feel my education was well rounded in a way a science or IT degree may not have been), but I would definitely have wanted some more technical classes such as I mentioned above if I had known I would be in this field. In peace, Amy In peace, Amy M. Drayer, MLIS Senior IT Specialist, Web Developer amost...@gmail.com http://www.puzumaki.com On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:24 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess co...@sheldon-hess.org wrote: Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want
[CODE4LIB] code4lib in San Diego?
Hi all, I know there is a Southern California meet up group for Code4Lib but am wondering if there are folks on this list in San Diego who would be interested in the occasional meet-up? It sounds like the Southern Cal one may be primarily LA area. Feel free to contact me off list. Bee Bornheimer eborn...@qualcomm.commailto:eborn...@qualcomm.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Riley, great questions! Everyone, great answers! I guess I'd just add (as another English major who went to a small liberal arts school for undergrad, and who sort of backed into systems and programming) that what I've found really useful about the breadth of education I got kind of breaks down into 3 things: 1) I get cred with people I potentially otherwise wouldn't. I have enough knowledge to be dangerous about a lot of subjects, but it helps faculty see me as someone who knows what I'm talking about. I can speak some of the language of a lot of fields, which then helps those faculty feel comfortable about my expertise (such as it is). So that's really useful. 2) I got used to the idea of seeing problems as complex, large-system things. I have worked with folks who can absolutely bash something together and make it work, but they don't always see the big picture re: how much time/sweat/frustration it's going to cost them 3 years from now, and 5 years from now, etc. when they have to migrate or upgrade or fix up that thing they never really did properly in the first place and then didn't document. This is NOT TO SAY that you can't get that perspective elsewhere, or to allege that I always document or build things properly, etc. It's just a useful perspective to have, and that's where I learned to think that way. 3) If you're a person who learns or explains well through analogies, a broad education that forces you to take classes in a lot of subject areas and brain work types (textual analysis vs. modeling, etc.) will give you TONS more fodder for those analogies. I share the regrets of many others, in that I wish I had taken advantage of the CS curriculum offered at my institution and taken classes in that area when I had the chance. As Adam says, I just have some catching up to do now. I'm really enjoying watching this discussion and seeing where we all came from, academically speaking :) On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Cary Gordon listu...@chillco.com wrote: I include science and math in liberal arts. Of course, Greek and Latin are also considered liberal arts essentials, and I wish I had studied them. I also have an MLS, which beyond being a requirement for many jobs, makes it easier to comprehend the conversation. I got mine 10 years into working with libraries. Cary On Thursday, May 29, 2014, Laura Krier laura.kr...@gmail.com wrote: I wouldn't knock a liberal arts education, especially based only on high school experience. It's sort of the point of college: to be able to learn and understand about a wide range of fields and subjects. Otherwise you might as well go to trade school. College isn't just about getting a job when you graduate, but about learning how to think and understand different perspectives. And liberal arts includes the sciences, which I think people tend to forget. We think oh, liberal arts are the arts and humanities but they really encompass every school and department in a university. And as other people have mentioned, there are key skills you can learn from courses in English, anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology, etc. This is where you learn to write, to communicate effectively, to understand how people think (user experience, anyone?). These are all crucial skills that separate leaders and those who are more successful in their fields from those who are not. I'm not saying you can ONLY learn these skills in college, from a liberal arts education, but it sure helps. I also don't think there's anything wrong at all with going to a trade school or whatever we call them these days, and learning a skill set outside of the realm of a liberal arts education. It really depends on what you want to do and how fast you want to get to doing it. Laura [image: Laura Krier on about.me] Laura Krier about.me/laurakrier http://about.me/laurakrier On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:11 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.com javascript:; wrote: From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Laura Krier [laura.kr...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:22 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Hi Riley, Congrats on starting college in the fall! If you like to learn, college is pretty much the best place ever. College next fall, but almost there, pretty scary :) I second others in not necessarily recommending a bachelors in library/ information science. I would actually suggest computer science if you're at all skilled with math and logic. You'll probably have the best post-graduate opportunities even if you change your mind about libraries. But make sure you get a well-rounded liberal arts education. Take advantage of gen ed courses to study things outside of your major whenever you can. All people are served well by
[CODE4LIB] EDTF parser for Python
Hi all, I was curious if anyone knows of an Extended Date/Time Format [0] parser for Python, ideally available under an open source license. I know of a Ruby based parser [1], but haven't seen many others. Mark [0] http://www.loc.gov/standards/datetime/ [1] https://github.com/inukshuk/edtf-ruby/ -- Mark A. Matienzo m...@matienzo.org Director of Technology, Digital Public Library of America
Re: [CODE4LIB] code4lib in San Diego?
We are trying to reformat the SoCal group to better serve the rest of the region, including having longer meetings. I have the ability to webcast the meetings, or at least the presentations, and we might be able to do that, as well. There is strength in numbers, so I hope we can hang together. Thanks, Cary On Thursday, May 29, 2014, Bornheimer, Bee eborn...@qualcomm.com wrote: Hi all, I know there is a Southern California meet up group for Code4Lib but am wondering if there are folks on this list in San Diego who would be interested in the occasional meet-up? It sounds like the Southern Cal one may be primarily LA area. Feel free to contact me off list. Bee Bornheimer eborn...@qualcomm.com javascript:;mailto:eborn...@qualcomm.comjavascript:; -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] code4lib in San Diego?
