Hi Christina,

I was a little taken aback when I read 'maybe I should not apply for
systems librarian jobs any more since I am not really a full time coder but
more of a "fixer." '

Are you finding that institutions posting vacancies for systems librarians
are expecting full-time coders?

My staff and I do write applications, act as project managers, troubleshoot
pretty much anything, assist with batch operations and data
transformations, manage physical equipment, manage e-resource access, the
ILS coordination, server administration, etc. I consider so much of my job
to be library and library data-oriented that, even though I do also have a
computer science degree, I am still a librarian first. My knowledge of
library-specific data, software, workflows, standards, etc. is key to the
job.

I do understand the interest in marketing yourself, and it can be difficult
to come up with the best generic, non-library words to describe what we do
to the outside world. Maybe you would feel more comfortable considering
yourself some kind of "generalist". I believe that is what they call people
now who basically do a little of everything to fill in any gaps necessary
to keep things running.

I still consider myself a systems librarian, though, and it sounds like
that's what you are, too. I do not really have any other fancy words that I
would be confident about calling myself, but if I were to apply for a job
outside of libraries, or in a larger institution with more siloing, then
for sure I would become "project manager", "developer", "database
administrator", etc.

One thing common to most libraries is uniqueness -- every library has its
own history, skeletons, data clean-up projects, priorities, funding
sources, management structure, etc. So every "Systems Librarian" job is
going to be a little different, and I think it's having those skills of a
troubleshooting library technology generalist that allows us to step into
the role in different institutions and field whatever comes our way.

Best regards,
Lisa

Lisa Genoese
Systems Librarian
Arthur W. Diamond Law Library
Columbia University
435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10027
(212) 851-9347
[log in to unmask]


On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 5:25 PM Salazar, Christina <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hey Everyone,
>
> I'm going to be so old skool about this and ask this question on the
> mailing list, but I'm curious to know if you believe your work is more
> coder/programmer or systems/applications analyst or project management type
> work? I'm also curious about what types of job titles you have that do/do
> not correlate to the work you do on a day to day. (I'm painting with broad
> strokes I guess.)
>
> My job title has pretty much been systems librarian since 2001 and in that
> time have more closely identified with systems analyst type tasks. I can
> code but it's mostly in aid of fixing broken things, not creating new
> applications. I guess I also LIKE fixing broken things MORE than making new
> ones. I'm also sort of kind of a project manager since I've now assisted
> with implementation of perhaps a dozen or more library applications
> (including I think 4 ILSs).
>
> I'm trying NOT to reignite that whole "imposter syndrome" conversation but
> focus more on our actual skills and experience (believe me, that previous
> paragraph, while empirically true makes me feel all wormy inside.)
> I'm contemplating all this in hopes of better marketing myself for future
> and current job possibilities (as in, maybe I should not apply for systems
> librarian jobs any more since I am not really a full time coder but more of
> a "fixer.")
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
> Christina Salazar
> Librarian About Town
> California State University, Channel Islands
> John Spoor Broome Library
> 805-437-3198
>
>
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