Coming from a different direction from everyone on this thread, I will tell
you there are a lot of opportunities in libraries for people with technical
experience outside just sys admin roles/website admins. Someone on this
thread mentioned looking at job listings and it is a really good way of
figuring out what opportunities are out there.
From the perspective of someone who has served on hiring committees for
technical positions, bootcamps are not enough skill for being hired. We
like to see that you have built something that solved a problem on your
own. The skills of solving problems in libraries are very different outside
the contained environment of a bootcamp. I will also say those technical
skills can help outside technical positions. I had a colleague who learned
to code in order to automate a monthly task that used to take her multiple
hours. She was able to automate it down to 30 minutes, allowing her more
time for other tasks.
Finally, I will say regex is useful but I would not feel like you need to
memorize how to use it. I always have to look up my regex expressions and I
test them using this tool: https://regex101.com.
Good luck.
On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 7:28 AM Foster, Meredith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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.
> ________________________________
> 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.
>
--
Niqui O'Neill
Digital Technologies Development Librarian
NC State University Libraries
Office: (919) 515-5446
My pronouns are she, her, and hers
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