That said, if the SD folks want to go out one night without having to do much planning or coordination -- think meetup here rather than local code4lib meeting -- they should be be encouraged to do that too. I would also encourage folks to keep these discussions on-list instead of responding privately, if that's OK with Bee and other interested folks. It'll be good for the broader community to watch the SD/SoCal crowd self-organize, learn from it, and lend a hand where appropriate! -Mike On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 9:34 AM, Cary Gordon listu...@chillco.com wrote: We are trying to reformat the SoCal group to better serve the rest of the region, including having longer meetings. I have the ability to webcast the meetings, or at least the presentations, and we might be able to do that, as well. There is strength in numbers, so I hope we can hang together. Thanks, Cary On Thursday, May 29, 2014, Bornheimer, Bee eborn...@qualcomm.com wrote: Hi all, I know there is a Southern California meet up group for Code4Lib but am wondering if there are folks on this list in San Diego who would be interested in the occasional meet-up? It sounds like the Southern Cal one may be primarily LA area. Feel free to contact me off list. Bee Bornheimer eborn...@qualcomm.com javascript:;mailto:eborn...@qualcomm.com javascript:; -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and Koha
The forked versions of Koha from LibLime/PTFS use a Solr index. They may have some insight. evan -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:22 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Solr and Koha Does anybody have any direction about how to get koha export to solr so it can be utilized by black light, server power is not an issue (if needed I can dedicate one to it). Has anyone done this if so...benefits, disadvantages? We have a collection of 1 books (small but growing). Honestly this is just something to do as a learning experience, but if I commit, I commit! Thx! //Riley Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
And say et voilà a lot. D -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Jon Stroop Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:45 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Riley, First, I wonder if there's anyone on this list who doesn't wish they had your foresight! You already have rare opportunity in that you're thinking about this now and not in your mid-20s, so way to go! We spoke about this a little @ the c4l conference, but I'll say more. I majored in music performance and even did a masters in it as well, which means that practically speaking I have a high school education. :-) I don't really mean that, but until you've had the experience it's difficult to explain (or at least I find it difficult) how relevant a degree in the arts/humanities can be to a job in technology--and there's no shortage of people who have taken this exact path. I did do an MLS, but see above re: high school education. At the time (~13 yrs ago) I felt like I needed to do it to get a job (I also didn't necessarily expect to wind up in systems, but that's another story), but, honestly, everything I know I learned on the job, or /a/ job, or the overnight hours between going to said job, which leads me to my point: Wherever you go to school, and regardless of your major, if you ultimately want to wind up working in a library, you should start now. Any brick and mortar university is going to have student jobs available (work study or otherwise) at the library, and while it may just be as a desk clerk or whatever, keep your ears open (we already know you're not shy): at some point there's going to be some stats that need munging, some Access (or even worse) database that needs migration, some web work to be done, or whatever and, et voilà, you're off! The point is, professional degree != professional experience, and--frankly--you probably don't want to be working at a place that requires a systems librarian to have a MLIS anyway, and certainly not in 4-5 years. Get as much experience as possible, do a CS degree, but also learn how to write and communicate OR do an arts degree, but also learn how to program (etc.), and you'll be fine. -Jon On 05/28/2014 11:17 PM, Riley Childs wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Hi - I'm also an English undergrad. This was after miserably failing out of a Math/CS program (although I learned a lot). The English degree forced me to write a lot while in college - a time when one's mind needs some expanding lest it get caught in ruts. This helped my communication skills immensely. Despite what Giarlo says. I also agree that a background in informatics is going to be really helpful in the years to come. We are awash in data, yet little of it has the semantics needed to automate the extraction of meaning. I think there are going to be many years of smart people plowing meaning back into the data sets that we're struggling to put away at the bit level now, and I think it sounds like fun work. Another common thread I agree with, and one my kids have heard since they were in diapers, is GET A JOB! Especially in the area you think you're interested in. You'll learn more practical things there than in any class. You may suck at it at first, but hey, they're paying you anyway! If you like doing it, you'll get better, build your resume, and be better able to see if it's something you want to do long term. Year later, after working in corporate IT for a while and getting sick of my profession being treated like an expendable commodity, I went back and got an MBA to better understand business - and learned that corporate IT is an expendable commodity... I wasn't really OK with that, so I came back to academia to do more meaningful work for far less money ;) With the MBA, I was able to come back at a director level and influence change, so that's kinda cool. Good job getting ahead of this! You're a neat person and I appreciate what you do for the community! Declan -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Henry, Laura Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:51 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! My undergrad degree is in English, and it actually has come in handy at times. Good communication is important, regardless of what you end up doing. If I could do it again, I'd seriously consider informatics - but I didn't know it was a thing until I started library school. http://www.soic.indiana.edu/informatics/ As far as IT, I learned a lot from the tech-support job I had right out of college, and after that I'm self-taught. I imagine it's a steeper learning curve than if I had some sort of tech degree. If you're going for an ML(I)S, major in whatever interests you. Librarians come from all kinds of backgrounds. In my class there were a ton of English and History degrees, but we also had people with degrees in astrophysics, soil science, and accounting. Laura C. Henry, MLS Assistant Systems Librarian Beaufort County Library 311 Scott Street, Beaufort, SC 29902 Phone 843.255.6444 lhe...