But I don't want to code! Three emerging IT skills for librarians (other than coding) and how to start developing them

Presented at the New Librarians Symposium, Canberra, 25 June 2017.

There is a lot of interest in the library community in coding right now, but coding is just one of many IT skills relevant to new information professionals in their future career. This session is aimed at tech-savvy new professionals who want to increase their employability by combining library and IT skills, but may not be aware of the variety of skillsets within the IT profession and how these can be applied. The presentation introduces the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), an IT industry competency framework used in over 200 countries. It then looks at three specific IT skills: user experience evaluation, change management and business process improvemen. Case studies of librarians practising these skills as part of their roles are included, along with pointers to professional development pathways (with a focus on no- or low-cost options).

Transcript

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4.  Website usage doubles when sites are
   made easier to use
    Improved success rates for lower-
   literacy users completing tasks
    Better self-help reduces deskwork
   and phone calls, and frees up staff
   time for more complex work
   Source: Jakob Nielsen (2007), Do Government Agencies and Non-Profits Get ROI From Usability?
   

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6. Read more about Suzy and her experiences in the
   blog post: https://goo.gl/TQo4RS
   

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8.  Read: Weave: Journal of Library User Experience.
    Enrol: Library Juice Academy courses (start with Writing for the Web or DIY Usability
   Testing, US$175 each)
    Browse: Usability.gov, Design Thinking for Libraries: a toolkit for patron-centered design
   and many more
    Experiment: free trials and documentation for tools like Loop11 (online usability testing)
   or Optimal Workshop (card sorting)
    Follow: Matthew Reidsma, Andy Priestner, The Futurelib Innovation Programme and many
   more
   

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10. Because project communications that are
     sufficiently clear and detailed
     in non-technical language
     delivered via the right channels
     to the right people
     at the right time
    increase the chance of project success.
    And this takes planning!
    

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12. Find out more about Julie and her experiences in
    the blog post: https://goo.gl/xeuQlm
    

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14.  Watch: Lynda.com (free trial) Change Management course, especially
    the section on change management in projects
     Read: Esther Cameron and Mike Green (2015), Making sense of change
    management : a complete guide to the models, tools & techniques of
    organizational change (available to borrow)
     Browse: ADKAR Change Management Model
     Find: A project manager or change manager that you can talk to
     Follow: @Prosci
    

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17.  Because small changes can have a
    big impact
     $$$: 10 minutes a day = a week
    of extra time in a year
     Job satisfaction: less repetitive
    process-driven work = more time
    for analysis, strategy, innovation
    

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18. Read more about Susan and her experiences in the
    blog post: https://goo.gl/pFB68B
    

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20.  Read: Marlon Dumas (2013), Fundamentals of Business Process
    Management (available to borrow)
     Experiment: Drawing tools such as Microsoft Visio (licence required) or
    Google Drawings or another free tool
     Enrol: QUT online 3-week course (free, or $49 with a certificate): Business
    Process Management: An Introduction to Process Thinking
     Source: Documents from your organisation that you can use as templates
     Find: A business analyst to talk to about what they do
    

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21.  There are more IT skills out there than you might think
     Many IT skills are picked up on the job or through informal learning - lots of
    free and low-cost options to get started with
     Don’t assume you need knowledge of specific technologies – successful IT
    projects require lots of other skills that are transferrable from librarianship
     Just ask – most people love to tell you about what they do!
    

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