Reader’s Advisory Recommendations:
Posted February 20, 2025 by Isabella Rodrigues
Hello, all! I hope everyone has gotten into a good groove for the semester. I am starting to realize I have way more homework than I thought I did and a bit of panic set in, but then I started planning and I got back on track again. Winter makes everyone and everything a little clogged. So in an effort to knock off those winter blues I have made a list of recommended books for both patrons and librarians! Put these titles on hold now! This gothic horror novel is a reworking of Carmilla and Dracula centering around a woman named Lenore stuck in a loveless marriage with her husband. One day she finds a strange woman who appears very ill during the day and yet completely alive at night. All the while the local village girls keep disappearing… If you’re like me, you were obsessed with Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series as a teen. This is the author’s first plunge into adult literature and I couldn’t be more excited. The year is 1942…
Digging Into Historical Theory
Posted February 20, 2025 by Aurora Daniel
If last semester was my dream Library Science course schedule, then this is my History one. I should start by explaining that I want to complete my dual degree as quickly as possible, just to save some money and to get into my career sooner, and I need to take summer courses to do that. However, as only Library Science courses are offered during the summer session, there had to be a semester where I took two History seminars to get this done. Since there were so many classes offered I was interested in, I made this that semester. I managed to decide on HIST 560: Seminar in the History of Women and Gender 1790-1920: Queer Histories and HIST 554: Behind the Veil: Simmons Black Oral History Project. Coming into grad school I had a lot of professional experience but lagged behind some of my peers in historical training. I was an art history major in undergrad, which I have no regrets about, as the program focused on working with primary sources, how to craft…
Experience in the Form of Volunteering
Posted February 10, 2025 by Erin Wood
The job market can be competitive, especially when you lack experience. It can feel impossible to get employers to even look at your resume, and it’s disheartening! However, volunteering with your local institutions can be an easy way to build up a resume and make connections. Most local libraries, archives, and historical societies are constantly looking for volunteers. Of course, we would all prefer to do paid work, but the perk of volunteering is that it allows you to get experience on your own time. I recently started volunteering at the Danvers Historical Society, where upon hearing I was an archives management student, they were thrilled to give me some of their backlog to work through and send over to the town archives. I go in a couple days a week on my days off from work and get to sort through a ton of interesting materials. Danvers, like most towns and cities in Massachusetts, has a rich history, and it’s fascinating to see how things have changed over the years. It’s also shed some…
Winter Break Shenanigans
Posted February 6, 2025 by Aurora Daniel
Ah to be back in classes! Before I get into what I’m up to this semester, I want to dedicate a blog post to my winter break shenanigans. Winter break is one of the few windows of time each year that my partner and I both have time off as he’s a middle school teacher and I’ve been in college most of our relationship. So we take advantage of that by typically going on a road trip south to Philadelphia or D.C. or a weekend getaway up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. However, this year we decided to stay home and be tourists. Ice sculpture from Boston’s First Night celebrations A lot of that decision had to do with my own work schedule over winter break. I was one of the recipients of the Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB)’s Archival Field Fellowship for 2025. Since I’m taking LIS-438 this semester I wanted to prioritize completing this over the break. That meant that as soon as I finished up my internship at…
Welcome Back!