@bcgov.net www.beaufortcountylibrary.org For Learning ♦ For Leisure ♦ For Life -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Amy Drayer Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:50 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Dear Riley et al: I was thinking the same thing as Coral. I have a humanities undergrad degree; a computer science oriented degree would certainly have been beneficial, especially with an emphasis on network and server administration, or even web development depending on your interest (as a systems librarian I also managed the website and catalog). The library-oriented education can wait until grad school. Honestly, I think we come from a variety of backgrounds. My liberal arts foundation works for me (I feel my education was well rounded in a way a science or IT degree may not have been), but I would definitely have wanted some more technical classes such as I mentioned above if I had known I would be in this field. In peace, Amy In peace, Amy M. Drayer, MLIS Senior IT Specialist, Web Developer amost...@gmail.com http://www.puzumaki.com On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:24 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess co...@sheldon-hess.org wrote: Riley, Whatever you do, don't major in library science as an undergrad. Maybe minor in it, along with some other major, if you want, but it's not useful by itself as an undergraduate degree--most libraries want librarians to have the MLIS. And what if you change your mind after a few years and don't want to get the masters? Do something you could get a career in--or work in, part time, to afford the MLIS. If you want to be a systems librarian, why not get a degree in systems engineering or IT? (Seriously, there are degrees in IThttp://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=332now, what a world!) Computer science wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind theory, and you can get some good foundational stuff that will help with the information science part of libraries and information science. The school where I got my MLIS had an Information
[CODE4LIB] NEWS RELEASE OR2014 Updates: Developer Challenge and Workshop Registration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 29, 2014 Read it online: http://bit.ly/1mqhL4W OR2014 Updates: Developer Challenge and Workshop Registration Helsinki, FI Breaking news from the upcoming Open Repositories Conference June 9-13 includes a look at how to participate in this year’s Developer Challenge for software developers, and registration information for pre-conference Workshops, Tutorials and Meetings. Developer Challenge The goal of the Developer Challenge at Open Repositories is to provide growth opportunities for software developers who attend, and show support and appreciation by providing them with an event that is both fulfilling and also valuable for the Open Repositories community. Read the full Developer Challenge description here. The Developer Challenge showcases new and exciting technology ideas that have the potential to enhance the richness of a repository ecosystem. At this year's conference Developer Challenge participants will: Build or enhance a repository ecosystem, in line with this year’s conference themes that include: • Unconventional approaches to repository-like services • Interconnection between publishers and repositories • Researcher-centered design for scholarly workflows • Adaptations to support curation lifecycle management, e.g., for research data • Real-world scalability and performance stories: working at web-scale, with big data for global usage • Requirements for holding restricted or classified data in repositories • Infrastructure to accommodate national and international mandates for data management and open access • Positioning repositories closer to (local, consortial, or cloud-based) cyberinfrastructure for data processing • Leveraging connections to external services including: • Remote identifier services (e.g., DOI, ORCID) • (Re-)using repository data/metadata in new and unexpected ways, including integrated discovery • Scholarly social media services, such as for annotation, review, comment, reputation, citation, and altmetrics • CRIS and research management systems • Digital preservation tools, services infrastructure • Community and sustainability in an open world Specific challenges/prizes will be offered by sponsors. Information about these challenges will be added here as they are available. Come up with an idea, or, pick up one of the other ideas that someone has proposed and go for it if you are a developer. If you're not a developer propose an idea anyway: • Tweet your idea with the hashtag #OR2014Idea; • Submit your idea using this form on the Open Repositories 2014 website, or; • Email your idea to the Dev Challenge team through OR2014 mail box: or-2...@helsinki.fi Developers will be encouraged to work on all the ideas. You can also join the team if you wish to help with documentation and presentation of the idea. Registration for pre-conference Workshops, Tutorials and Meetings NOW OPEN In addition to the Developer Challenge, the pre-conference sessions of Open Repositories 2014 will be held at the University of Helsinki main campus area and will include as many as 19 workshops, tutorials or meetings on a large variety of topics. It is important that you register for any of these events that you will attend. There are separate registration forms for the morning, afternoon and evening sessions below: • Registration form for morning sessions here. • Registration form for afternoon sessions here. • Registration form for evening sessions E-lomake - Registration: Pre-conference workshops at Open Repositories 2014 (Monday, June 9, 2014), evening 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM E-lomake - Registration: Pre-conference workshops at Op... View on elomake.helsinki.fi Preview by Yahoo
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
