Technology at UMSI

The University of Michigan's School of Information (UMSI) has a reputation for including a strong technological component in many of its classes, even those classes geared towards Preservation, Archives, and Library Science. One of the most common trends among prospective Master’s students interested in these areas is worrying about their technical and technological background before coming to UMSI. First of all, you are not alone! Some questions that I, and all of the other information mentors, hear a lot this time of year are: “What level of technical background do I need before coming to UMSI? I don’t have a background in computer programming or computer science; will it be difficult for me to thrive at UMSI? What role does technology play in a UMSI master’s student’s everyday life?” The obvious underlying concern is whether you can succeed at UMSI without a strong technical background prior to coming to UMSI. In short, in my opinion, the answer to that question is a resounding yes! However, while UMSI assumes no technical or programming expertise, those of you who do have more technical backgrounds will not find themselves sitting in classes learning what you already know. One of the hallmarks of a UMSI degree is the ability to construct a curriculum plan that will make the most of your technological background and give you the experiences and skills you need moving forward. Having a technology-rich background may allow you to place out of some specialization-specific requirements (like Java or Python) so that you have more room in your 48 credits to take what you need or find particularly interesting.

One of the great aspects of UMSI’s community is that students come from various different backgrounds and lifestyles; it makes our cohort as diverse as it is and fosters great ideas when individuals bring their own unique backgrounds to a project. I will say right at the outset that one of the reasons I chose UMSI was because I felt that learning the technology would give me a leg up over different information and library schools and give me a solid background for when I join the workforce. Additionally, I am a bit of an outlying case as I have been using computers since the mid-1990’s, and I am intimately familiar with the inner workings of a computer; I have built my own desktop computer from scratch. However, my computer software and programming experience was nonexistent besides knowing a few console commands. I took a programming class in high school in 1999, but I had not touched a coding language in over a decade before I came into UMSI.

The topics of programming, internet history, and technology make up one of the three core UMSI classes (SI 502: Networked Computing: Storage, Communication, and Processing), and is undoubtedly a large part of UMSI’s core skills. However, Dr. Chuck, the 502 professor gears the class towards the programming and computer novice, and assumes no prior computer experience. Dr. Chuck makes learning about Python and the internet fun and easy (easier?) to understand, even for those whose brains don’t normally work that way. Furthermore, those students who are familiar with programming have the option to test out of the class, meaning that you will not find yourself in a class full of past professional coders who will dictate the pace and dominate the class. Personally, I loved Dr. Chuck’s class so much, I ended up taking three total programming classes during my time at UMSI, and I am interested in Archives and Records Management. In the span of two years, I went from having almost no coding experience, to feeling comfortable coding in Python, Java, HTML, PHP, and MYSQL. Obviously, some students with a non-technical background studying Social Computing or Human-Computer Interaction may have to work harder to catch up to other students, but all of the resources are there to help you garner to the same familiarity as some of your peers. I personally know multiple people interested in Human-Computer Interaction who came into the school with no programming experience, and now are some of the leading members of their peers. The entire school is full of beginners, and you are more likely to run into someone with no experience than someone with extensive programming experience.

Additionally, the level of technological expertise required varies by class. For instance, statistics and data manipulation classes will require a greater understanding of how to make technology work for you, but it is nothing that you cannot learn in class or through some small extra studying outside of class. Those in the ARM/LIS fields might have less programming to do, but they will have to become familiar with various software tools that they will encounter in the workforce, but, in my experience, if you can work with and use Microsoft Office applications, you can learn any software that ARM/LIS will throw at you. That said, everyone learns at different levels, so do not get discouraged if the technological side of the classes comes slower to you. You are not alone! I regularly met with a group of students in my cohort to go over our programming assignments every week and share ideas on how to debug and check our code before turning it in.

Now, I know that many of you might still worry about your technical skills and abilities despite my reassurances, so here are some general resources you can use to prepare yourself for UMSI. First, Code Academy offers a free course on Python that you can peruse before entering UMSI, and you can find the exercises here. The free online Khan Academy also offers some great videos and resources on Python and other programming languages. All of Dr. Chuck’s material is open source, and he posts all of his lectures online. This site contains slides and audio for every lecture in SI 502, and if you have the drive and patience, you could learn all you need to know before ever coming to one class. And, finally, for those students a little more tech-savvy, browsing the Python questions at Stack Overflow can give readers a great idea about what sort of problems arise when coding in Python.

Additionally, I am not the first UMSI student to feel this way. I came across a blog post on the same topic that a friend of mine wrote in 2011 that reiterates my sentiments, and you can read it in its entirety here.

Patrick Galligan

2nd year MSI interested in Information Access in Archives