I've been following along on this and finally got my thoughts together to chime in.

In my career I've done DBA duties, sys admin tasks, scripting, requirements gathering, documentation writing, standards wrangling, policy setting, and more digitization than you can shake a stick at. And I've done that for 25 years, all in museums, libraries and archives. As a woman. And now I'm the chief of a group that implements tools to support the acquisition, preservation, and sharing of digital collections.

But I'm not a "coder." Does that mean I'm not welcome or part of the community?  

No.  

Sure, there are many code4lib conversations that I am just not part of because I don't deal with the intricacies of the writing of software.  There are many talks at code4lib that I would not get a lot out of for the same reason.  As a manager I don't have much time to actively participate.  I don't much hack on things any more.  (And sometimes when I do, the people I work with say "Why don't you let us do that..." <gr>)

But I do get something out of code4lib. I hear what the issues are that the community is writing tools to deal with.  I hear about new approaches. And I meet people, even if it's often just virtually.

And I am not an uncommon type of person. At least not in the code4lib community.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Adam Wead
> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:51 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] What is a "coder"?
> 
> Perhaps we just need to use a different word.  Yes, it's "code4lib" but
> we don't necessarily need to use "coders" to describe ourselves.  What
> I find most important about the community and its conference is that we
> talk about what we do at extremely deep and detailed levels... like
> urtext or source levels.  So, yeah, that's where the code comes in.
> But I do sys. admin stuff and architecture stuff too, and yes, coding.
> Am I a "coder" ?  Yeah, but I'm also a librarian...  What I have to be
> able to do in order to do my job is trace the interaction of
> information systems down to their lowest level.  Sometimes that's
> looking at and writing code, but sometimes it's shuffling hard drives
> and LTO tapes.
> 
> So "non-coders" are absolutely welcome and encouraged to attend, as
> well as anyone who wants to discuss his or her own work at these deep
> technical levels.  I believe it is paramount that we include these so-
> called "non-coders", i.e.. sys admin folks, architecture folks, digital
> preservationists, etc.  Where else could you go do talk to all these
> people in one room?
> 
> ...adam
> 
> Adam Wead | Systems and Digital Collections Librarian ROCK AND ROLL
> HALL OF FAME + MUSEUM Library and Archives
> 2809 Woodland Avenue | Cleveland, Ohio 44115-3216
> 216-515-1960 | FAX 216-515-1964
> Email: [log in to unmask]
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> 
> On Nov 28, 2012, at 10:02 PM, Mark A. Matienzo wrote:
> 
> > Some discussion (both on-list and otherwise) has referred to
> "coders,"
> > and some discussion as such has raised the question whether
> > "non-coders" are welcome at code4lib.
> >
> > What's a coder? I'm not trying to be difficult - I want to make
> > code4lib as inclusive as possible.
> >
> > Mark A. Matienzo <[log in to unmask]>
> > Digital Archivist, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
> > Technical Architect, ArchivesSpace
> 
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