Nate, I would say absolutely!  As a non-librarian yet someone who has
more broad computer/technical experience but did my masters in systems
engineering (read: systems architect, big picture person, convert
non-systems ideas to systems ideas) I can't tell you how often I see
problems in the non-library world being able to be met with library-type
systems and processes.  Obviously there is a lot of talk here (and other
places like web4lib et al) about bringing in non-library world
technology into the libraries.  There is great benefit to melding both
worlds despite the odd and somewhat invisible wall of separation that
seems to hinder us, imho.

I think you should absolutely keep involved in this and other similar
communities because you have the chance to affect change in both your
new position, who seems to really need some "library-ing", and offer
some good insights back to those of us not always able to look at
outside examples.

 From a practical standpoint of your email, one of my goals for the new
year is to find the best way to use digital repositories or similar-type
systems to organize humanities research, like oral histories,
interviews, digitization projects, GIS date, etc.  Our Digital
Scholarship Center is trying to head this up because, after all, we are
supposed to be the leaders of our campus in digital projects.  But even
in the midst of our own projects, we've seen evidence that we are
overlapping research that has already been done by other graduate
students or faculty.  What a waste!  So it seems like your new
experience and our experience has some things in common.

So, again, I say stick around, contribute, and seek solutions that will
fit your area and maybe their also fit some of ours.

Cheers to your new position!
Tim

Tim McGeary '99, '06G
Senior Systems Specialist
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
[log in to unmask]
Google Talk: timmcgeary

Nathan Vack wrote:
> OK, Code4Libbers, here's a question for y'all:
>
> I've taken a new job at a brain imaging lab on campus. The details
> are still to be defined (they haven't had anyone in this position
> before), but the problems they're trying to solve are things like
> "Our researchers need to do a bunch of junk in Unix to process their
> data; that's hard for them" and "Researchers are generating all kinds
> of versions of data and it's filling the disk and five years later no
> one knows which copies were used in this publication."
>
> In short, I'll be helping researchers collect, catalog, analyze, and
> archive study data. It's not a 'library' position, but the more I
> think about it, the more it seems like a place the libraries could
> excel. Most labs can't afford someone to do this kind of work... but
> from the grad students I've talked to, the need is HUGE.
>
> So, my question: Are research libraries out there doing this kind of
> work? If not, do you have plans to start? Is Code4Lib still a good
> place for me to hang out?
>
> Cheers,
> -Nate
> UW - Madison
>