Boston
I Love GSLIS
Posted March 30, 2013 by Maggie Davidov
5 Reasons I love my Simmons Experience I love the man passing out copies of Metro at the Copley Square T stop. Every morning I come into Simmons I look forward to his high five and kind comment, “Your smile blows me away! Have a great day!” We need more people around like that every day. I love the reference librarians at Beatley. I love their desire and commitment to search for anything I need. Whether I’m talking to them on “chat with a librarian” or at the information desk I know their on a quest on my behalf. LISSA. They help me get my ALA membership dues and tickets for the summer conference reimbursed. How lucky are we to have a student group that advocates so powerfully for us and part of their job is to facilitate reimbursements for our professional development? Incredibly lucky! My professors! My professors who write back to me on the weekends. My professors who encourage me to go to their office because they really want to work on my…
Professional Organizations: A Brief Intro, and How They Relate to You
Posted March 26, 2013 by Carolyn Lucas
SAA, SLA, MLA, ALA… in the world of the library and all its’ properties, it seems like almost every three letter combination stands for a professional organization. And, unlike the title suggests, you don’t have to be a “professional” to join them! Many professional organizations are organized to help budding entrants into their fields. Because this is my first year into the library science world, I’ve been researching many of these organizations, trying to evaluate if they will be helpful to me pre-graduation, and what resources they offer. Here’s a quick glance at some of them: ALA, the American Library Association: the quintessential professional organization for anyone in the library field, ALA costs only $33/year and supplies its’ student members with newsletters, updates on the job market, free round tables, and even online classes! One of the biggest perks of joining ALA is the conference that is held once a year, usually in June, which brings librarians together to talk about the latest and greatest inventions, problems, and advances in the field. SAA, the Society…
Finding Archiving Principles at PAX
Posted March 24, 2013 by lazylibrarian
With a computer programmer/gamer boyfriend there was no way I was going to forget that PAX East, one of the country’s biggest video game conventions, was this weekend. Not being a gamer myself, I steered clear of making it a four day event complete with the Pokemon pub crawl (gotta drink them all!) like he did. I did, however, tag along Sunday out of curiosity. (And I would have you know that I beat, nay, alienated three men in Ticket to Ride) Upon seeing there was a panel on the preservation of video games, I also dragged the aforesaid three men along. I was greatly amused to listen for two hours to five panelists discuss the job of an archivist without ever saying the term. The panel was sponsored by The American Classic Arcade Museum (ACAM), a non-profit organization in NH that strives to preserve pre-1980s arcade games. Also present was a researcher trying to track down the original names of some of the early game designers, a professor of game design, and a gentleman…
Digital Preservation Course
Posted March 10, 2013 by lazylibrarian
This semester I am taking a class called Digital Preservation. I haven’t had much previous experience with coding and such so this class has really taken me out of my comfort zone yet I can see just how useful it can be in not only the current archives field but in libraries as well. I see more and more advertisements for technology librarians; we no longer live in a print-based world in America. Having mused over these things I began to wonder about the set-up of Simmons’ Archives Program. As a dual degree student I am studying both archives, under the broader Library Science program and History as a separate entity. Some schools, like U.T. Austin also place their archives programs under Library Science or in the case of Drexel, under Information Science. However, some institutions place their archives programs under their History programs, like UMass. I have never been a part of the UMass program but as I delve deeper into these tech classes I can’t help but wonder how you obtain those technical skills…
A Blend of History and Archives
Posted February 3, 2013 by lazylibrarian
As a dual degree student in Archives and History, I have one foot in the LIS (Library and Information Science) world and one in the CAS (College of Arts and Sciences) at Simmons. At times it can be a little frustrating since I’m dealing with two different departments but a lot of the time there is more overlap then I would have imagined. Currently, I am taking a Public History course. I have never taken one before and I love it. I almost wonder why I never thought of Public History as a career choice before. I have a Bachelor’s in both English and History and saw Archives as the wonderful combination of the two, but as I continue through this dual degree program, Public History seems the perfect combination of Library Science and History to me. We are currently reading Museums, Monuments and National Parks by Denise D. Meringolo about the evolution of Public History in America. One of the key points of the book, pointed out from the very beginning in the prologue,…
Welcome Back!