Yes, experience trumps education completely in my experience as far as developing skills in libraries and technology. Some employers will demand the degree, but it is really of secondary value to hands-on experience. One possibility would be talking to a systems librarian or anyone else at your university whose job interests you and explain to them that you are looking for some mentoring and experience. It is quite likely that they could whip up a student worker position just for you. At least I know I would if a student approached me that way. All the libraries where I've worked have had fairly free reign with student worker hours. Chances are you are going to end up doing some kind of student work position anyway, so you might as well use it learning something valuable rather than raking leaves or cooking pizza. Josh Welker -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Fleming, Declan Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:05 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Hi - I'm also an English undergrad. This was after miserably failing out of a Math/CS program (although I learned a lot). The English degree forced me to write a lot while in college - a time when one's mind needs some expanding lest it get caught in ruts. This helped my communication skills immensely. Despite what Giarlo says. I also agree that a background in informatics is going to be really helpful in the years to come. We are awash in data, yet little of it has the semantics needed to automate the extraction of meaning. I think there are going to be many years of smart people plowing meaning back into the data sets that we're struggling to put away at the bit level now, and I think it sounds like fun work. Another common thread I agree with, and one my kids have heard since they were in diapers, is GET A JOB! Especially in the area you think you're interested in. You'll learn more practical things there than in any class. You may suck at it at first, but hey, they're paying you anyway! If you like doing it, you'll get better, build your resume, and be better able to see if it's something you want to do long term. Year later, after working in corporate IT for a while and getting sick of my profession being treated like an expendable commodity, I went back and got an MBA to better understand business - and learned that corporate IT is an expendable commodity... I wasn't really OK with that, so I came back to academia to do more meaningful work for far less money ;) With the MBA, I was able to come back at a director level and influence change, so that's kinda cool. Good job getting ahead of this! You're a neat person and I appreciate what you do for the community! Declan -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Henry, Laura Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:51 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! My undergrad degree is in English, and it actually has come in handy at times. Good communication is important, regardless of what you end up doing. If I could do it again, I'd seriously consider informatics - but I didn't know it was a thing until I started library school. http://www.soic.indiana.edu/informatics/ As far as IT, I learned a lot from the tech-support job I had right out of college, and after that I'm self-taught. I imagine it's a steeper learning curve than if I had some sort of tech degree. If you're going for an ML(I)S, major in whatever interests you. Librarians come from all kinds of backgrounds. In my class there were a ton of English and History degrees, but we also had people with degrees in astrophysics, soil science, and accounting. Laura C. Henry, MLS Assistant Systems Librarian Beaufort County Library 311 Scott Street, Beaufort, SC 29902 Phone 843.255.6444 lhe...@bcgov.net www.beaufortcountylibrary.org For Learning ♦ For Leisure ♦ For Life -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Amy Drayer Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:50 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question! Dear Riley et al: I was thinking the same thing as Coral. I have a humanities undergrad degree; a computer science oriented degree would certainly have been beneficial, especially with an emphasis on network and server administration, or even web development depending on your interest (as a systems librarian I also managed the website and catalog). The library-oriented education can wait until grad school. Honestly, I think we come from a variety of backgrounds. My liberal arts foundation works for me (I feel my education was well rounded in a way a science or IT degree may not have been), but I would definitely have wanted some more technical classes such as I mentioned above if I had known I would be in this field. In peace, Amy In peace, Amy M. Drayer, MLIS
Re: [CODE4LIB] code4lib in San Diego?
I'm not in San Diego but I am in Southern Cali and a part of the Southern Cali group, so I feel I can weigh in on this: If the people in SD want to meet and can find a convenient place to do so, for goodness sakes, let them and don't worry about meetup vs local code4lib. Just ask please Bee et al to keep in touch with the other Southern Cali and other Cali groups so that we can have periodic joint events. If there's confusion, San Diego can just call itself Northern Mexico group (just kiddin'). The LA area is so hard to get around that I would much rather have a bunch of little offshoot local code4libs that occasionally get together for a larger, longer meeting than to have no one meet at all because it's so damn difficult to get to the place where the meeting is. I don't see the harm in many mini groups. I'm saying this as someone who commutes 42 miles each way to my job. I don't think anyone else in the US who hasn't lived here can really understand what it means to get around Southern California. (I cannot believe Giarlo used the o word - organize.) Christina Salazar Systems Librarian John Spoor Broome Library California State University, Channel Islands 805/437-3198 -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael J. Giarlo Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 9:42 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] code4lib in San Diego? That said, if the SD folks want to go out one night without having to do much planning or coordination -- think meetup here rather than local code4lib meeting -- they should be be encouraged to do that too. I would also encourage folks to keep these discussions on-list instead of responding privately, if that's OK with Bee and other interested folks. It'll be good for the broader community to watch the SD/SoCal crowd self-organize, learn from it, and lend a hand where appropriate! -Mike On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 9:34 AM, Cary Gordon listu...@chillco.com wrote: We are trying to reformat the SoCal group to better serve the rest of the region, including having longer meetings. I have the ability to webcast the meetings, or at least the presentations, and we might be able to do that, as well. There is strength in numbers, so I hope we can hang together. Thanks, Cary On Thursday, May 29, 2014, Bornheimer, Bee eborn...@qualcomm.com wrote: Hi all, I know there is a Southern California meet up group for Code4Lib but am wondering if there are folks on this list in San Diego who would be interested in the occasional meet-up? It sounds like the Southern Cal one may be primarily LA area. Feel free to contact me off list. Bee Bornheimer eborn...@qualcomm.com javascript:;mailto:eborn...@qualcomm.com javascript:; -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com
