End of Semester

Posted December 19, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao

Unlike my classmates in LIS 483, I submitted my final paper almost a week after the last class. If I have learned anything this semester, it is that we are all human – trying to make a difference in this field of library science. This semester hasn’t been easy, but I made it through with the help of two amazing professors. Amy Pattee has been with SLIS for fifteen years now, helping prepare Simmons students to go out into the world after graduation.

One time I was at my local Boston Public Library branch seeking help from the children’s librarian (who also manages the teen/YA collection), and I showed her my Moodle course page for LIS 483: Library Collections and Materials for Young Adults (taught by Pattee). It was so fun seeing the librarian’s reaction to what I am studying. The fun part is that about ten years ago, this librarian in the Brighton area of Boston also had Pattee as her LIS 483 professor at Simmons. This is just one example of how the professors you have in Simmons’ library science classes will be valuable networking connections as you go out into the field.

This particular course was hard for me because my brain had to figure out how to not think in general statements such as “all teens like reading fantasy.” These statements are not how we should be looking at our young patrons in the field of youth services. It took some time to deveope this concept and fully grasp it. It wasn’t just me, though. Talking to my classmates, I could see that quite a few of my peers struggled with the concepts we were learning in this course. 

On the morning of my last class with Pattee, I had to send her an emotionally hard email. I told my professor that mentally there was no way I could get my paper done before class with tragedy hitting my family all at once. I expected Pattee to tell me I have until Friday or Saturday, but she let me grieve through the pain and gave me a gracious extension on my paper. Moral of the story: no matter how hard you are on yourself, SLIS professors want you to succeed and getting to know them just may be the key to networking (which later leads to your dream library science job).