Spending some time with your programmers
May 31st, 2006 by Karen
Andrew Pace has a great post about talking to programmers over at TechEssence. He talks about how much librarians can learn by talking to IT people and in particular programmers. My experiences with programmers have been very similar to Andrew’s. I’ve loved dearly the programmers I’ve worked with in the past and I’ve learned a TON from them. Not just about programming but also about project management, and organization, efficiency and strategy. They bring a completely different point of view to problems and situations.
Even though I’ve had courses in programming and have what I would consider an IT-related masters degree in addition to my MLS, I still bring my library point of view to the table. Granted that is tempered by my IT experience and education, but I know libraries and that embues me with a particular perspective (I take certain things for granted). My staff don’t have an overriding library perspective so many times they ask questions that I wouldn’t ask. Both they and I learn from this. They learn a little more about libraries and I get my assumptions and perceptions questioned on a regular basis. I’ve always loved this aspect of working with programmers because it produces some really great results.
