If you want to know more about the open-source CMS Drupal or would like to improve your Drupal skills, I've compiled some training resources below.

Videos for Learning

There are many (free and not-free) training videos (DVD or CD), from Lullabot, YouTube, lynda.com, learnbythedrop.com, drupaltherapy.com, powerfulcms.com, the Do it With Drupal video archive, recorded camp and Drupalcon sessions, screencasts attached to modules, and more. Search for "Drupal training video" or "Drupal video tutorial" on the Web along with any other keywords to find additional videos. Further down, I also provide a link to Training Services that also include videos.

I started learning Drupal with the Lullabot training videos first. They are utterly wonderful for providing a solid overview of Drupal, including CCK, Views and theming. It's great to put your feet up to learn by having each step explained in easy-to-understand terms while watching as the task progresses.

Books for Learning

When trying to solve a specific problem, I first like to take a look in the index of a book. The book I've found most useful so far is Front End Drupal: Designing, Theming, Scripting (Developer's Library) by Emma Jane Hogbin and Konstantin Kafer. I also found a lot of great information in Using Drupal, which was written by most of the Lullabot team. I picked up Pro Drupal Development, Second Edition (Beginning) but it was far more development-focused than I needed. There are a wide variety of published Drupal books that are tailored to specific site building needs, such as social networking, e-learning, e-commerce, jQuery and more.

All the book titles mentioned above were obtained through interlibrary loan, but as soon as I'm working full time again I would like to purchase the first two.

The Web for Learning

There are lots of resources on the Web. If you're having a specific problem, you can just Google it. You'll potentially find answers in these places:

• Blogs: Drupalists often blog about solutions.
• Drupal issue queue on Drupal.org: folks post their difficulties and the community can jump in to help.
• Drupal Documentation on Drupal.org: This is where the help files live. They're currently being revamped, but are still being maintained.
• There are also forums on Drupal.org and mailing lists, but I haven't used them myself.

However, unless you know how to describe your problem, it's difficult to formulate a decent Google query, and it's better to ask a person...

Local User Groups for Learning

Go to a user group meeting and you'll have access to experienced Drupalists who will share their expertize, and you can ask them your own Drupal questions. User group subsites are listed at groups.drupal.org. I've been to one user group meeting so far (it's down in Cambridge, I don't have a car and it clashes with my weekly trivia night with friends, you see), but I learned a ton in that single evening.

Conferences and Camps for Learning

The most fun option is to advance your Drupal knowledge at the big DrupalCon conferences. The sessions are superb, everyone has a good time and they're good value for money, I'm told (I haven't been to a Drupalcon yet).

Can't make it to a big conference? There are loads of Drupal camps being organized around the world, and the Boston D4D camp attracted attendees and speakers from all over the United States, Canada and a few from Europe, as well. The camps are fully organized by volunteers and most food, venue and other costs are covered by sponsors.

Camps and conferences offer a superb opportunity to meet people, ask questions, share your work with others and get useful feedback work as well). You'll be interacting with the brightest minds in the Drupal community. Look for conferences and camps posted in the Events section at Drupal.org.

I anticipate learning loads while at Drupalcon Paris, in between my volunteering duties. I've chosen several sessions to attend from the User Experience and Design, Business Development and Strategy, and From Zero to Hero tracks, plus I will be around for the Drupal.org Redesign Sprint (unless I'm volunteering then... and I am also interested in the Documentation Sprints... not sure I'll fit all that in).

Other Training Options

Drupal.org has a list of Training Services which include training companies and videos.

I should also mention IRC. IRC is well used within the community, however, it shouldn't be considered as a first step. The Drupal IRC channels are used for virtual team meeting space and to ask specific questions. Experts may be there to respond, but everyone is busy.

Why am I Learning Drupal?

Drupal is well known for being a great platform for interactive and social websites, two of my areas of interest. If you're an Information Architecture Geek like me, Drupal modules Views and CCK (Content Construction Kit) are way too fun to ignore. Plus, I can't resist a good challenge. My Drupal goals are to:

• Be able to set up, customize, populate and theme a Drupal site (at least once).
• Have a good understanding of how Drupal sites work and how they should be assembled.
• Focus on the user experience design of Drupal sites.
• Learning theming (plus I keep my CSS skills sharp).

My goals are not to:

• Learn PHP or become a developer. I don't come from a development background and don't see myself going beyond copying and pasting PHP in order to customize the template files.
• Become a full-time themer, but I do learn the basics.

So far, I've found Drupal to be challenging, but not impossible to learn. I'm really enjoying it and will be sticking with it to learn more.

Secret Site

I've been learning Drupal while developing a new site. The site is still in production and I've been working on it in my spare time. You can have a sneak peek though: http://digitaldeckhands.com/drupal/ and it appears in my portfolio codenamed D3. I'll write more about it later.

Anything Else?

What particular learning resources work for you? Any advice for the newbies? Please share them below!