code: def _getColumnList(self):
          
          columnList = []
          for columnName in self.columnNames:
              column = self.columns[columnName]
              type = column.getType()
              if type is None:
                  type = 'text'
              columnList.append(
                  {u'name': columnName,
                   u'type': type.decode('ascii')})
          return columnList
docs: Get a list of serializable objects that describe the interesting
          columns on our item type.  Columns which report having no type will be
          treated as having the type I{text}.
  
          @rtype: C{list} of C{dict}