Bob, are you looking to do things that have never been done before, or are
you looking to assemble new-to-you things from pre-existing tools?

I'm another in the self-taught bunch of Systems Librarians, and there's a
pretty significant gap between the skills needed to assemble a website  out
of Drupal and the skills needed to write a new EZproxy replacement.
"Developer" encompasses a really broad array of skills.

Regards,

Brett Williams



On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 7:10 AM, Samson, Bob <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have a question regarding staff development and I am hoping someone can
> provide some advice.  I have two vacant librarian positions in my Library
> Systems department.  I need to fill those vacancies with software/systems
> developers in order to move our initiatives forward.  We have encountered
> reluctance on the part of our human resources to repurpose those librarian
> positions into developer positions.
>
> Has anyone had success in posting Systems Librarian positions using
> education and experience requirements consistent with software developers?
> We have sufficient flexibility in hiring librarians, but the skill sets
> differ significantly between librarians and developers.  Ideally, we would
> want someone with backgrounds in computer science rather than library
> science, for example.  I'm curious to know if anyone has tried this and
> been successful.
>
> Bob Samson
> Head of Library Systems & Technology
> University of Texas at Arlington
>