Student Snippets A Window Into The Daily Life & Thoughts of SLIS Students

Transportation In Boston

For what seems like the entirety of this spring semester, the MBTA has been out of commission. And the green line is out again until the second week of March after being worked on in January. Many people have asked me “does this always happen?” Yes and no. The train, most commonly, the infamous green line will be shut down almost every three months regularly. But, I have never seen two shutdowns this close to each other. In my time living here, I have had to anticipate these shutdowns.  Fret not, while construction is annoying, there are still ways to move about the city without it. While the T gets a facelift, students and staff have had to find new methods of coming to campus.  Of course, the easiest option for the down on their luck commuter is to have a friend with a car, having a classmate with a car can also prove useful. Talk to your peers to see if anyone is available for carpooling! While walking from Allston to Seaport might not…


Time Management at the End of Grad School

This last semester is a particularly difficult one for graduating students, as we apply for post-graduate employment, work part time-jobs, and manage conferences/networking all while finishing up the last of our coursework at SLIS. After nearly four (!) years of being in grad school between my previous program and my current MLIS, I’ve managed to get a pretty good idea of how to create and stick to a set, effective schedule that works for me. Even so, during this semester it’s taken a lot of hard work to find the right balance! Here are a few tips on time-management that I can offer as someone who’s currently working and searching for long-term employment while still in school.


Conferences

In the journey from academia to professionalism, library conferences can be an excellent tool for networking, updates about the industry, and job searching. Simmons holds memberships with many prestigious organizations such as the American Library Association, Massachusetts Library Association, and International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.  A comprehensive list of these organizations can be found here. A great in to these places and the greater community of librarians nationwide and worldwide is by attending yearly conferences. Ask your professors or advisors about the conferences they attend! Ask other SLIS students! Here are some of the advertised conferences for this year! Many organizations are still updating and listing their dates so check in frequently for more information. 


Starting the Post-Grad Job Search – LIS Listservs and Job Boards

Hi Sharks, I hope you’ve had a great start to the spring semester! As I face my last semester and the end of my time in grad school, I thought I’d share some insight into the process of searching for post-grad work. Leaving graduate school for full-time work is a tough transition, and finding a job is the hardest part of that transition, but I’ve found a few resources that have made my search a lot easier. First, the SLIS Jobline is a lifesaver for finding positions that look to recruit SLIS students or alumni. The Jobline (https://slis-jobline.simmons.edu) accepts postings from organizations who send in their job listings hoping to recruit from our SLIS community, and provides postings from a wide variety of organizations spanning all of the degrees and concentrations offered at SLIS. Listservs like Jobline are great resources to access these postings without having to track them down from individual organizations’ websites, and it’s incredibly useful to have a Simmons-run career platform specifically concentrated on positions in libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and…


Experience: Where to Start Looking for It

I, like a lot of students new to the SLIS program, have been told time and time again of the importance of getting practical experience. During my first semester at Simmons, it seemed like every professor made a point to emphasize how vital internships and volunteering are, especially to those on the archives track. If you’re an overthinker like I am, you might be worried about where to start. Landing a perfect internship is always tricky. Here are some helpful tips for those searching for SLIS-related work experiences. 


Life in Boston: Beginning of Spring Semester

Happy beginning of Spring semester!  As I begin my 4th semester here at Simmons, I have really been reflecting on the past year and a half I have spent in Boston and everything I have learned both inside and outside of the classroom. Since moving from California I have had to adapt and learn the many parts that come with living on the East Coast, and I have to continue learning as I go! Recently a large portion of the Green Line trains have been down, which at first really freaked me out. I live close to the Green Line and use it to get almost everywhere in my life, so I was concerned with getting to work and the places I meet my friends regularly. Luckily for me, this has pushed me to become familiar with my local buses, which I had been nervous to use in the past because of their schedules. Now I can easily make it to everything I need to without having to use the Green Line so I will…


Summer Session Summary

As the Summer II session begins to wrap up, an urge to write non-academically has been pushing at me. Writing for this blog in particular has been a source of joy, so I figured I should get back into it! In this post, I’ll take some time to detail both of the summer classes I took during Simmons’ two summer terms, as well as how I experienced academic burnout.  I took one class for each summer session this year, which totaled out to five credits. The first class was CHL 424C (Series Fiction – Middle Grade) and it took place from May 22nd to June 28th. This was a rigorous two credit course where we explored five genres of books that make up the foundation of the middle grade category. Not to be confused with middle school, middle grade books are written for a third to sixth grade audience. I enjoyed the depth that our discussion went into each week, but finding time to read an entire series in seven days was a challenge. When…


Graduation Celebration Reads!

Happy Graduation Day to those who celebrate!  I’ve had a week of travel and music and packing since I turned in my last final, and I’ve been celebrating my impending graduation (and the new job for fall in Chelsea School District that I am very excited for) in typical librarian fashion, of course, by reading.  Here’s five 50 word recommendations of my celebratory reads, none of which are on the topic of school at all: Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane  McFarlane deals mostly in mid-thirties coming-of-age stories with a romance thrown in there too, and every book I’ve read of hers has been utterly entertaining on every page. Genuinely funny, painfully heartbreaking, and full of well-rounded characters, Mad About You was no exception. Great for fans of dry British humor. When You Get The Chance by Emma Lord Lord writes the type of contemporary YA that sets the standard for the rest. Movie-inspired plot premises become both grounded and heighted in her hands. When You Get The Chance was full of musical theatre references,…


Eras Tour (of my MLIS degree)

Graduation in less than two weeks! I feel like it’s coming tomorrow and at the same time I feel like I have a month’s worth of tasks to finish before the big day. While job hunting and revising finals, I’ve been reflecting on the three different “eras” my MLIS degree unfolded in and what I learned about myself and about my work during each of them. First I took a whole year (summer too!) of all-remote classes as a full-time student (from Utah!). My fall semester mostly entailed almost getting a textbook-shaped tan line on my legs from reading on my deck so much. Moodle was kind enough to automatically adjust deadlines for me from Eastern Time midnight to Mountain Time 10pm with its handy dandy by-the-minute deadline countdown timer. (This feature: so clear about expectations and yet so stress inducing. Do I really need to know there are 5 days, 2 hours, 52 minutes and 12 seconds until my quiz is due?) The following semester all my classes were asynchronous, and I realized I…


Wrapping up the Semester

It has been a chaotic semester for me, but this week marks the end of my first year as a graduate student at Simmons! It is hard to believe that just eight months ago I packed up my life and moved almost 3,000 miles away from home, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about my first year at Simmons. While I am filled with stress in finishing up my last project and papers, I cannot wait for the fun activities we have planned in class this week. I am about to submit my final LibGuide for LIS 407: Information Sources and Services, where I created a research guide intended for anyone looking to plan a trip to my home area of California’s Central Coast! Last week in that class we had a huge potluck where everyone in the class contributed so we had so many wonderful treats for our last session. This week, for LIS 438: Introduction to Archival Theory and Practice, we get to take a trip to visit the Massachusetts Historical Society…