What’s in My Bag? (SLIS Edition)
Posted March 2, 2026 by Brooke Thomson
Hi readers! We’ve got a change in scenery today. I’m writing to you from the Simmons Graduate Admissions Office, where I now give SLIS tours part time. But evidently no one wants a tour today—so blogging it is! Like I said two weeks ago, this semester is a busy one. And it’s only getting busier. But I don’t want to talk about that! Let’s have some fun this week and do a text-based What’s In My Bag? (SLIS Edition)! I almost always carry a back-pack with me to campus. So what the heck is in there that makes it so heavy? My LaptopThis is one of the heaviest things in my bag, but I can’t go to school without it. I’ve had my computer for almost 10 years and am doing everything in my power to keep it functional for as long as I can. I’m not one for new tech (a hard thing to be in this field…). And like pretty much every student in this country, I decorate the case in stickers. Most…
Mid-Semester Check In
Posted February 25, 2026 by Mary Kassman
Time has flown by, and it is crazy to think that I am approaching the halfway point for my last semester! Classes are in full swing and we’re getting into the thick of things. In LIS 505-Preventative conservation, we have conducted our first site visit and started monitoring the Simmons Art Storage Room. We worked as a group to place multiple data loggers that track relative humidity and temperature throughout the space, took multiple lux and UV lighting measurements, and placed glue traps around the perimeter of the room. It was a great way to experience everything we are learning in class, in a realistic hands-on setting. In LIS 462-Digitization Project Planning, we were split into groups and each given a small collection from the Simmons University Archives to digitize. We are deep in the throes of project planning, and have gotten to inventory and handle the materials we are working with. One thing I am really enjoying this semester is the large amount of hands-on archival work I am getting to experience in just…
Preparing for the Thesis
Posted February 23, 2026 by Emmy Mahoney
As a graduate student in the Library and Information Sciences and History dual degree program, I am required to write a history thesis in order to graduate. Over the course of my two years in this program, I have spent a lot of time considering and preparing for this thesis. Now that I am really getting into it, I thought I would share some of the advice that I have received. The main recommendation that has been given to me is that your thesis should be on a topic that you are already familiar with. More specifically, it is recommended to expand on an idea that you have already written about in one of your history classes. For newer students in the program, this means being thoughtful about the research topics that you chose in each of your classes. For students who are gearing up to write their thesis proposal, this means considering your past projects. Another important piece of advice that I have received is to form positive relationships with your professors. In order…
Play by Play of a SLIS Student’s Week
Posted February 16, 2026 by Brooke Thomson
Hi readers! This week I thought I’d cater the blog towards any potential or admitted students. It can be hard to get a sense of what your days will actually look like at the school you’ve applied to, especially if you’ve never been there before. That’s the boat I was in when I applied! I remember snooping on these blogs from my computer in Florida trying to picture myself in the experiences of other students. If that sounds like you, I hope you find this helpful! MondayTo me, the first day of the week is Monday. So we’ll start there! On Mondays I don’t have class, so I work part time at a restaurant for 5-7 hours. Depending on my mood and how work goes, when I’m done I’ll either fit in some schoolwork or become a couch potato. I’d like to say I’m a little more productive onaverage, but taking two hours out of my day on the commute alone tends to make me tired. Sometimes a good round of couch potato is needed….
