I come at it from a slightly different angle, I have an CS degree and started work in libraries working in IT supporting our Voyager server at the time. After that was over, I worked as a serials tech and a cataloging tech, just doing side coding projects for our director or cataloging librarians as needed.
During our Alma migration, I was moved into exclusively an IT position, writing reports, API scripts, and supporting our ILLiad, Ares eReserve, and Omeka servers. There's also a server for the door count system which we also use for special reports or special projects. There are a lot of niches within a library that having programming skills, general IT knowledge, and troubleshooting are essential; it's just hard to find a job specifically for this. You'll likely have to grow into a job as things change.
I third (or more at this point!) regular expressions, I use them almost every day! MarcEdit record edits and loads, XML and JSON cleanup, parsing, and the like; Notepad++ supports regexes and they're incredibly powerful for making batch edits.
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From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Patrick Pletcher <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2022 6:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Circulation clerk learning to code.
Hi, this is my first time posting to a list like this. I am a circulation clerk who is learning to code at freecodecamp.org. Right now I am studying html and css, but I plan on going through all the lessons on the website. I enjoy working in libraries, and I also enjoy writing code. I am not sure where I am going with this. Do I stay in the library field, or do I go off in a completely different direction? I would appreciate your input. I think I would like best to work for a company that provides access to eBooks or audio books. I like print, but I don't see people using ink printed on dead trees 50 years from now, with all of the environmental issues the planet is facing.
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