[CODE4LIB] A few spots left! Digital Preservation Management workshop - June 15-20, 2014
**Apologies for Cross-Posting We Have A Few Spots Left for the June Cohort - Join Us! Are you responsible for digital preservation at your organization? Are you interested in learning the standards, resources, policies, and work flows integral to a successful program? Do you want to join a cohort of similar professionals as you develop your skills and organizational readiness? Come learn how to implement short-term strategies for long-term problems. We are happy to announce that the five-day Digital Preservation Management Workshop directed by Nancy Y. McGovern is taking place this June 15 - 20, 2014 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts hosted by the Five Colleges Consortium. Tuition fee is $1,100.00 and includes 4 lunches and a group dinner. Application and Information Webpagehttps://classic.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1463065. Joining Nancy will be Kari R. Smith as a senior instructor for the workshop. Bradley Westbook and Courtney Mumma will also be on the instruction team. We are pleased that Courtney will deliver this year's keynote as well. Workshop Content The workshop includes interactive presentations, group discussions, exercises, individual assignments, and a keynote presentation by an international expert in digital preservation. Workshop attendees explore the range of components needed to develop an effective digital preservation program. Workshop materials include action plans for organizations to complete when participants return to their institutions. Action plans result in organization-specific plans that incorporate technical, financial, organizational, and policy aspects encompassing the full life cycle of digital objects. The workshop focuses on strategies for organizations to implement now, while research and development goes forward in creating longer-term solutions that can be incorporated into the program framework. Workshop Goals Promote Practical and Responsible Stewardship of Digital Assets. The goals of the workshop are to foster critical thinking in a technological realm and provide the means for exercising practical and responsible stewardship of digital assets in an age of technological uncertainty. The workshop sessions are geared towards making a digital preservation program doable for any organization and all of the sessions include as many relevant examples as we can fit. Workshop Audience The workshop series is intended for managers who are or will be responsible for digital preservation programs or managing digital content over time in libraries, archives, and other organizations. APPLY HERE https://classic.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1463065 . There is a two-step process for registration. First is the application (no payment required). If selected, registration with tuition payment is the second step to be completed by June 6, 2014. Digital Preservation Management Workshop organizers dpmw-managmem...@mit.edumailto:dpmw-managmem...@mit.edu | http://www.dpworkshop.org
[CODE4LIB] Call for Panelists: ACRL NMDG: The Stories We Tell: Academic librarians and identity
Call for Panelists ACRL NMDG: The Stories We Tell: Academic librarians and identity Date/Time: Saturday, June 28, 2014 from 10:30-11:30 Room: Bally Palace 5 How do we begin to describe the professional identity of academic librarians? What are the stories we tell about ourselves to our users, our institutions, and especially to each other? Do these stories provide a view that is multidimensional and reflective of the racial and ethnic diversity of our field and the users we serve? This year, the New Members Discussion Group is teaming up with the creators of Librarian Wardrobe to discuss the shared stories of academic librarianship: ones that reflect our view of ourselves, our professional identities, and professional stereotypes. We are looking for two panelists to join Sarah Steiner and Isabel Gonzalez-Smith, two of the authors featured in the forthcoming 2014 book, The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Presentations and Perceptions of Information Work, for an informal roundtable discussion on professional identity in academic libraries. This panel will be geared toward new members and new academic librarians and so whether you are new to the field or a seasoned professional, we encourage you to apply. If you are interested in speaking on this panel, please complete the submission form available at: http://bit.ly/nmdgan14 Submissions will be accepted until June 2, 2014 and all candidates will be notified whether they were selected by June 6, 2014. Tyler Dzuba | Co-convener, ACRL New Members Discussion Group Head, Physics-Optics-Astronomy Library | University of Rochester 585-275-7659 (main) | 585-275-5965 (secondary) | @silent_d
[CODE4LIB] RUSA Blog: Call for Volunteers
The RUSA Publications and Communication Committee is currently accepting applications for volunteers to lead the transition and future directions of the RUSA Blog (http://blog.rusa.ala.org/ ). The focus of the RUSA Blog will be for contributors to share, discuss, and promote current trends in reference and user services. The Blog will be written by a team of columnists with a publishing schedule facilitated by a coordinator. We are currently looking for: (1) a blog coordinator (2) a blog website coordinator (3) columnists to contribute to the blog Applications should be submitted no later than June 22, 2014. *Apply online: *https://tamu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6QemdrOkMOMyYn3 *Available Positions: * RUSA Blog Coordinator: · Coordinator is responsible for recruiting and selecting four or more columnists with a variety of perspectives and sets publication schedule to ensure regular postings that represent a broad spectrum of ideas relevant to RUSA members and potential members. · Edit articles for content, style, format and correct grammatical usage. · Accepts, solicits, and selects requests for guest posts as needed · Collaborates with Blog Website Coordinator, Publications and Communications Committee, and RUSA staff to ensure Blog meets RUSA branding standards. · Serves ex-officio on RUSA Publications and Communications Committee RUSA Blog Website Coordinator: · Website Coordinator is responsible for maintaining Blog CMS, design, and functionality. · Provides technical support to Blog Coordinator and columnists. · Coordinates with RUSA Webmaster on the technical specifications and the integration of the RUSA Blog with RUSA News, RUSA Website, and social media. · Collaborates with Blog Coordinator, Publications and Communications Committee, and RUSA staff to ensure Blog meets RUSA branding standards. · Serves