Posted February 4, 2025 by Isabella Rodrigues
Welcome back everybody! To all returning students, I hope you had a restful winter break. To all new students, welcome to SLIS! I hope everyone had a good first week of classes on campus or online. To everyone who doesn’t know me I’m Bella, a second year SLIS student on the archives track! I currently work as a reading room assistant at the Schlesinger Library and as a cataloging intern at the Congregational Library. This is my final semester at Simmons, although it hasn’t hit me yet. I am both excited for the future and a little sad to be leaving Simmons and all the wonderful people who have helped me find my footing on my educational and career path. But, I still have a whole semester ahead before I can get nostalgic! This semester more than ever is going to be a balancing act between multiple jobs, a full class schedule, and the ever pressing post-graduate job hunt. I know a lot of my fellow SLIS students will be doing the same and I…
Halfway Through My Degree
Posted January 28, 2025 by Erin Wood
Around this time last year, I had just begun my very first semester at SLIS. It is crazy to think about how I am now halfway done with my degree! In only a year, my life has changed so drastically, and I could not be more thankful for this program. With the more generalized courses under my belt, this semester I am taking more specific classes that focus on the areas of librarianship I want to explore in my professional life. I am currently taking LIS-442 Establishing Archives and Manuscript Programs, which focuses on staff and program management within archives; LIS-476 Outreach and Advocacy for Cultural Heritage, focusing on the roles outreach and advocacy play within the operation of a healthy cultural heritage institution; and LIS-439 Preservation Management, which explores the foundations of preserving physical objects within cultural heritage institutions. Each of these classes cover an aspect of the field that I am really interested in, so I am excited for what is to come this semester. When I first started this program, I thought…
Looking Back On My First Semester
Posted January 23, 2025 by Mary Kassman
Spring semester is beginning and I’ve officially completed my first semester in the MLIS program! I was not sure what to expect going into my first semester of classes, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. I took LIS 407, Information service, behavior, and Ethics, which went over the basics of providing information services, common information behaviors, and the ethical dilemmas that information professionals might encounter while on the job. In a time where books and information are constantly being banned or censored, I found learning about the ethics of this profession to be extremely relevant and important. The next class I took was 415, Information Organization. This class went over the fundamentals of organizing information, metadata, and the various information systems used by information professionals. I enjoyed this class because coming into this program, I had no knowledge of what information systems were and how they worked, but by the end of the semester I was able to establish a strong understanding of them , and feel more prepared to…
Not With a Bang, but With a Moodle Submission
Posted December 12, 2024 by Isabella Rodrigues
As the days darken, the wind whips, and the deadlines grow closer, tension rises on the Simmons campus. The final week before classes end for the winter break contains a lot of emotions for all of us. Some of us are scrambling around trying to finish up our final projects while others are hitting “send” on those deliverables. If you’re like me, it’s finally dawning on you that your last semester of SLIS is approaching. Perhaps your family or other classmates are already questioning you on the where/what/how after graduation in the spring when it just seemed like yesterday you sat in a classroom on campus for the first time and worried if you were making the right decision. Questions buzz through your head—interrupting your day. Did you take enough resume-building classes? Did you engage with your professors enough? Did you slack off? Are you prepared for the after? Am I doing enough? Finals seem almost soothing compared to the plunge I and others are going to take next May. An existential crisis is one…
Essential for Surviving Boston Winter
Posted December 10, 2024 by Mary Kassman
With the weather getting cold and our first bit of snow, I have found a few items essential for surviving the Boston winter, as a person from the south who has never experienced this cold of weather before. First, and most importantly, a good jacket to keep you warm, followed by a scarf, hat, and gloves too. I recommend looking for sales at the end of spring and summer to get a good discount on these items. A good pair of boots is essential too. You don’t want to slip on ice or get dirty in the water and mud from melted snow. Along with boots, a good pair of thick socks is helpful to keep your feet warm. Next, a heated blanket, for when you’re cold even with the heat turned on. Next, a good hand cream. Along with the cold, Boston’s air is also super dry, so having a good hand and or body cream helps lock in moisture. I would personally recommend trader joe’s hand cream. And lastly, a good travel mug…
Welcome Mary and Ava- New Bloggers
Posted December 3, 2024 by Lindsey Clarke
Mary Kassman Mary Kassman is currently a first year student in Simmons’ Master of Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archives Management. Mary is from Houston, Texas and just moved to Boston back in September. Mary got my bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Houston with a minor in women’s studies. When Mary has free time, she loves to watch TV, read, bake, or work on whatever craft she is into at the moment, currently it is crocheting. Mary is a long-time Taylor Swift fan, loves any mystery or crime based tv shows, and is an avid follower of Formula 1 racing. Ava Wilson Ava Wilson, is in her first year as a LIS student, concentrating in Cultural Heritage Informatics. Originally from New York, she am new to the Boston area. Ava loves to read, specifically historical fiction, mystery, and fantasy novels. When she’s not pouring over her SLIS readings or her latest leisure read, you can find her engaging in some sort of outside activity, whether it be caring for my plants…