Mid-Semester Check-In
Posted November 3, 2025 by Emmy Mahoney
It is hard to believe that we are already at the halfway point of the semester. Where has the time gone! At this point in time, I usually perform a mid-semester check-in to make sure that I am on track to ending the semester with success. Here are some of the steps I take to complete this check-in. First, I reacquaint myself with major assignments. This begins with rereading the syllabus to confirm that I have all of the assignments on my calendar. Next, I will review the major assignment instructions to make sure that I understand the project. Upon reading the assignment description, I will write down any questions that I have, so that I can reach out to peers and professors for clarification. At this point in the semester, many of the major assignments are the final project. With this in mind, I review my progress on these assignments, making sure that I am in line with my goals. Next, I like to check in with my classes. First, I consider my preparedness….
I See Its Success
Posted November 1, 2025 by June Kramer
Being student on the SLIS West campus can feel like a lot of things: a hustle, a joy, a grind, a whole lot of work, and very worth it. I’m currently in the middle of the semester, piling up assignments so that I can make room for a couple of scheduled long weekends. This means spending three days a week at my practicum elementary school, and accelerating the rate of papers that I’m writing. But I don’t feel alone in this work. The Simmons library program goes deep, especially in Massachusetts. Several people in my orbit are graduates of the program: my upcoming librarian in the spring practicum, my practicum advisor, even a co-worker at my part-time public library job. Which is to say, I am able to have confidence in the program that I am in, because I see its success all around me. When it feels like too much work to sustain, I can remember that I have this future ahead of me, working in a school and changing lives. Much of the…
Library Summer Camp!
Posted October 31, 2025 by Michaela O'Gara-Pratt
Did you know that as a Simmons SLIS student you could attend librarian summer camp? Well…not technically summer camp, but you can take LIS 447: Collections Maintenance with Professor Donia Conn. This two week course, taking place during the summer semester at the North Bennet Street School, feels a lot like a very cool, very niche summer camp. I was lucky to take this course over the summer of 2025. When I toured Simmons in 2023, the North Bennet Street School came up in conversation because I knew a few people who had taken courses there. The student ambassador giving the tour quickly shared that Simmons offered a course taught by one of their professors at the North Bennet Street School because they had the studio space and book binding equipment for the course. I was excited to learn about the course and hoped I would be able to squeeze it into my schedule. I am happy to report that the course was everything I hoped it would be. During our two weeks in the…
Student Life at SLIS
Posted October 30, 2025 by Aurora Daniel
This time of year is typically when I hit my stride–I’m settled into my classes, there’s sweater weather and leaf piles, and I know what I have to do to finish the semester strong. This year is slightly different in that I’ve also reached the summit of student leadership. As both the Library and Information Science Student Association (LISSA) president and the chair of Panopticon, the arts-focused organization at SLIS, I had a lot planned for this semester, but most of the heavy lifting wrapped up this Friday. So what have we been up to? LISSA has been trying to think about ways to engage as many students as possible. In September we had a bingo raffle card with activities on it to get oriented to Simmons campus that was accessible for both in-person and online students. Additionally, we held a book-club event that was more like speed-friending with people’s favorite genres as the ice breaker. This was so wildly popular that we’re looking for ways to create this as a regular event either with…
The Thick of It
Posted October 28, 2025 by Will Romey
This week marks the tipping point of the Fall semester, as we pass the half-way mark. I’m pretty thoroughly immersed in academics right now. When I’m not bartending at work, I’m generally working on my readings, writing papers, or nudging projects along. This academic saturation is nice in some ways – I’m feeling a real focus on schoolwork, and starting to see connections in course materials beyond the superficial. As the end of the semester approaches, classwork begins to shift from weekly assignments and towards end-of-term projects. I’m trying to diligently put some time into my 488 website final, which seems to be a SLIS rite of passage. I’m also starting to turn my reams of notes on the Howes Bros. photographs collection in Northampton into something less nebulous and more focused. Readings, of course, continue on. I’ve got plenty of assigned articles and books for class, but also am grinding through supplemental texts. A Gentle Madness and The Private Library have added a lot of flavor and anecdotes to 449 (Rare Books and Special…
Open Source Collections for Creative Minds
Posted October 27, 2025 by Brooke Thomson
