September 2017 Archives
Posted September 27, 2017
These next two years will be full of learning experiences for me, and I am looking forward to that. Already, I have learned a few things. Did you know that Boston is where America’s first public school was founded? Or that 75-80% ground the city is resting on is man-made? Have you ever heard of the Boston Harbor clean-up project? Here are some of my initial impressions of Boston. Things I love: All the history: Guys, I got to visit some of the most important places of the American Revolution! I climbed Bunker Hill (and Breeds’ Hill) I have seen replicas of the boat that tea was tossed from during the tea party. I live in a building built hundreds of years ago. It makes my heart sing. The student environment: Boston is one of the biggest college towns in the nation. According to a 2011 publication by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston is home to 35 colleges, universities or community colleges and there are more than 150,000 students enrolled in those institutions. So whether…
Posted September 25, 2017
I was sitting in church this past Sunday listening to a woman tell a story about a piece of advice her older sister had given her which had become a guiding principle in her life. The piece of advice was, “put people first.” This axiom could apply to all areas of life and for me, I’ve been thinking about it in relation to library work. We’ve begun learning about the reference interview in LIS 407 and on Saturday we watched videos of a “bad” reference interaction and a “good” interaction and discussed the behavioral performance guidelines set out by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). RUSA’s guidelines read a lot like the basics of being a kind, considerate, caring person with a few library-specific points thrown in. Stuff like: make eye contact, acknowledge patrons with a friendly greeting, focus complete attention on the patron’s need, and communicate in a “receptive, cordial, and supportive manner.” One of my classmates said that most of the guidelines were common sense, and another said that they were basically…
Posted September 18, 2017
I think I can safely say now that this will be one tough semester, characterized with lots of work outside the home. My first semester I had to drive to class every Saturday but all of the work and the assignments could be completed at home, on my own time. Not so this semester. This week I will go interview a reference librarian. Next week I will be visiting an archival repository as a researcher. And any day now my archives internship will start up, requiring 60 hours of work over the course of the semester. As an avowed introvert and homebody, I do not relish the thought of all the running around I’ll be doing. But I also feel confident that once the stress of setting up appointments and making arrangements is over, I am going to love getting out into the field, talking to archivists and librarians, and getting the hands-on experience. The museum internship I had so many years ago right out of college was such a formative experience for me and…
Posted September 14, 2017
Hello everyone! We’d like to introduce one of our new student bloggers, Josie Snow. Please read her bio and first post below: Josie Snow grew up in a small mountain town in Colorado, where she lived until September of 2017. Her love of reading prompted her to become a teacher, and later to pursue her masters in Children’s Literature, which is what brought her to Boston.In her free time, she enjoys exploring the east coast (its all so different than her home!), puzzles, hiking, and stories of all types. New Adventures in Boston I brace my feet and don my special glasses, trying to get a glimpse of the solar eclipse out the train window. I can’t help but think how appropriate it seems for me to be hurtling through the countryside towards exciting, yet unknown territories at the same time that the sun and moon are reminding the world just how much we have to learn; how just as the moon will temporarily replace the sun, so too am I replacing mountains for coastline,…
Posted September 11, 2017
I remember the first few days of each new semester in college being really overwhelming. I’d go to each new class, go over all the syllabi, find out about all the readings, assignments and expectations, and trudge home wondering what the heck I’d gotten myself into and how on Earth was I going to get it all done and why oh why did I register for so many credits?? But then things would get going and I’d work out a routine and a rhythm and everything would settle in just fine. Well that overwhelming feeling is kind of what I’m experiencing right now after the first week of my new fall classes. I have my very first completely online class and a Saturday morning class at SLIS West and both my professors were like, “this class is going to be very demanding and lots of work and you cannot slack off one little bit.” Not in those exact words, but that’s definitely the impression I got. And when you’ve had a few weeks off and…
