PALNI Code School: Developing Skills for the Future of Librarianship

Common belief of the day is that the field of librarianship is trending toward Public Services. While this may be true, the technical skills needed to navigate the complex world of APIs and cloud-based service platforms continue to increase. Beginning in July 2015, the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) began funding individual subscriptions to the online learning platform Code School (https://www.codeschool.com/). A cohort of twelve PALNI librarians signed on to participate. Participants were assessed before and after completing specific courses in Code School. This presentation will briefly introduce attendees to the Code School platform, look at the importance of technical expertise to the future of librarianship, examine the impact the Code School subscription had on overall skill level of participants, and demonstrate how PALNI is using the newly acquired skills to benefit member schools, the larger consortium, and the OCLC WorldShare Management Services user community