When I was an undergrad student at Florida State University, I worked for the History Department as a Social Media Intern. One of the things I loved to do there was find free, high quality, downloadable images and videos to incorporate in my graphic designs. My trademark was playful, scrapbook-style content using these materials in order to promote FSU History classes, announce campus events, and educate viewers on various historical topics. Now that I’m a SLIS student I get to dive even deeper into these repositories and learn what makes them tick, but I still think they’re just plain fun. So I thought I’d share 3 of my favorite resources with you all! It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in adding some fine art to your social media designs, working on a school project, or simply browsing around—these collections are sure to inspire creative minds! 1. Smithsonian Open Access Smithsonian Open Access content includes downloadable high-resolution 2D and 3D images of collection items, as well as research datasets and collections metadata. All of the Smithsonian’s…
Race Training and Grad School
Posted October 24, 2025 by Emmy Mahoney
When I started graduate school last year, I also started another project. I have been running races. Last year, I ran the Cambridge Half Marathon, just this month I ran the Cape Cod Half Marathon, and this upcoming Thanksgiving, I am signed up for a 5K. These races are a lot of fun, even for a slow runner, such as myself. Balancing graduate school and race training might seem like they would clash, but I find that more often than not, they complement each other. Leading up to a race, is weeks, if not months of training. Life is three mile, six mile, ten mile runs after class, work, and between homework assignments. This has allowed me to become very skilled in time management. For each race, I create a very detailed schedule that accounts for runs, workouts, graduate school, and my other commitments. These scheduled runs are essentially allotted times for me to get outside and move my body, which is so important to do, especially as a graduate student. Additionally, being so busy…
The Joy of Art in Libraries
Posted October 23, 2025 by Michaela O'Gara-Pratt
As a child, I grew up fascinated by the architecture of my local public library. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, the decorative wood interior has always sparked my imagination and creativity. The settings of the fantasy novels I grew up reading seemed to come alive inside of the stained-glass windows created by John La Farge. I am glad that in the late 19th century there was a push to make public spaces so beautiful. In many ways, a lot of these old New England libraries are more accessible museums. An individual can visit the murals painted by John Singer Sargent at the Copley Branch of the Boston Public Library without the entry fee associated with the Museum of Fine Arts, which also holds examples of Sargent’s murals. As a budding librarian with an interest in art, I am excited by the intersections of art and public education. Recently, the Boston Public Library received a significant donation to restore the third floor of the historic McKim Building. This project would increase public access to some of…
How to Read Like a Grad Student
Posted October 22, 2025 by Olivia McGovern
Something I learned way too late into grad school is that I don’t know how to read. I mean, we obviously all know how to read. During syllabus week, who in the entirety of SLIS hasn’t listed reading as one of their hobbies outside of school? Being avid readers is one of the main things us librarians usually have in common, along with a robust cardigan collection and colorful hair. The problem is that I didn’t know how to read efficiently and strategically. I’m a first-generation college student and this is my first time in graduate school. So, when I would see readings assigned in my syllabus, I would add each reading to my To Do List for the week and try to read each one front-to-back, highlighter at the ready. Despite working full time, I was usually able to scrabble together enough time from bus ride commutes and weekends to make it work for, oh, about two weeks. After that point, it became clear that I was just not going to be able to…
Bibliographic Initiation
Posted October 21, 2025 by Will Romey
“Students may have to wait until they enter a program in library and information studies, or perhaps do graduate work in literature, to be introduced to the third point on the book-history triangle, the discipline whose concern is with the book as a material object. Even then only a fortunate few will encounter the study of bibliography, where the emphasis is on the preservation and transmission of written texts”. -Howsam, Old Books and New Histories Bibliography was not a field I expected to grab me. I’ve been a book lover since before I could read, and can’t walk past a free book pile without at least a quick rifling through. But after a few readings assigned in LIS 449 (“Rare Books and Special Collections Librarianship”), I have been bitten by the bibliographic bug. Zooming out from an individual work and to analysis of publication, printing, and editing puts the transmission of written text into focus. Bibliography’s broad analysis of the book as a physical object comes with a toolbox of theory and technique to explore…