reflection

Code4Lib 2012: Conference Reflections

For those unfamiliar with Code4Lib, it is generally described as a community of computer programmers who work in information organizations, primarily libraries (2007 Code4Lib Conference Report, 2007). While geared towards programmers, the community has expanded to include many who are not coders, but have some background and a great interest in computers and technology in information organizations. To learn more: take a look at the journal, check out the website, follow the Twitter feed, sign up for the mailing list, or lurk in the IRC channel.

Pre-Conference

There were so many pre-conference sessions that I wanted to attend or at least sit in on. While some of the sessions were workshop-like where a speaker presented for (more than) half the time and there was some hands on activity afterwards, others were very much a facilitated discussion, similar to a breakout session.

The metadata session was quite interested as there were many people who were neither coders, nor cataloguers present. Honestly, I think the big takeaway at the end of the session was that cataloguers and coders need to talk to each other (not at each other) and try to understand that neither can simply work ‘magic’.

I also got the chance to go across the river on the Microsoft Tour in the evening, where a group of us got to see prototypes of technologies they are working on and play with some of them. There were also presentations on some of the open projects they are working on, including Microsoft Academic Search, which looks like a nicer version of Google Scholar. If they get library full text linking, I think it could be pushed out fairly easily for mass use.

Keynotes

The keynotes were so thought provoking. While Dan Chudnov’s keynote touched on his life lessons and the need for change for the conference, Bethany Nowviskie’s keynotediscussed the need for lazy consensus in our work place. Seemingly different topics, but I think they both touch on an issue that has been driving change in some organizations, or simply being ignored at others (or somewhere in between). Libraries (and other information organizations) and its people need to change and evolve in order to continually find its place among the world and how they play a role in people’s lives. Part of adapting is to attempting to keep up with the world as it changes – technological, culturally, socially, economically – but also being flexible enough to accommodate our own changing organization and work environment. While change is rarely easy, we can become so much better by embracing it.

Conference Presentations

While some of the presentations were honestly too code-centric or technical for me to truly comprehend, I learnt about new tools and got a lot of great ideas. I also realized that I should really acquire more programming knowledge and skills. I have as a result started CodeYear though I’m a bit behind.

Lightning talks are probably my favourite part of the conference since we get to hear about so many new ideas and projects that we might otherwise not hear about. As part of that, I think many will agree that the Code4Lib Japan team presented some of the most impressive projects especially surrounding the disaster relief efforts, and creating a meta-OPAC to search and provide information on all of Japan’s libraries. They also showed great courage in presenting in English (as many of us have enough difficulty presenting in our native language).

While completely nervous, it was also fun to get an opportunity to do a lightning talk myself on Processing.js, which I’ve honestly never used but am excited about having seen some of the projects made with it. Maybe next time I should do it on Popcorn Maker (if they get it into beta) or one of the projects I expect to be working on this year.

Ask Anything was also a great session where I got to ask about how others are implementing a wayfinding tool as we would like to do. Of course, the mailing list is also a great place for that, and I now have lots of reading to do (in addition to the CSS3 book I won!). Some of the presentations have also given me further ideas on what might be done (better) at our institution, and I hope to have to the chance to implement at least some of them.

Social Events

I can’t talk about Code4Libcon and not mention the social events. As a first timer, it can be tough to feel like you belong, especially when you’re the only one from your institution, so it was great that there were organized dinners/groups, especially the newcomer dinner. There was lots of great food that was eaten and awesome company to have interesting discussions. Hopefully with having chosen slightly farther places, I walked it all off! I also enjoyed the after dinner socials including the beer drink up (even though I don’t drink beer), which was a great opportunity to talk to people since there’s usually too many things going on during the day to truly have the chance.

Connections

While the presentations were great, the socials were fun, and the backchannels (Twitter and IRC) provided links and laughs, what I have taken away from the conference of the utmost importance are the connections I have made with people, whether it be to learn more about tools we would like to build, to ~~stalk~~ follow them because of their interesting tweets, or simply to keep in touch because I had an interesting conversation with them. Dan hit the nail on the head when he said that we come for the people. (We love you too, Dan.)

