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

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?
6. Read more about Suzy and her experiences in the blog post: https://goo.gl/TQo4RS
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
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!
12. Find out more about Julie and her experiences in the blog post: https://goo.gl/xeuQlm
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
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
18. Read more about Susan and her experiences in the blog post: https://goo.gl/pFB68B
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
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!