Posted January 17, 2013 by cdelnero
Happy New Year and welcome back, GSLIS! I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and a relaxing break.I am still in denial that the spring semester is here. Today reality sunk in and I reluctantly opened some emails from professors and GSLIS staff. I know that once I get into the swing of things, it won’t seem so scary…but right now, I am SO not ready! I have some big things to look forward to this semester. First of all, tomorrow I am heading out to Boston with two classmates for our first course on the main campus. This is so exciting for me because I love the city and can’t wait to experience the main campus as a student and not just a visitor. Even more exciting is that I start my new job on Monday the 28th! That’s right, folks, I got the job! I am officially the library assistant for the Health Sciences Library at St.Francis Hospital, and I couldn’t be happier. This is my first official library job and for…
East meets West – Part III – The Follow-up
Posted November 20, 2012 by Julie Steenson
I would like to follow up on Chelsea’s two blog posts about some of the differences between the Main Boston campus and West campus in South Hadley. For a general feel, I will start by referring you back to my earlier post, “The Tale of Two Campuses,” but I will try to be more specific in this post. Class Size – Chelsea is right here. I don’t know the names of half of the people in my Boston class but all my West campus classes have been small, leading to a very bonded group of people. At West, we bake brownies for class and seek out opportunities to work together via discussion boards, email, etc. during the week. The small class size does make a more “family” atmosphere. Demographics –In general, we tend to be older on West campus and in my experience, there are also more men at GSLIS -West. There are many more career changers on West, and that leads to the bonding over fitting in classwork and group projects around family and…
Boston Book Collector Weekend
Posted November 18, 2012 by lazylibrarian
Yesterday was Boston’s Book Collector’s weekend. There were two shows, the bigger one being the 36th Annual International Antiquarian Book Fair and the other was the Boston Book, Print and Ephemera Show. I spent a little time at both. The Antiquarian Book Fair is more for serious collectors; way out of my price range but it was quite fun to look around and ogle at the beautiful things money can buy. Dealers were there from Europe as well as all over the US. Out of curiosity I sought out the English dealers. I am a HUGE fan of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel. Many people know of the book and have had to read it at some point in their school career but few realize it is actually the first in a 20-some book series. Only the first one ever made it into print in the U.S. For years I have been scouring used book sales for copies (Yes I could buy them offline but it’s not as fun). Sure enough, the third English dealer I found had two of the…
A Case of the Mondays
Posted November 12, 2012 by Sarah Barton
Today is Veterans’ Day observed, and GSLIS does not have classes. How will I be spending my morning, you ask? In class. Barring Thanksgiving next week (yay!), the only holidays this semester fall on Mondays. That means there ends up being one less class meeting for Monday classes than for their Tuesday-Friday counterparts. So despite the holiday today, my professor (and from what I’ve heard through the grapevine, a few other professors as well) will be holding class. The thing is, I’m not even mad. I’m not dreading going. It just feels like another Monday. Everybody enjoys a day off (and especially a long weekend), but when classes only meet once per week, not having a class is a considerable setback. My professor isn’t having class to spite us, as she is also coming in on what could have been a day off. We have a lot of material to cover, and just finally got caught up after falling behind a few weeks ago. And, frankly, the point of being at GSLIS is taking classes,…
Fathoming the Frankenstorm
Posted October 29, 2012 by Sarah Barton
I tend to not get too hyped up about storm forecasts. I recognize that people need to be alerted about the potential severity of a storm so they can prepare accordingly, but I personally don’t get caught up in the 24-7 Weather Channel or local news coverage. (Confession: in small doses, I do enjoy watching the live reporters who can hardly stand up due to the driving wind and rain. And how do their microphones not pick up any of the wssssh sounds from the wind?) On Sunday morning I picked up some bottled water and non-perishables, tested my flashlight, and collected some candles, so I felt like I was more than prepared for Sandy the Frankenstorm. Sunday evening I was surprised to see that many Massachusetts schools announced Monday closures. Then I received an email from my Monday morning professor that she was cancelling our in-person meeting and putting the lecture notes online. Then Simmons called, texted, and emailed me to say that the campus would be closed on Monday. Are people overreacting to…