On an interesting side note, while it was not intentional, my blog saw a major spike in activity due to my blogging on the conference (peak of 590 in a day!). I honestly primarily did it for myself, but I am glad that people have found it useful and its flattering to see so many people visit. I have edited them and added as many links and presenter slides/videos as possible to help those who could not attend (and would prefer not to sit through the video archive).

Acknowledgements

This was my first Code4Lib Conference and only my second conference. I am very happy that I got the opportunity to attend, which I could not have done without the support of my supervisor and institution, and especially the Oregon State University and the Digital Library Federation who sponsored five Minority and Gender Diversity Scholarships, one of which I received. I was particularly grateful of the fact that the scholarship was not geared for students, but for those in need of funding, which frequently applies to new graduates or term employees (or both, which is where I fit in).

C4L Organizers — (Some of the) C4L12 Organizers

Thanks again to all the hosts, organizers, volunteers, speakers, A/V guy, social event leaders, and everyone else who made the conference possible. I look forward to 2013 in Chicago!

The Whirlwind of Getting and Starting a New Job

I got a job! Mind you, it’s a contract and not a permanent job, but I think any new graduate will agree that even that is a feat when looking only within Canada, and being at least somewhat particular about what job to accept. In light of the whole process, I thought I would reflect a little on various aspects of getting and starting a job.

Prioritizing

I think it’s important for every person to decide on what they want in a job before applying to everything. Totally common sense I’m sure, but strangely for me, it took some time to really figure out what I wanted in terms of:

type of position – willing to take anything? including non-professional positions?
location – willing to move? what regions? urban or rural?
type of organization – libraries only or other information organizations?
salary – is there a minimum amount?

I’ll not spend time on the application and interview parts of the process as I’ve covered them before in other posts. I will only say that while it’s important to be flexible, you might think about whether you’re willing to spend money on flying somewhere if the organization will not pay for you.

My Interview

My interview was a particularly interesting situation as due to the available times, I ended up doing my interview after a 10-hour flight which I was sick on, 1-hour train ride, 20-minutes car ride, and a few hours to prepare and feel better. We also had a couple of technical difficulties, but I took them in stride (always have a back up plan!) as well as I could.

I also got asked a lot of questions about things that I honestly just did not know about. JAZZ? REST? Huh? Others I knew, but had absolutely no experience in, like AJAX, ColdFusion. I admitted to being unfamiliar with them and tried to emphasize that I am willing to learn (though I felt like a little bit of a broken record by the time I was done). Still, I think the important lesson is not to be daunted by the questions, since the questions are asked of all the interviewees.

Negotiating a Contract

As a new graduate, I was very nervous about negotiating my first professional contract. Thankfully, I had just finished my management class, so I took the advice of my instructor and inquired about:

benefits
relocation
vacation/sick leave
professional development
higher than minimum salary by considering my student work

Some things were a simple ‘no’ as mine is a contract and not a permanent position, but then I would never have known without asking. I think the last is especially important since many graduates may think that their work as a student will not count towards their salary, and while at some organizations it may not get the same level of consideration, that does not mean it will not be considered at all.

Starting a New Job

It’s important to know where you’re going and what time you’re expected the first day (oh and knowing what to bring for HR form filling), but beyond that, I think it’s okay to just take your time getting into it. Certainly, I’ve been a little worried especially since there are various technical things to take care of, but thankfully, people seem very understanding of needing some time to settle in.

Getting a Job Also Means Not Always Taking a Job

So recently, many people I know (including myself) have been applying for jobs. Although it may be tempting as a new graduate to take any job that comes along (especially a permanent one), over the course of a couple of co-ops and student jobs, I began to realize that one of the most important aspects of a job is the work environment. This may seem obvious, but again, as a new graduate, most of us would be happy to even get an interview, let alone a hopes at a job.

Red Flags

Even as new graduates, I think we should have certain expectations and if something throws up a red flag, we should be careful. If something throws up two or three, remember to reconsider whether you would take the job.

