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To: GovernmentShrinker
Right, That's fine. The people writing or managing that software and databases aren't librarians. They get people with degrees in comp sci/comp sys and system admins handle that. I've worked on projects for library's before. I (the computer scientist) was writing the db interface for the web, not the librarians.

Your average Office work who deals with spread sheets, Access databases, or even the management of web applications doesn't need a degree in computer science to use those tools. If they were writing those tools at a code level (as opposed to a macro in excel) Then yeah, they need a degree or some other training or experience.
I would be interested in what actually goes on in those classes that mentioned some IT work. I conceded that Librarians might need to know some basic IT work, they don't need to know any Computer science work though. IT isn't computer science, that misnomer gets tossed around and i was making an attempt to clean it up.
72 posted on 03/23/2005 10:12:34 AM PST by tfecw (Vote Democrat, It's easier than working)
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To: tfecw

Many graduate schools offering Library Science degrees are also offering "Information Science" degrees and combined "Library Information Science" degrees. These tend to be more tech oriented, and usually require some basic programming courses, and other computer training that goes beyond how to use software that somebody else wrote. Senior librarians are often in charge of large budgets, including choosing and purchasing hardware and software, and thus need to be qualified to evaluate various systems' capabilities vs. cost. It's nowhere near the level of "computer science" that's involved in creating such systems, but still a highly technical field.

A childhood friend of mine who was a hardcore computer geek got her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Rice University, and later went on to get a graduate degree in Library Science, which was most definitely focused on advanced applied computer science (since I know she wasn't interested in anything else).


73 posted on 03/23/2005 10:27:37 AM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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