Play with your technology
librarian.net hit on one of my pet peeves yesterday: overly specific technology requirements. Actually, it’s hardly a pet peeve, because I think reliance on knowing any specific technology or software is the downfall of many a curriculum, job ad, and job candidate. If you can learn how to use one office suite, you can learn how to use any office suite. If, however, you have simply memorized a kajillion keyboard shortcuts to get a certificate, well, all I know is that I wouldn’t want to challenge you to a game of Memory.
Blake’s list on LISNews mentions one skill that is probably overlooked: learning a programming language. I wrote “learning” and not “knowing” on purpose. I learned Logo and later Lisp as a youngster and took a couple of courses in Pascal in college (the only two computer science courses offered at my college). I doubt I could write a program in any of them right now, but when I was helping a colleague edit the templates for our library’s fledgling WordPress blog, it was helpful that I could recognize if-then statements in the PHP code.
Probably the most valuable skill I have is the ability to learn software quickly, and I credit not just growing up with technology, but being actively encouraged by my parents to play with it.
