So, You’re Afraid of Technology?

Posted October 18, 2024 by Erin Wood

You love books and decide you want to go into library science, but during your research you find out you’ll have to work closely with computers and even learn how to code. You aren’t great with technology, you studied humanities in undergrad, you can’t learn code! If this sounds like you, don’t worry, that was me too. In fact, that’s how it is for a lot of people entering the field.

Technology is scary! But I promise it’s not as scary as it seems, and I’m so bad with technology I often refer to myself as a “grandma” when it comes to doing anything beyond opening a word document. In fact, my own Nana was definitely better with technology than me. You are not expected to know anything about coding prior to entering library science school, professors tend to operate under the assumption that everyone is a beginner because, more often than not, that is the case. From my experience, my professors have been extremely thorough, provide us with a lot of helpful resources, and constantly encourage questions. This semester, I have to make a website for one of my classes, and every single library student to come through the program will at some point have to do the same. I was horrified when I learned this at the start of the semester, but I could not have been more surprised by how well I have taken to the process. Of course, it has been challenging, and it will likely continue to be, but I actually understand the content and can see myself being genuinely good at it in the future. It’s going to look different than what you might be used to, but that doesn’t mean you’re incapable.

While technology is ingrained in the field, it’s not the only part of the job and some librarians are going to work with it more than others. It’s scary and foreign to a lot of people coming into this, but it’s so worth it in the end. Trust me, if I can feel comfortable coding, you can too.