Ask Trish

O'Reilly School of Technology Guidance Counselor Trish Gray answers your questions about your I.T. Career goals and how to reach them.

About the Author
In addition to helping students and I.T. professionals for 13 years, Tricia Mills Gray has been the Senior Development Manager of OST since it's inception as UserActive in 1997. She was the 2002 SBA Midwest Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and is currently writing the OST PHP/SQL Series for release this summer. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois College of Engineering.

Landing a Web 2.0 Job

Dear Trish:
I have registered for the 3 classes in the Client Side Certificate, and I plan to ultimately register for the Web Programming Certificate classes. I wanted to know if there is a certificate in the works about Web 2.0 in relation to libraries. I copied a job description for you. As you can see it is vague.

At first I thought it was a fancy title: "Web Services for Reference Librarian". Low and behold, I found out differently. I did some research and found out it is comprised of social software -- blogging, rss, xml, etc. I assure you none of the library schools are preparing librarians for these kind of jobs.

Is there something in the works at the O'Reilly School of Technology for Web 2.0?

I will keep in touch.
Cathy from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
P.S. I saw this article on Yahoo. The Web Developer part is very encouraging: Top Five Professions in Demand for 2007

Dear Cathy:
Don't let that vague job description intimidate you. It's obvious that the library is not sure exactly what they want this person to do, because they probably aren't sure themselves what it means to connect technologies with library services in a "Web 2.0" way. It appears they are looking for someone who can spearhead this initiative herself, and that could certainly be you.

You see, web services are simply a programming "glue" between HTML-based websites and back-end software -- like a programming library or API. AJAX, which you are learning in your current Client-Side Certificate series, is a type of web service. As you'll find out in the course, XML is used simply as an agreed-upon language in which to send input and output between the Web and the back-end software (in your case, library database software most likely) using Web Services like AJAX. If you plan to use open source (ie Linux) systems in this job, then you'll learn most of the tools you need through the Client Side and the Web Programming Certificates that you're already planning to take. (The Open Source Certificate is also an option here.)

Now, Web 2.0 is not really a set of technologies, but more of a concept -- how you use the technologies in a forward-thinking way. It simply means that the software and web interfaces you build will be designed with the user in mind. For instance, the Learning Sandbox tool used in our courses can be considered a Web 2.0 application, even though it was built initially in 1998 -- before the term was coined! But the Sandbox allows you, the user, to build things freely. MySpace and YouTube are also considered Web 2.0 applications, because they allow users to build things for themselves. Does that make sense? For more information, check out Tim O'Reilly's article What is Web 2.0?

So with your library background, you're probably already familiar with the specific library systems. And when you've completed both Certificates, you'll have the tools you need to build front-end systems, back-end systems, and the web services in between. After that, you simply need to research some popular Web 2.0 sites listed in the article to see what sets them apart conceptually from more traditional web sites. Chances are, you'll come up with some cool ideas on how to apply those concepts to library systems -- and THAT's the point at which you are ready to march into the Web Services for Reference Librarian position with complete authority.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Thanks,
Trish

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