Introduction to Code Club

Fostering collaboration at State Library Victoria with Code Club

What happens when you create a space where anyone can drop in for technical support or collaboration? This is the question that brings Code Club, a grassroots initiative at State Library Victoria, to life. Started about 18 months ago and finding a natural home in SLV LAB, Code Club has grown organically into a hub for learning, sharing, and collaborative problem-solving.

Co-organised by Sotirios Alpanis 1, Susannah Bourke 2, and Nick Paustian 3, Code Club brings together people from across the Library in three overlapping communities: weekly study groups where participants can learn to code or assist others with their projects; standalone workshops that offer a chance to learn about and test-drive Library-relevant technologies; and a community of practice for the Library's tech specialists to collectively develop shared standards to ensure the longevity and functionality of their work at the Library.

Increasing digital literacy

For many at the Library, Code Club represents a safe entry point into the technology that could meaningfully assist in their day-to-day work. As Nick puts it, it's 'a place where people can come and demystify some of these technologies that are around us every day, and learn how to potentially harness them'. 

For Sotirios, it’s all about digital literacy: 'With Code Club we're trying to get people over that fear of computers and the slight comfort blanket of saying, "I don't get technology." - if you work here, you probably do.' In the cataloguing department, for example, he emphasises the sheer number of codes that staff reference in their daily work: 'If you can figure that out, you can probably learn to work out how to tell a computer to do that. So I think it's about trying to give them the push they need to get them over that initial barrier, and also make them see that the way that they're thinking actually can be really easily applied to computers.' Conveying this to staff matters when the Library faces a significant backlog of material that many people across the organisation are looking to make publicly accessible.

The workshops and study group serve as the main vehicle for engaging staff, but there’s more to sustaining engagement than just booking a room. Sotirios highlights the strategic element: 'There's a bit of, dare I say, marketing involved, where we’re trying to find the hook for the Library.' Susannah, for instance, drew a good crowd with her workshop on the Trove 4 API, since many people inside the Library use the national newspaper repository in their daily work.

While other sessions have focused on topics like setting up your own computer vision 5 model within an hour, or sharing tips and pitfalls for using an LLM 6 powered app as a coding assistant, each workshop pays special attention to keeping the content accessible. 'We really try to start at a zero knowledge base, but still explore a technical concept and get people involved and able to follow along,' Nick emphasises. Each workshop includes both a lecture and a hands-on segment, along with an understanding that demoing the tech is optional. 'A lot of non-technical people come for the lecture and say, "That was interesting - I don't need to actually do it". But from that, a lot of people approach us with ideas or requests for help', Nick explains. This open approach has already launched a number of collaborative SLV LAB experiments, including the Theatre Programmes prototype with the Collections department.

A weekly learning community

For those interested in a fully hands-on approach, Code Club’s weekly study group is ideal. 'Everyone knows - if you’ve got a technical problem, there’s somewhere you can go once a week - you just grab your laptop, step in, and go "Hey everyone, is this something you can help me with?"' says Phizz Telford 7, who teamed up with Code Club to host the Public Domain Day Hackathon 8, ultimately giving rise to SLV LAB’s ManIIIFestor Browser extension.

For many, the weekly meetings are a valuable forum for learning the skills to build their own projects. Susannah Bourke, a Code Club co-organiser, and the Library’s Digital Archivist, has used the weekly sessions to cultivate the programming skill to solve problems in her daily work. 'I really needed Code Club', she recalls. Before the club’s inception, she had been dabbling in Python, a popular programming language, to work through a backlog of Library material. She had been trying to use Python scripting within a program called OpenRefine to rank collections in terms of processing difficulty, 'but the processes were so brutal.' When Sotirios caught wind of her struggles, they decided to organise the weekly study group. 'I don’t really use OpenRefine now', she shares. 'I can just use Python, and not have to work within OpenRefine’s limits.' 

Attributing her coding growth to the weekly sessions, she notes the importance of connecting with her technology-focused colleagues. 'Everyone needs a space where they can come and discuss things and connect with other colleagues, and Code Club is the only forum where you can talk to people with a lot more expertise in technology and hear their ideas'.

At Code Club, this acknowledgment of expertise is mutual. 'People say "I'm not really technology minded", then pull out the spreadsheets they've developed to manage their daily work, and they’re incredibly complex', reflects Sotirios. Susannah, similarly, champions these "folk technologies" 9 - intricate systems people build over time to meet their needs - 'Spreadsheets are a classic example. You can build exactly what you need despite infrastructure limitations'. She finds the workarounds people devise without coding 'very human and beautiful'. This deeply-held admiration is part of what makes the club such a comfortable and generative space at the Library.

Fostering collaboration

Code Club's welcoming attitude and commitment to accessibility have paved the way for perhaps its most significant impact: connecting previously separated parts of the Library. 'In Creative Studio [a Library team that develops digital experiences for the public], someone might mention an idea and someone else will say, "That's like something another team was exploring six months ago"', Nick shares. 'Because of Code Club, I can say,"'Oh, I know who that is—I'll reach out to them"'. 

Not only is the club connecting Library experts with technological staff, it’s even helping bring together disparate Technology teams. Nick elaborates, 'We've realised that there's a lot of different digital teams within the Library—Creative Studio, digital systems, SLV LAB, and more. We're trying to open up a dialogue between digital teams doing digital things'.

Community of Practice meetings have recently sprung up to bridge that divide. At the meetings, tech-focused staff address practical barriers in their work. Sotirios describes the group’s focus as communication and documentation, explaining, 'Everyone uses code in their day job, but there’s not really a Library style guide for using GitHub. So we’ve started documenting, and made a template repository. You know, just simple things, which a lot of people have arrived at similar answers for in their own work, but there hasn’t been a forum for discussion.'

Their newfound collaborative approach has broader benefits. 'We can simplify people's work, make it more interoperable, and be across each other's projects', Nick notes. 'In an organisation of this size, it's easy to get siloed. Even though our digital teams are small, we're spread out. Code Club acts as a binder between us'. This binding will hopefully lead to more robust community resources, including collective training on new technologies, and even staff-built informational wikis for critical Library technologies.

Looking forward

Code Club is in the process of helping to transform how SLV staff engage with technology and with each other. By increasing digital literacy, recognising the natural harmony between library expertise and coding, and promoting greater collaboration across departments, it's germinating new possibilities across the organisation.

'I like being involved in building that community and opening that dialogue' reflects Nick. 'The digitally curious have this space where they can come and see what's going on and just dabble'.

For those interested in that dabbling, Susannah offers the origin story of the IIIF Browser Extension project and the Public Domain Day 10 Hackathon: 'You don't have to bring a lot with you to figure out something interesting or useful. Phizz came to one Code Club and said they didn’t have the capacity to invest in learning how to code, but through those conversations, created a great opportunity'. To sum up, 'Code Club is about bringing your ideas and having them heard'.

As Code Club continues to evolve, it stands as a model for how grassroots initiatives can foster community, build skills, and spark digital experimentation within cultural institutions.