On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 10:30 AM, Joe Hourcle <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:

>
> Two, 'coding' is a relatively minor skill.  It's like putting 'typist' as
> a job title, because you use your keyboard a lot at work.  Figuring out
> what needs to be written/typed/coded is more important than the actual
> writing aspect of it.
>

Any skill is minor if you already have it. :-)

As others have pointed out, learning even a tiny, tiny bit of code is a
huge benefit for librarians. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of people
have absolutely no clue how code translates into instructions for the magic
glowing screen they look at all day. Even a tiny bit of empowerment in that
arena can make huge differences in productivity and communication
abilities. Just understanding the logic behind code means that librarians
have a better understanding of what falls into the "possible" and
"impossible" categories for "doing stuff with a computer" and anything that
grounds decision making in the possible is AWESOME.

The presentation that started this discussion (Andromeda's lightning talk)
had a lot of other undercurrents in it, but a large part of it comes back
to impostor syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome) and
owning your own abilities. Librarians are, by and large, a quiet and
understated lot, and that rarely does us favors when it comes to people
understanding what we do and our actual talents and skills.

Jason