Library Technology Career Jumpstart Program prepares students to meet the unknown needs of tech-infused futures

Technology changes fast. The tools and practices that librarians use to do their jobs today might look very different in a year or two. How can library and information science graduate programs keep their instruction cutting-edge when that edge moves so quickly? That’s a huge challenge, but libraries can help.

The NC State University Libraries debuted its Library Technology Career Jumpstart Program over the first full week of August. Designed to help position first-year library school students for a career in library technology upon graduation, the program was conceived from observing the hiring processes of the Libraries’ tech-focused departments. Some of the job candidates applying to join the Libraries had proficiency in handling data and instruction in coding and web development. Other candidates had little to none.

“There are lots of technical roles available in libraries, but not always enough people with the skills necessary to fill those roles, particularly in the entry-level hiring pool,” says Tori Culler, Libraries Fellow. “And we know, from speaking with others at peer institutions, this isn’t just an issue for us at our Libraries.”

The immersive, weeklong Jumpstart program, held entirely online, focused as much on responsiveness to library user needs as it did on changing technologies. Each participant was paired with a librarian mentor based on their interests. Participants learned about how technology has transformed the Libraries through project showcases while also taking hands-on workshops that introduced specific technical skills like coding, web development, and machine learning. The program also provided practical knowledge including how to apply and interview for one’s first library tech job, build a technical portfolio, curate one’s web presence, and navigate the fast-changing profession.

“Library and information science programs vary widely when it comes to teaching tech skills—some schools offer lots of courses in this vein, others offer next to none,” Culler says. “And even when schools do offer plenty of opportunity to follow a technical career trajectory, the path forward isn’t always clear cut.” 

“What are my options for a technically oriented career in libraries? What sorts of job titles should I be looking for and where should I be looking for them? What tech-centered classes are important for me to take? In what order? What kinds of part-time jobs and internships should I be seeking out to build up my technical skill set? From my own experience and what I’ve learned from others, it’s often much later in your already short graduate school program when you start to ask these questions, by which point it can be pretty difficult to course-correct if you decide that you would like to.”

Lillianna Cervantes, a current staff member at the University of Wyoming Libraries who is about to begin her graduate studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was part of the first Jumpstart cohort. Through her work in libraries, as well as with the Wyoming Latina Youth Conference, she sees the potential for library technology to help democratize information access. 

“Growing up as a Latina in northern Wyoming, I was one of a handful of POC in the community,” Cervantes says. “My experiences as I grew led to great certainty that equitable access to information should be maintained and provided for all ages, genders, races, and capabilities.”

“The current pandemic laid bare the ‘digital divide’ to the access, use, and effect technology can have between demographics,” she continues. “This divide can mean a lack of access to technology, but can also refer to differences in technology as well. Differences such as the quality of the equipment, the speed of their internet, technical assistance, etc. How do we, as an academic institution, identify student needs, and create models for providing continued equitable access? That’s where data analysis and visualization skills would come in handy.”

Jake Tompkins, another Jumpstart participant, is in the Library and Information Science graduate program at UCLA, specializing in informatics. He plans to pursue a career in user experience research and design and has interests in digital humanities as well—he works with digital ephemera and ancient manuscripts in the Digital Library Program at UCLA’s Young Research Library.

“I was really impressed with the workshops offered in the program and felt that they provided me with a great starting point to explore the tools further on my own,” Tompkins says. “As someone interested in human-computer interaction and user experience design, I really loved the website development workshop and learning about how to write scripts in Python and Flask to build web applications that can be used in libraries. As an aspiring user experience librarian, I think this kind of exposure to web development will be really valuable when I begin designing new systems to help share resources with users.”

Tompkins was paired with the Libraries’ Robin Davis, a User Experience Librarian, as a mentor. He found that learning about the various projects she’s worked on, particularly those concerning neurodiverse users, complemented the workshop instruction in an important way. When it comes to technical skills, he’s found it necessary to combine learning on the job with learning in the classroom.

“The Jumpstart program really helped me solidify some technical skills that have come up a lot in my work in the Digital Library Program,” he says. “My program doesn’t offer very robust training on some of the technical skills and tools we will use in our career, so I typically rely on building these skills through my work in the library.”

“Through Jumpstart’s planning committee and presenters, I’ve had the opportunity to build a fantastic network of people to lean on for support as I begin my graduate program,” Cervantes adds. “My cohort is filled with diverse people at all stages of their graduate career and from all walks of life. And my mentor, Natalia Lopez, is a rockstar!”

Culler and the Jumpstart program planning committee designed the program to help young librarians of different backgrounds and ambitions like Cervantes and Tompkins. The committee consists of Culler; Kevin Beswick, Lead Librarian for Software Development; Robin Davis, User Experience Librarian; Natalia Lopez, Data & Visualization Librarian; Jennifer Garrett, Director, Talent Management; and Bret Davidson, Former Associate Head of Digital Library Initiatives. The team knows that a graduate program can’t be expected to prepare students for every user need they’ll find in every library out there.

“A growth mindset is really valuable to foster and is something that I hope we can impart to our participants,” Culler says. “They aren’t going to graduate from their programs as expert coders or web developers, but what they will hopefully know after they spend a week with us is how to engage in that process of perpetual, self-motivated learning.”

“You don’t need to know everything about a particular technology to create something that is useful for your users. All you really need to master is enough of the basics of Python, or HTML, or CSS, or a web framework, or whatever it is to get around, and then from there it’s a matter of knowing how to ask the right questions to find what you need to accomplish the task you’ve set out to do.”

“And that’s what I think draws so many of us to libraries and archives anyway--the superpower that comes from knowing where to look and who to ask to discover what you don’t know so that you can put all the pieces together into something that provides value to others.”