Library Carpentry and real world librarianship
The Carpentries, a model for teaching “foundational coding and data science skills to
researchers worldwide” (https://carpentries.org/), are slowly gaining traction in research
institutions in NZ. The short workshops (usually run over two days) aim to provide access to
computational skills development in an environment where time constraints on the part of
faculty means these skills are mostly left up to individuals to teach themselves. Librarians
have also seen the value in this approach to teach their colleagues skills they might not
otherwise have the time or opportunity to learn. Enter: Library Carpentry. But how applicable
are coding and data science skills to librarians in their day-to-day work?
This presentation will introduce Library Carpentry - what it is and how it is taught - and
address the question of how it can be connected to real world Librarianship. How can we
show transfer of learning to real work situations? How do we follow up workshops to ensure
we continue to develop and embed these skills? How might we go about evaluating the
learning that takes place (especially in the context of recent challenges to the ‘boot camp’ or
short course format as an ineffective model for encouraging long-term learning)? Finally,
how can you get certified to instruct Carpentry workshops?
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Anton Angelo is Research Data Co-ordinator at the University of Canterbury, and a certified
Carpentries Instructor. He has led Software and Data carpentry events, and is involved in
developing Library Carpentry lessons, specifically in programming. Anton uses a variety of
tools to analyse library related data at Canterbury, and advises staff and students on
research data management.
Antje Lübcke is a Research Services Librarian in the Research Support Unit of the University of
Otago Library, and (as of 25 October 2018) a certified Carpentries Instructor. Her
background is not, however, in libraries, having completed her PhD in the early photographic
history of Papua New Guinea at the Australian National University in January 2017. During
her studies, Antje also worked on digitisation projects in archives in Australia and New
Zealand.