ex-officio on RUSA Publications and Communications Committee Columnists · Writes and posts 6+ articles per year · Serves as peer reviewer for other columnists as needed · RUSA Member *Recruitment Process:* The committee will accept applications for all positions thru June 22nd. The committee will conduct interviews after annual for the RUSA Blog and Website Coordinators. Once the Blog Coordinator is selected, that individual will lead the selection process for columnists. *Background:* In 2013, an Emerging Leader’s project created the blog “Chasing Reference”. This blog was a great way for members and new librarians to create content, share their experiences, and highlight trends within the profession. The Publications and Communications committee would like to see the blog continue and in order to do so a structure needs to be put in place in order to make the blog a sustainable project. Additionally, the current RUSA Blog has been rebranded as RUSA News with the RUSA office as the content creators which allows for the opportunity for a member driven blog.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and Koha
On 30 May 2014 05:21, Boyd, Evan eb...@ctschicago.edu wrote: The forked versions of Koha from LibLime/PTFS use a Solr index. They may have some insight. Yeah, thats a 5 year old fork (no need for no one in their right mind would claim it anything other than a fork), so it probably wont be much use for actual Koha, id just export them as MARCXML as Andrew mentioned. Or look at the elastic search code in Koha which makes use of Catmandu, you could use Catmandu to do the same for Solr http://search.cpan.org/~nics/Catmandu-0.01/lib/Catmandu/Store/Solr.pm Chris evan -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Riley Childs Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:22 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Solr and Koha Does anybody have any direction about how to get koha export to solr so it can be utilized by black light, server power is not an issue (if needed I can dedicate one to it). Has anyone done this if so...benefits, disadvantages? We have a collection of 1 books (small but growing). Honestly this is just something to do as a learning experience, but if I commit, I commit! Thx! //Riley Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
I'd like to second Jon's suggestions. I majored in political science and worked in the library because my dad suggested it (damn him), and after graduation I took a full time job there for two years. There I learned a lot about desktop management, HTML, some PHP, serials, systems, electronic resources, etc. That experience got me great internships at Duke when I went to library school; I did reference, expanded my knowledge of the web, learned more about electronic resources, and serials. And that led to a job at a software vendor where I again got to expand my knowledge about systems work, perl, well you see where this is going. I truly believe that my experience in undergrad put me on the path to where I am today. So I give ++ to getting a job in your university library. I'd also like to suggest that when you choose a college you let us all know, you never know, there may be someone on this list that would be happy to hire an ambitious freshman to work for them. On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 5:44 AM, Jon Stroop jstr...@princeton.edu wrote: Riley, First, I wonder if there's anyone on this list who doesn't wish they had your foresight! You already have rare opportunity in that you're thinking about this now and not in your mid-20s, so way to go! We spoke about this a little @ the c4l conference, but I'll say more. I majored in music performance and even did a masters in it as well, which means that practically speaking I have a high school education. :-) I don't really mean that, but until you've had the experience it's difficult to explain (or at least I find it difficult) how relevant a degree in the arts/humanities can be to a job in technology--and there's no shortage of people who have taken this exact path. I did do an MLS, but see above re: high school education. At the time (~13 yrs ago) I felt like I needed to do it to get a job (I also didn't necessarily expect to wind up in systems, but that's another story), but, honestly, everything I know I learned on the job, or /a/ job, or the overnight hours between going to said job, which leads me to my point: Wherever you go to school, and regardless of your major, if you ultimately want to wind up working in a library, you should start now. Any brick and mortar university is going to have student jobs available (work study or otherwise) at the library, and while it may just be as a desk clerk or whatever, keep your ears open (we already know you're not shy): at some point there's going to be some stats that need munging, some Access (or even worse) database that needs migration, some web work to be done, or whatever and, et voilà, you're off! The point is, professional degree != professional experience, and--frankly--you probably don't want to be working at a place that requires a systems librarian to have a MLIS anyway, and certainly not in 4-5 years. Get as much experience as possible, do a CS degree, but also learn how to write and communicate OR do an arts degree, but also learn how to program (etc.), and you'll be fine. -Jon On 05/28/2014 11:17 PM, Riley Childs wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. BTW Y'All at NC State need a better tour bus driver (not the c4l tour, the admissions tour) ;) the bus ride was like a rickety roller coaster... Also, if you know of any scholarships please let me know ;) you would be my BFF :P Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
As (I think) only the second social science major to chime in on this thread, I want to second everything Karen said about the value of a social sciences background when doing systems work. I went to a hippie college that didn't have majors per se, but I have pretty strong backgrounds in sociology, psychology, and political science. Most of the social sciences will teach you to figure out how people really work, whether as individuals or small groups, (psychology), as large informal groups (sociology/anthropology), or as formal institutions (political science). And how people and groups really work is almost never how they work on paper, how you think they work, and/or the way that you think would be most rational for them to work. Ethnography is definitely one really good way to figure out what people are actually doing so you can design systems that will work for your users in reality, not just in theory. But if you're more quantitative the social sciences can also teach you good experimental design, good survey design, and good statistical methods for figuring out what your users are up to and how you can