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University of Sussex digital historian James Baker believes that "[librarians play a crucial role in cultivating world-class research and in most disciplinary areas today world-class research relies on the use of software" (software.ac.uk/blog/201702-24-library-carpentry-software-skillsworkshops-librarians). Universities and research centers have made data science an integral part of their training programs, and the nonprofit Software Carpentry (software-carpentry.org) and Data Carpentry (datacarpentry.org) organizations have addressed this need for the research community. But what about the training needs of information professionals who support these research projects?
According to Baker, Library Carpentry, established in 2015, is "comparable [to the Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry] introductory software skills training programme with a focus on the needs and requirements of library professionals. ... As librarians have substantial expertise working with data, we believe that adding software skills to their armoury is an effective and important use of [a] professional development resource that benefits both library professionals and their colleagues and collaborators across higher education and beyond."
A NEW MODEL FOR TRAINING RESEARCH SKILLS
The structure of all of these carpentry programs is unique-and clearly successful. The audiences are increasingly global, as all types of information professionals see the importance of "critical computational and data skills they need to serve their stakeholders and user communities, as well as streamline repetitive workflows and use best data practices within the library" (uc3 .cdlib.org/2017/11/06/skills-training-forlibrarians-expanding-library-carpentry).
Library Carpentry creates carefully developed lessons that comprise a series of workshops. It has a governance group (librarycarpentry.org/team) to provide consistency and quality. In 2017, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded the California Digital Library to further develop this program in the U.S. In November 2018, Library Carpentry became a Lesson Program, parallel to the larger Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry Lesson Programs. Together, these three programs comprise The Carpentries project. Since 2015, libraries have hosted almost 300 Library Carpentry events, and the organization intends to continue to expand its efforts across the globe. Library Carpentry's lessons include Introduction to Data, Intro to Git, OpenRefine, SQL for Librarians, Introduction to Web Scraping, Tidy Data for Librarians, Python Intro for Libraries, and Data Intro for Archivists.
TRAINING THAT MOTIVATES BETTER RESEARCH
The Carpentries' training is standardized, and instructor training in particular is extensive and focused on consistent user experience and takeaways....