One of the questions I most often get asked when I teach or present at a conference is “how did I learn my technology skills and could I recommend good classes, books, etc”. I got this question again after teaching the AJAX preconference at CIL and thought it would be worthwhile to post a paraphrased version of response here.
Honestly, while I learned a lot about database design, web design and project management via my degrees, as far as web programming skills, I’m pretty much self taught. I have lots of O’Reilly books that I use for reference when I need to know a specific function or such. I like the W3Schools tutorials a lot but they can be pretty basic. I learned my ASP by hiring a consultant to teach me and if your director can come up with the cash this is a great way to learn. Individual instruction while working on a specific project. Frankly it doesn’t get better than this.
My staff and I have looked a a variety of web-based training opportunities but these do not come cheap. The key is finding one that meets your needs. Another option is to see if your campus has a computer science program that might offer a class or two that meets your needs or if the campus technology group does training on this level. You could also partner with campus IT to bring in training for both groups of developers (the library’s and the campus web group).
My other advice is to leverage the code4lib group. Many of the folks in this group use open source programming languages like PHP, Ruby on Rails or Python. I’ve often asked them questions in the chat room.
As I lead a department with developers I don’t do much coding comparably any more and I struggle to keep my skills up to date. Mostly it is just playing and trying stuff. For me the biggest challenge is finding the time to learn things. When you are learning in a self-paced manner blocking out the time is really hard. A class solves that problem but it doesn’t make it as “real” in my opinion.
I wish I had a better answer for you and others out there. It isn’t easy sometimes.
My personal learning model is to work on things and have someone to ask questions. One of the best projects I did in library school was for my database design class. Basically we had to build a database and all the forms to interact with it using Access. The professor gave us a book that had step by step instructions and set us to work. He was available if we had questions. I had a similar experience with my Electronic Commerce Technologies class. Although this was a less helpful experience as I already had done programming in the language the professor had us working in. Keep in mind though, most of my MLS electives were from the MS in Information Management program. (The Info School at Syracuse contains the MLS, MS Information Management, and MS in Telecommunication and networking graduate programs) It was this cross-over that eventually prompted me to get both an MLS and a MS in Information Management. Many of my technology classes such as LANs, Telecommunications, all came during my IM degree. The really unfortunate thing is that many library programs don’t teach the important things that students who want to work as web or systems librarian need to know. Although I think some of this is changing. But I’m guessing my experience isn’t all that different from many other folks who have MLS degrees and work with library technology.