design systems to help them achieve what they want to achieve. As my boss and I both say on a regular basis, Technology is easy. People are hard. That's not to say you shouldn't take CS classes -- you definitely should take some of those -- but for many kinds of technology work a course in, say, cognitive psychology is going to wind up being more useful than a course in, say, automata and formal languages. As an aside, if you think you might ever want to move into administration, I highly recommend political science and/or sociology as undergraduate majors or minors. Being trained to walk into an institution and figure out the flows of both formal and informal power within it, knowing how to shift the institution's formal agenda, understanding how informal culture shifts happen and how you can and cannot facilitate them -- these are incredibly useful leadership skills, especially when you're trying to lead from a position of weakness, which is usually what library and IT folks are doing within their organizations. Thus endeth my commercial for the value of the social sciences. But seriously, if you want to know more, just ask! Julia * Julia Bauder Social Studies and Data Services Librarian Grinnell College Libraries Sixth Ave. Grinnell, IA 50112 On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Karen Coombs librarywebc...@gmail.com wrote: Riley, I have an BA in Anthropology and Music from a small liberal arts school as well as my MLS and MS in Information Management from Syracuse University While I sometime wish I took the computer science path, there are just as many other times when I'm super grateful for my cultural anthropology background. IMHO, if you are going to build systems that work well you need to understand your user's needs. How the system is going to be part of their lives. Good troubleshooting can benefit from this thinking as well. Studying and watching people in their lives is a big part of cultural anthropology. Being able to know how to do ethnography and put on that hat when building systems has been a godsend. I feel like the another virtue of my liberal arts education was the fact I had to develop general critical thinking and analytical skills which I find invaluable in my career. Whatever you degree you choose to get, get real world practical experience as much as possible. Every internship I've had has been worth its weight in gold. Through one I found out what I DIDN'T want to do which saved me countless $$s and time. Best of luck, Karen On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Maura Carbone mau...@brandeis.edu wrote: I'd echo what others have said and say either CS/CSE or MIS/IT. You might want to make that choice depending on the school you go to--my undergrad's MIS program is fantastic but I know a lot of people weren't as happy with the CS department. I'd also like to +1 what Lisa said about what you want to do as a systems librarian. I worked as a systems librarian in a public library and I most definitely did not need a CS degree, but MIS or IT would have been very useful. Look at job postings, see what sounds like what you want to do, and then go from there. Also see what you like in terms of classes! You might find the CS theory stuff less interesting than more hands-on type IT work, or you might fall in love with Physics (you can always grab a minor in CS, since there's quite a bit of overlap for the gen eds). I also wouldn't completely ignore the liberal arts--if you want to work in libraries, being able to communicate with your co-workers and with patrons is VERY important. While you might get a job that's just IT or programming work all day, more than likely you will have to interact with non-tech people. Being able to coherently express yourself, and being
Re: [CODE4LIB] Call fro Proposal: LITA HoLT IG meeting at 2014 ALA Annual
*Apologies fro cross-posting Alternatively for those of you who avoid creating word document at your daily life. You are welcome to submit your proposal via the web form below https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1i_H5-LATHD1buJMQryL4xqgxBzPEkoUHJjZX5cTYgHc/viewformhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/1i_H5-LATHD1buJMQryL4xqgxBzPEkoUHJjZX5cTYgHc/viewform?usp=send_form P.S As we always do, all events hosted by HoLT will be announced at ALA connect http://connect.ala.org/node/66223 You might consider to subscribe to the HoLT list via http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/lita-holt to follow up all the updates. The charge of LITA HoLT HoLT is to provide a forum and support network for those individuals with administrative responsibility for computing and technology in a library setting. Programs and discussions will explore issues of planning and implementation, management and organization, support, technology leadership, and other areas of interest to library technology managers and administration. We highly encourage folks who are interested in library technology and management to participate HoLT IG meeting and other events we host. Look forward to seeing your proposals. We also appreciate your feedback or suggestions. Please send your questions/concerns directly to me at h...@luc.edu or Meg at margaret.brown-s...@ucdenver.edumailto:margaret.brown-s...@ucdenver.edu Cheers! Hong From: Ma, Hong Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 1:00 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Call fro Proposal: LITA HoLT IG meeting at 2014 ALA Annual *** Apologies for the cross-posting *** LITA Heads of Library Technology (HoLT) IG meeting When: Sunday, June 29 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM The LITA/Heads of Library Technology Users Group is announcing a call for Lightning Round presentations for the upcoming meeting to be held on June 29th, 2014, during the 2014 Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Las Vegas, Nevada. The idea of the Lightning Round Presentations is to provide a forum for anyone to give a short presentation on a library technology project you might be working on. Projects don't need to be completed. Physical attendance is required . Each oral presentation will run for maximum 10 minutes. The timekeeper will be strict. Submission Guidelines 1. Send, via e-mail, an abstract (200 words) in MS Word format by June 21st, 2014. 2. Use the lead author's name as document file name (e.g., Smith.doc). 3. Put Lightening Round/HoLT in the Subject Line of the email message. 4. In the body of the e-mail, include title of presentation and full contact information for lead author. 5. Send to Meg Brown-Sica at margaret.brown-s...@ucdenver.edumailto:margaret.brown-s...@ucdenver.edu or Hong Ma at h...@luc.edumailto:h...@luc.edu. Thanks, Hong Hong Ma Head of Library Systems Loyola University Chicago Libraries h...@luc.edumailto:h...@luc.edu (773)508-2590
Re: [CODE4LIB] College Question!
