I finally managed to catch up on responses to the comments that have come in over the last month (my policy is to try to respond to every comment I get – post a “hey Jay” and see if it's true! 
) There was one a month ago from Taryn that said this:
“Hi Jason, I'm a prospective MLIS student who reads your blog
occasionally. Could you please do a post on how the technical aspects
of Web site creation/blogging have evolved for you? Also, in your
opinion, what skills should every librarian have with regard to Web
site creation/management? Basically, I'd like to expand upon my basic
HTML/Dreamweaver skills, and I don't know where to start! Thanks.”
Okey-dokey, big responsibility – the first “post by request” as opposed to my usual “post by rambling monologue”. Let's break this assignment into two parts.
How have the technical aspects of web design evolved for me over time?
I am a self-taught web guy who designed my first web page in 1997. In the beginning, I was doing straight hand-coding of HTML, a skill that anybody should be able to pick up fairly quickly and the best place to start (ie. don't just rely on a front-end program like Dreamweaver but learn what's happening behind the scenes.) Eventually I moved to using front-end programs as web design became more complex – Luckman's WebEdit was a shareware program I used for the longest time that was quite useful. I've tried a variety of programs over the years – both freeware and uhm, copywrong-ware. I was usually pretty anal about not using programs that messed up my code very much and tried to avoid things like FrontPage and even Dreamweaver which I found often added crap you didn't want or deleting stuff that you did. Eventually (around 2002?), I began using another Macromedia program called Contribute for the majority of my basic updates. Contribute is a really handy front-end program – it makes web design as easy as using Microsoft Word (although obviously, it isn't as crappy as Word at doing HTML stuff). Around this time, I also began letting most of my contract work go as I realised that the skills needed to be a successful stand-alone web designer had passed me by (very few people these days have the trifecta – web design, graphic design/layout, and programming).
The next step in my “evolution” was starting a blog last year. I'm very glad that I have the background and skills to go in to tweak things as needed but essentially, the biggest change over time for me was that web design was very easy at first (basic HTML only), got more complex over time (stylesheets, Flash, programming, etc.) but then got easier again as blogs, wikis, widgets and other tools became available. Now, a person with absolutely no knowledge of HTML or any other web design skills (CSS, programming languages, etc.) can be up and running with their own site/blog/listserv/wiki in minutes.
What Skills Should Every Librarian Have In Regards To Web Site Creation/Management?
This is a contentious issue that I've had arguments with various fellow students about (often on this blog!) So let me begin with an anecdote. When the Writers Guild of Alberta was redesigning their web site in 2003 (?) or so, I was put in charge of the project based on my web design background and experience. But because of the scope of the site they wanted to design with an interactive membership directory, dynamic pags and so on, we hired an outside contractor to do the actual design of the site while my role was to simply be the project supervisor. Somewhere, maybe halfway through the project, the contractor and I were talking and he goes “I'm so glad you speak my language. That's so rare in the work I do that people can communicate what they want.” Translation: maybe I couldn't do all of the database programming and related work that needed to be done to design a site like this myself anymore. But I knew enough to be able to understand what was (and wasn't) possible and to communicate what we wanted to him effectively. (Of course, I look at that site now and find it pretty underwhelming. But at the time, I assure you it was cutting edge!) So that's a long answer to the question. A short answer is that, yes, as others I've argued this point with in the past have pointed out, in this day and age, if you're in a library of any size, you'll likely have specialists who do the actual web work – either internally or contracted externally. But I still would argue that a librarian should have a pretty good grasp of basic web design principles, databases, graphic design and related topics. And ideally, they should at least be able to do some of these things as well as understand them. (Of course, this can backfire – I've seen official library web pages which were obviously done by people with very little to no understanding of web design – weird colors, distorted images, obscure fonts – the list of sins is endless.) Still, as technology and the Internet become more central to our profession, the need for informed librarians will only increase.
Taryn, I hope that answers the question and thanks for the request!
