Unusually for Umbrella, I didn’t feel any of the sessions offered before lunch on Wednesday were relevant to my interests or role. So I went to one a colleague had asked for further information about. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get out of it myself, but I hoped to have something to take back. Off I went to the first floor to attend Track 6, Workshops – tools and techniques: IT for the LIS professional.
Click to see Alan's presentation
As I should have predicted, of course, it was much more interesting and useful that I’d thought. Alan Poulter facilitated a workshop discussing the IT skills required by a librarian, from basic IT skills, through an understanding of the IT environment, to advanced knowledge required by a systems specialist. Unfortunately, David Stuart, who was to have given a programmer’s perspective, was unable to be there.
Murmuring was heard early on, as Alan described the ECDL as a “horror”. It simply doesn’t cover the right things, he argued. The first major ripples went through the room shortly after that, when Alan revealed his list of basic IT knowledge required by all librarians: alongside an understanding of files, directories, file extensions, and file compression he talked about systematic back-ups, encryption and anti-virus. Clearly not everyone in the room felt they had, or needed, this knowledge. I confess I was surprised at the number of delegates who suggested that they didn’t need to know about e.g. anti-virus and software installation because their employer managed all that. What about your home PC? What about when you move jobs? What about advising your users? These points were all raised in the ensuing discussion, which also highlighted a number of useful resources for managing security such as Secunia or LastPass.
Alan went on to talk about the importance of understanding the IT environment (Open Source software developments, Moore’s Law, corporate interests, e.g. Apple vs Adobe); advanced knowledge required by systems specialists; and how Strathclyde is preparing LIS students to be “digital librarians”. Alan also filled in the main point he thought David would have made: an understanding of programming, of how computers really work, would help us as users every day. As the earlier discussions had been lively, there was sadly not much time to cover these in detail.
So what do I need to take away from this? There are clearly gaps in my basic IT skills by Alan’s definitions. I know I need anti-virus software on my PC and I know I should do regular back-ups, but if I’m honest with myself, my strategies for my home PC are very superficial and I don’t even know what the IT bods at work do about this (beyond assuming that they do something). I also need to remember to attend apparently “uninteresting” sessions at Umbrella more often – I will undoubtedly learn something!
Other sessions going on in parallel to this have been blogged elsewhere:
Track 1, Skills and professionalism: Equalities issues in libraries: the emerging tensions
Laura’s Dark Archive (thought-provoking points from a discussion on hierarchies of oppression, and great comments as well).
Sorry I couldn’t make it, although if Alan caused murmerings, I would have probably been lynched!
My talk would have been based on a paper I wrote for Research Information a while back:
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=245
…and have followed up with a book:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Facilitating-Access-Web-Data-David-Stuart/9781856047456
Thanks, David. Really interesting article, and it’s good to get your input despite you not being able to make the day!
I find it a bit worrying that there are people working in libraries who think that they don’t need to know at least the basics of software installation, troubleshooting, anti-virus protection etc. I’m not the most tech-savvy person in the world, but I would consider all that pretty fundamental stuff! I’d argue that that’s stuff that everyone needs to know, regardless of profession, but as you say particularly important for library and information professionals as we’re incredibly likelty to be called on to advise our users in these areas. Hope some people came away from this talk with their minds changed about this!
Hi Laura. You’re right – you would think everyone would think of this as fundamental. But one delegate asked how individuals could address gaps in these areas and no-one really came up with a good answer (best was have a look for info using Google). So it’s not surprising that people struggle to learn this stuff.
JWo79 was also at this session and has reminded me in her post that Alan suggested everyone should get a real ECDL before they’re ever allowed near a computer – I enjoyed that!