NCompass Live: Learning New Technologies On-the-Fly: Vendorbrarian to Public Librarian

NCompass Live - August 7, 2024
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ncompasslive/

The last few years have changed how we all work. In October 2019, Maclin-Hurd started a new position as the Polaris sys admin for the WAGGIN Libraries. Serving 20 public libraries across three counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, she had no prior knowledge of Polaris or Innovative products, and no previous tech background. In March 2020, the world shut down. Leaning into her previous experience as a "vendorbrarian," she somehow managed to bring all 20 libraries through the worst of shutdowns, curbside pickups, and sick time, all intact. But how do you teach yourself new skills with no traditional support to speak of? Internet to the rescue! Maclin-Hurd discusses how she used Gale courses, sites like Stack Social and Tech Soup, signing up for every single webinar she could find, and attending virtual conferences and trainings to self-teach herself things like cloud computing, basic printer support 101, and SQL. It involved a lot of tears and a lot of tea. But now, she gets to joke confidentially, "Actually, yes, I do break our ILS on purpose." Share her journey from complete library tech newbie to less of a tech newbie, and all the ways she did it.

Presenter: Stefanie Maclin-Hurd, ILS Support Librarian, WAGGIN Libraries.

1. Learning New Technologies on the Fly:
From Vendorbrarian to Public Librarian
Stefanie Maclin-Hurd, MLIS
ILS Support Librarian
WAGGIN District Libraries

Computers in Libraries, 2024

2. How many cups of tea do
you think I averaged?
●1-2
●2-4
●4-5

3. ●Started job October 2019
●Manage ILS (Polaris) for 20
public libraries across 3 SW PA
counties
●NOT a tech person.
●MLIS in 2010 with a
specialization in Archives.
●Spent ~7 years in corporate
librarianship, with focuses on
reference, research, and
cataloging.
Who am I?

4. Support? What support?
Job Basics
●Met with Predecessor 3x
●Each library has different funding,
different needs, different communities
Figuring it out: the early days
●I didn’t know IUG existed.
●Pour over the Knowledgebase, and send
near-daily emails to my Site Manager.
●Received many emails back *assuming*
I already knew the answer.
●Much of my process was breaking
something, then attempting to retrace
my steps to fix it again.

5. Shutdown - the early weeks
●My “attempting to break something” became the norm.
●Even Polaris/Innovative didn’t know how to do certain things.
○Holds?
○Upgrade Days

6. The Shutdown goes on… and on… and on…
●Eventually, found a rhythm. Which involved zoom meetings, weekly kvetch
sessions with my boss, daily nap fights with my then-toddler (always right
when I had a meeting), and a constant refrain of Daniel Tiger.


“...won’t you be my neighbor…?”

7. So you want to learn “tech”?
How did I do it?
●WAGGIN offers free Gale courses with
library card.
●Taught myself extremely basic Python
and Javascript via Youtube videos.
●Crowd-sourced information through FB
groups and Twitter.


●

8. Gale Courses
●Understanding the Cloud (Cloud Computing)
●Wireless Networking (Introduction, Intermediate, Wireless)
●Introduction and Advanced PC Security
●Introduction to SQL

9. Nebraska Library
Commission
https://nlc.nebraska.gov/ncompassliv
e/ncarchivelist.asp

10. TechSoup

Community Events and Webinars Archive (techsoup.org)

11. So you want to learn to code?
Mosh Hademi:
python mosh hamedani - Search Videos (bing.com)

Code Academy:
https://www.codecademy.com/

12. Polaris Courses
https://innovative.libguides.com/polaris

13. Finally Finding IUG (Innovative User Group)
●Discord!
●Conferences!
●Forums!
●“In-Person” Support

14. Stress, anxiety,
and isolation,
oh my!
●During second or third week, I
had a massive Panic Attack
●Called my boss in tears.
●Reminded these were
unprecedented times

15. Learning flexibility…
●Needed to learn how to work from home
●And how I best learned new tricks
○Visual vs Audio vs Doing it
●That some days, I needed to “let it go”.

16. …because you
want me to do
what?
●“Duties unassigned”
●Default IT person for the
smaller libraries in my district
(consortia)

17. ●Improved my tech skills
●Remote working resulted in
better productivity, but more
caffeine drinking
●Required greater flexibility,
adaptability, and multitasking.
What were the
results?

18. And Finally… Just for Laughs…
●Average 2-4 cups of tea each day
●My kid learned basic SQL with me, and still
draws “computers” to work too. (He’s 6 now.)

But seriously…
●Learned how to be a “tech person” on the job

19. Contact Information
[email protected]
LinkedIn: Stefanie R. (Maclin) Maclin-Hurd | LinkedIn
I can also be found on Discord and BlueSky
(azpidistra).