Say you get an interview. Great, right? Well, yes… but then what if some worrisome things started popping up? If say it was a permanent position, I would expect a lot of libraries to fly someone in for a second stage in-person interview. If they’re not willing, you might look into why. Budget might be a reason in the current economic environment, but then you might also consider whether the job is worth paying hundreds of dollars for the interview.

How was the first interview? Did you get a good sense of how people were like? Did you like the way that they did it? Did you feel like you were wasting your time? If you get negative ‘vibe’, research more about the library, ask colleagues and friends if they know anything. Think about whether you would want to work there for a year, for five, for ten.

Prepare Your Own Questions

I think the easiest way to get a better feel is to ask your own questions at the end of the interview. Again, this sounds obvious, but some people do not seem to be willing to ask questions such as:

How would you describe your management style?
How would you describe the team dynamics?
What do you like most about working for your organization?
Is there anything that stands out as a benefit to working for your organization?
etc.

I’ve asked these questions before myself and have gotten some pretty good answers from some and some vague ones from others. Vague isn’t always bad since it depends who your interviewers are, but on a panel, there should be at least one person who can properly answer each question.

Programming & Software Design Research Guide – LIBR 530

So for LIBR 530, we were to make a mini-subject guide and write up services that we would propose for the use of a specific type of person. To explain, the persona I chose is a computer science faculty member working on the more ‘theoretical’ side of things.

Lack of Literature

It was actually very difficult to find any research done on information behaviours for computer science faculty, especially anything recent and in the library context. I had to extrapolate from other research on scientists or computer science professionals and much of it I actually got from asking people I knew who had either done research or current faculty members.

The Resources

Interestingly, on the flip side, it was not hard at all to find out which resources were the most important ones. As conferences and its proceedings/reports are so important in the field, the big associations have their own publications and digital libraries. Google Scholar is frequently used because it indexes proceedings, reports (including technical reports), and online writings (vs. formal publications) from academic and research sites.

The Services

I don’t feel as if the services are original in any way, but I thought they were the most useful regardless. The hardest part of putting them into place, especially the first two, is the licensing and copyright involved. I wonder if lecture notes database already exist in an academic institution, in which case, it should be fairly easy to simply replicate.

Honestly, not my best work. I didn’t spend as much time on it as I would have liked, because I just didn’t have the time to. If I could do it over again, I would have taken more time to research and interview people, possibly even do a mini-study. I probably would have focused on the more application and technology side of computer science as well since that’s where my interest lie or do a completely different subject that I know nothing about.

Learning PHP LIBR 559P @ SLAIS

So this term, I decided to take the 1-credit Introductory PHP course, LIBR 599P.

Topics Covered

What is PHP?
PHP language basics – print, comments
Variables (pre-defined, defining, manipulating) and arrays – create, print
Passing Data – POST & GET
If/else and For Loop
Functions – basic building, using
PHP & HTML

Short Reflection

It’s so hard to digest such complex information in two full day classes though the first day especially was done well. I really do think it’d be nice to have instead a more advanced HTML/CSS plus introduction to JavaScript, PHP/MySQL or something similar. Full day classes just don’t work with programming of any sort. It takes a lot of time to digest especially when the topic is new and you may have not so tech-savvy students taking the class. I’m really thankful that I have enough of a background to easily grasp what she taught plus everything that Mike also taught in addition when I posed questions on the methodology used in completing my assignments.

Assignments

I admit right up front that I could have put more effort into the content and making it look pretty, but I had so many other assignments due around the same time that I focused more on writing good code while following assignment and instructor specifications.

Assignment 1: Show your knowledge of working with variables.
Assignment 2: Create a feedback form, e-mailing the results to a specific recipient. (Note: This form will always fail because SLAIS servers do not have the mail function enabled.)
Assignment 3: Create a mini-quiz and feedback form for a first year library workshop, e-mailing the results to the student and librarian.

One specific improvement I made in this one is a full error listing instead of listing only the first error encountered as we were taught in class. Also, in the real world, I would naturally never make people use the back button at all!

Please note that the e-mail function is blocked on the SLAIS servers, but I did test it on an e-mail enabled PHP server and both work.