Mentoring Future Archivists
Posted February 10, 2026 by Laura Kiely
I have been asked on a few occasions to act as a mentor to future archivists, usually undergraduate students with an interest in archives management. I find these requests very complimentary, as it indicates that people find me to be a good source of information and guidance for students. These asks have come from friends, career advisors, and professors I know personally, and the students are usually juniors or seniors in college. From my experience, there are two sorts of requests: introductions and requests to give out my contact information. When I am asked to talk to a student about Simmons SLIS, it is usually from a career advisor or a professor working to connect their student with someone that they know is in the next phase of education in the library sciences. Often, the professor will reach out to me and ask if I am willing to be connected with the student. I agree to answer the student’s questions. Student follow-through on actually asking their questions is fairly intermittent, I have found. In some…
My Spring Semester
Posted February 6, 2026 by Emmy Mahoney
Hello everyone! With the semester in full swing now, I thought I would tell you all about the classes that I am taking this spring. I am in the Library and Information Sciences and History dual degree program, so each semester I take a combination of history and library science classes. This semester, I am enrolled in three classes. My first class is HIST 560: Gender, Sexuality, and the Carceral State. In this class, we are exploring control, punishment, and surveillance, and their corresponding systems and institutions. During each class, we engage in discussions about the assigned readings, considering them historically, as well as relating them to current events. This is not a field that I have much experience with, so I am excited to have the opportunity to delve deeper into this topic. My second class this semester is LIS 433: Oral History. For this class, we are learning about all of the necessary steps to conduct oral history interviews. Each week, our class has a guest speaker from the field, who provides interesting…
Gearing up For Spring: Snow Boots and Scheduling
Posted February 2, 2026 by Brooke Thomson
Hi readers! We’re baaack. I hope the Spring semester has been treating you all well the last week or so. It’s going to be a particularly busy one for me. Here’s a quick look at my class schedule: LIS438 Intro to Archival Theory & Practice with Jiarui Sun LIS438—Field Experience (not yet disclosed, I’ll find out in February) LIS415 Information Organization with Kyong Eun Oh LIS505 International Archives with Joel A. Blanco-Rivera (online) There’s not much to say about them since we just started, but I’ll come back with an update later on. I’m definitely looking forward to 438 and its accompanying internship the most. I’ve also been elected as the new Chair of Panopticon, so I’m doing a lot of work to prepare a fun roster of arts-focused events for SLIS students this year. The previous Chair, Aurora Daniels, was amazing—I’ve got big shoes to fill! But I’ve got a good team I look forward to working with too. We’ll have our first meeting on February 1st to really nail down an event schedule,…
Start of the Semester Reflection and Tips
Posted January 28, 2026 by Mary Kassman
It is hard to believe that I’m starting my last semester at SLIS! This past year and half has been busy, but I’ve loved every second of it! I’ve taken three semesters of classes, completed my field placement for LIS 438, interviewed for countless jobs and internships, and have been working two jobs. This semester I am taking LIS 462: Establishing Archives and Manuscript Programs, LIS 472: Digitization Project Planning and Management, and LIS 505: Preventative Conservation. For 462, I am looking forward to learning more about the management side of archives, and working on my advocacy skills. For 472, I am looking forward to actually getting some hands-on digitization experience! I feel like this is the one area of archives that I need more experience in, and to be able to actually work on digitizing materials from the Simmons Archives is exciting. Lastly, for 505, I’m looking forward to getting hands-on preservation experience. Preservation Management was my favorite class I took last semester, and being able to apply the skills I learned in that…
Online Only Semester
Posted January 27, 2026 by Emmy Mahoney
Hello everyone! I am very excited to get back into the swing of things after winter break. This semester looks a little different for me though, as I have enrolled in only online classes. While I normally enjoy having a combination of online and in-person classes, there are a few benefits to having strictly online classes. The first benefit of online classes is the flexibility. You can attend classes from wherever. This could be as simple as choosing to attend from your kitchen versus your bedroom, or choosing to attend class from your apartment or while visiting your family and friends. Furthermore, if you are taking asynchronous online classes, the weekly assignments can be completed on your own schedule. Another benefit to having only online classes is that there is no commute. You simply open up your device and you are in class. This gives you so much extra time that would have otherwise been spent heading to campus. The third and most important benefit however, is seeing your classmates’ pets on Zoom. Nothing is…
NDAs and Privacy Ethics in Libraries and Archives
Posted January 26, 2026 by Laura Kiely
Something we talk about in a variety of courses here at Simmons is how we as librarians and archivists maintain the privacy of our patrons. I am a big advocate for individual privacy, and while I recognize the need for some internal usage data, the overall privacy of users is paramount for the maintenance of continued trust from the public. The ALA has the official statement on privacy here: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/privacy. What I am interested in discussing today is the presence of NDAs in libraries and archives, two of which I have encountered recently at work! I will not disclose where or what about (for obvious reason), nor will I discuss the specific wording of these NDAs, this is instead a reflection upon how privacy works in libraries and archives. All of the ideas expressed here are my own opinions and do not reflect the positions of the places I work. I have found that, in general, the laws and ethical limits on sharing information about libraries extends mainly to the patrons of the library. Public…