Are Programming and Management Skills Under-Taught in Library Schools?

p strongLibrary-science faculty see important gaps in both technical and managerial preparation&mdashtwo areas increasingly central to library careers./strong/p p Primary Research Group found that 44% of surveyed faculty believed programming was not taught enough. A similar share expressed concern about management training. Respondents also called for more hands-on learning and stronger integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain./p p Not every librarian needs to become a software developer or senior administrator. Graduates do, however, benefit from understanding data structures, automation, systems procurement, budgets, supervision and project management. These skills help them work across departments and evaluate vendors even when they are not writing production code or managing a large staff./p p Programs can integrate the gaps through applied assignments rather than adding a separate course for every topic. Students might clean data, automate a small workflow, write a technology proposal, build a project plan or analyze a service budget. Partnerships with libraries can supply realistic problems and feedback./p p The curriculum question is one of fluency and transfer. Graduates should be able to recognize a technical or managerial problem, communicate with specialists and make responsible decisions&mdashskills that remain useful even as specific platforms change./p p  /p