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OCTOBER 2021 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 67 and coatings used. Part of the solution would be to have every engineer and technician that designs circuits visit a fabricator and an assem- bly facility and observe every step used to pro- duce their parts. I would also recommend certification and periodic upgrading of design skills with courses such as the Printed Circuit Engineering Pro- fessional, a comprehensive curriculum spe- cifically for the layout of printed circuit boards offered by the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) as part of its PCE-EDU professional development program. is cur- riculum was developed by instructors Mike Creeden, Gary Ferrari, Susy Webb, Rick Hart- ley, and Steph Chavez—professional develop- ment instructors with a combined experience of over 225 years. Management must be made aware of the true costs of continuing to depend on obso- lete technologies to produce the products of today and tomorrow. ey must endorse the upskilling of their design engineers as well as all other employees to continue to grow and succeed in this rapidly changing digital world. Until then, corporations may have to continue to depend on the tribal knowledge of their PCB vendors. DESIGN007 Gene Weiner is president and CEO of Weiner International Associates and long-time tech- nologist in the PCB industry. information, including a resource area—a group of documents, standards, and articles. Basically, it can have anything you want. It is essential to make sure the library is structured so that it is easy to expand and grow with the com- pany. Unfortunately, some organize their library for their present needs with no consideration of the future. To continue reading, click here. John Watson, CID, is a customer success man- ager at Altium. by John Watson When we think of a library, the first thing that comes to mind is a building that holds materials of some kind. In April 1800, when the seat of the government moved from Philadelphia to Washing- ton, one of the first acts of President Monroe was to allocate $5,000 to purchase books for Congress to use. With the establishment of the Library of Con- gress, it held 740 books and three maps. It now contains 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages, and more than 61 million manuscripts. It is the most extensive rare book collection in North America, and by far, the most extensive library in the entire world. For anyone who has ever visited the Library of Con- gress, it is incredible when you consider the tremen- dous amount of knowledge and materials in those walls. However, what I find even more astounding is how all that material is kept organized enough to find something quickly. Library Defined For PCB designers, it is not a building but rather a collection of information or data used to build a PCB design. The most common part of the library is the collection of components used in the PCB design process. But, I have seen some libraries have other The Danger of Rogue Libraries COLUMN EXCERPT: ELEMENTARY, MR. WATSON