Home
The Coding Workshop meets Fridays from 2-3 pm, usually in McKeldin B0228 (DSS Conference Room).
The coding workshop is a forum and a gathering space for library staff interested in coding/computer programming. It is part support group, part learning experience, and part discussion forum. You need no experience whatsoever to participate.
The group began meeting in August 2013, and has been through a number of transformations over its life. It currently functions more like an interest-group than a class. Beginning participants are encouraged to work through Codecademy lessons at their own pace outside of meetings and bring questions for discussion to the weekly meetings. Meetings also feature presentations on discrete topics related to programming, and project-oriented work sessions (either individually or in groups). The primary language of focus is Python, but other languages and technologies are often discussed.
Why should library staff learn code? Good question. There are at least three answers:
- to gain the ability to write a simple application to make your work easier or better;
- to communicate better with IT people, including vendors;
- to improve upon interfaces or tools we are already using, e.g., Libguides, Worldcat UMD, and so forth.
For a fuller, better answer to this question, see Why Librarians Should Learn Python, written by Andromeda Yelton--one of the leaders in the librarian coder movement.
One resource we have used in the past in this group is CodeAcademy. CodeAcademy provides free online tutorials on a number of programming languages and the library community has formed several support groups for librarians who are using the tutorials. One of the best places to start for learning programming is with the Python tutorials. Python is a programming language that is popular among professionals and hobbyists alike for its intuitive syntax, flexibility, and power.
We have also used video tutorials available to all UMD affiliates through the institutional subscription to Lynda.com.
In addition to these training tools, meetings have included informal presentations and discussions of relevant topics, such as: setting up a development environment, hosting an application, using version tracking techniques and software, and works in progress. Finally, the Coding Workshop has been, and will continue to be, a gathering place where like-minded staff members can bounce ideas off one another, and find project collaborators. The group has also at times taken a project-based approach, with discussions of project design and collaborative coding on library-related projects.