On May 28, 2014, at 11:17 PM, Riley Childs wrote: I was curious about the type of degrees people had. I am heading off to college next year (class of 2015) and am trying to figure out what to major in. I want to be a systems librarian, but I can't tell what to major in! I wanted to hear about what paths people took and how they ended up where they are now. What paths we took? Well, I'm in the mood for procrastinating, so here goes. ... Mine started well before college. My dad got our family a computer (Apple IIe) when I was in 3rd or 4th grade ... so I learned Basic back in the days when you'd copy program listings from magazines. In middle school, I learned Logo, and in 8th grade was a aide for the computer lab. One summer I went to a two week camp, and learned Pascal, and the difference between Basic and Basica. During this time, my mom worked for a computer company, and we upgraded to a Apple ][gs. My high school was a 'science and tech' school. I had 2.5 years of drafting, 2 years of commercial graphics, and by senior year I was working as a TA in the computer lab, and had an independent study in the school's print shop. Through this time, we upgraded to a Macintosh SE/30 and then a Macintosh IIci. For summers in high school, I was working as an intern for an office of the Department of Defense (my dad was military), and I learned a few other OSes, including ALIS (a window manager for Sun UNIX boxes). I was also calling into BBSes quite regularly (had started back in middle school w/ a 1200 baud modem). In college, I had planned to work towards a degree in Architectural Engineering, but my dad taught at a school that didn't offer it ... so I started a degree in Civil Engineering. After my freshman year, I started working in the university's academic computing center. (They managed the computer labs the general use UNIX CMS machines). I started off doing general helpdesk support, but by my junior year that whole 'world wide web' thing was getting popular. As I had experience with computer programming, databases, desktop publishing, graphics, etc ... so I ended up splitting my time between the helpdesk, and the newly formed 'web development team' ... which was two of us (both students), working half time. And I was getting to be a fairly fast typist from mudding. After my sophomore year, Tim, the other member of our 'web development team' graduated, and went to work full time, while I was half time. We grew to four people (3 half time, as we were full time students), and we did some cutting edge stuff to get all of the university's course information online (required parsing quark xpress files to generate HTML, parsing dumps from the university's course registration system, and generating HTML, etc) ... and so Tim got offered a job to go work for Harvard. Through this time, I helped out on the university's solar car team, and got distracted and never got around to switching to a school for architecture. I ended up taking over in managing the university's web server while they tried to find a new manager for our group. (this was back when 'webmaster' meant 'web server administrator' and not 'person who designs web pages') I learned Perl, to go along with the various shell scripting that I had already learned. I picked up the 'UNIX System Administration Handbook' and learned from our group's sysadmins until I was trusted to manage that server. While all of this was going on, as I had taken enough classes to be 1/2 a semester off from my classmates, I never realized that I was supposed to take the EIT (Engineer in Training test) ... so I was a bit screwed if I wanted to be an engineer. After graduation, I went to resign, as I wanted to look for a full time job, but the director said that they were putting in for a new position for me. By the middle of summer, my new manager told me that the director had told her that under no circumstances was she to hire me for the job that was being created. He really didn't like guys with long hair. ... but through this time, I spent some of my savings to help one of the folks on the mud to start an ISP (so they could host the mud which was getting kicked out of the university it was at). I was working as their webmaster, remotely. After all of this crap went down at my university, I got offered to do some contract work at that ISP, so I moved out to Kentucky. The first contract fell through, but I kept doing various coding projects for them, did tech support (phone and still the days when we'd drive out to people's houses to set up their modems). I learned mysql in the process. The contracting side of our company merged with another contracting company, but then everything fell through ... and oddly I was the only employee that suddenly found themselves working for a different company. Through this time, I did mostly web database work ... the ISP that I worked for
