Classes
Library Setup
Posted January 22, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I had my first assignment for Collections Development last week and it was very interesting. Each student chose a different library to focus on for the semester, and the first thing we had to do was visit that library and observe how it was set up. I visited my library late on a Thursday afternoon. As I went through each room, I noted what was there and how it was arranged. I also focused on who was there and what they were doing. I normally don’t spend a lot of physical time in the library because I request items through the online library catalog and go directly to the circulation desk to pick them up. I know where everything is in the library, but I never thought about how it was arranged. Obviously setting up a library is more complicated than simply placing books on shelves. It must have an order and be easy to navigate. I never had to think about that before, but I tried to keep that in mind when I browsed…
A Day in the Life of a School Library Teacher Student
Posted January 17, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It’s the first week of classes, and yet all I want to do is stay under my blankets near the furnace. The average temperature in Boston right now is in the single digits, with the high being 15 F. This is Boston in January, I guess. As much as I want to stay under my blankets, I need to clean off my desk and sort through all my reading. For a library school student, you may be surprised to hear I am reading a guide on student teaching (also called Practicum Experience) requirements, CAP Guidelines as assigned by Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the Evaluation for Educators regulations as set by DESE, Waltham Public Schools’ Kindergarten Curriculum for Information Literacy, and a syllabus for my online SLT Tech class. I am almost done with my school library concentration and well on my way to becoming a certified school librarian. My placement is at a school in the far north part of Waltham, so a bit of a trek. Getting out to Waltham…
New Year, New Semester
Posted January 15, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2020 (although it is now halfway through January)! I had about a month off of work and school and even though it was great to have time off, it’s good to be back in the saddle again. This week is the first week of the Spring 2020 semester for me here at Simmons, and it is also the first week of the Spring 2020 semester for the students at the university library where I work, so things have been busy for me both at school and at work! This semester I’m taking LIS 453: Collection Development and Management, although sadly I’m not in the same section as Amie. I’m very excited for this class and to learn more about how library collections are developed and maintained and get a thorough understanding of the collections process. While a few of my previous classes have briefly touched on some topics relating to this, such as budgeting and weeding, this class is going to be an in-depth look at collection development as…
Ready to Go!
Posted January 14, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
It was nice to have a few weeks off but I’m ready for classes to start again. 2020 is going to be an important year for me. Not only is it a big birthday year (I’m entering a new decade!), but it’s the year I’ll be graduating. Since I have a lot to do between now and the end of the year, I started browsing the Simmons Career Education Center website to see if it offered anything to help me through the process. It turns out that the CEC offers a lot of services to students and alumni. I was a little overwhelmed by all the options, to be honest, but I found two things that seem especially useful: the resume review service and the career fairs. I could use some feedback on my resume. I am not sure it’s as strong as it could be, so I’m going to make an appointment to have someone from Simmons review it. This will be especially important because I’m planning on attending at least one of the…
Public Art in Providence
Posted January 13, 2020 by Katie Carlson
At the close of last semester, I was able to participate in one of my favorite final projects I’ve ever done! For LIS 446: Art Documentation with Ann Graf we were tasked with cataloging three instances of public art in a location of our choosing. I partnered up with my good pal Willa, and we decided to explore Providence. I took the commuter rail from Boston (how does Willa do it every time we have class?) to Providence on a frigid but sunny day, and we set off to observe and take pictures of the works we had selected. The first piece we chose was Dear Urban Females (2019) by AGONZA. It is located on the back of the Weybossett Facade if you want to take a look for yourself! AGONZA is the truly rad woman and artist of color responsible for this piece, which was created as a tribute to strong urban women of all backgrounds. Dear Urban Females is a self-portrait of sorts. AGONZA was born in Providence, but spent her formative years…
Spring 2020 Classes
Posted January 10, 2020 by William Crouch
I figured it was probably time for me to post about what classes I’m taking next semester considering the fall semester is more or less done. I’ll actually be taking four classes over the Spring semester. One of my weekly classes will LIS 438 Intro to Archives. It will be my first archives course and it includes a 60 hour internship so I’m pretty excited to start it and learn more about what will hopefully be my eventual career. Another weekly class will be LIS 407 Information Services. It’s one of the required courses for the LIS program and sounds similar to LIS 415 which I enjoyed. My last weekly course will be HIST 574 Modern US History. I’m a big US history buff and am mostly interested in modern history so this class will be one that I hope to take the methods that I learned from my current history course and be able to apply them. Finally, my last course is actually not weekly. Instead it will take place entirely over spring break…
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…
End of Semester Thoughts
Posted December 10, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I can’t believe the semester is over already! I have completed all my assignments except for a group project, but that is 90% done and will be submitted by the time this blog is posted. I’m happy that I made it through unscathed, and I’m also happy that I won’t ever have to take three classes in one semester again. It was doable, but definitely required a lot of focus and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had forgotten about an assignment (I never did, but I also constantly checked my syllabi to make sure I was covered!). I will be glad to get back to only two classes next semester. I think the biggest lesson I learned from my classes this semester was how broad the field of librarianship really is. The Digital Libraries course expanded my concept of what a library is and showed me how much work goes into setting up a digital library. It requires a lot of people from different areas to work together to provide something functional and…
Almost There!
Posted December 4, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
It’s the last week of the Fall 2019 semester everyone! We’ve made it to the end! Even though these past few weeks have seemed to fly by, I feel oddly relaxed going in to this last week. It feels very anti-climactic. I believe it’s because the end of the semester is so close to Thanksgiving–I think last year we had a little bit more time between Thanksgiving and the end of the semester, whereas this year we went right from Thanksgiving break into the final week of class, and then there was a huge snowstorm which gave me an extra day off from work. Usually I’m really stressed at the end of the semester because there are projects and assignments due, and while I do have a big project due at the end of this week, I think having that small bit of time off really helped me relax and recharge and get ready for the final push. However this is how I feel right now….talk to me on Sunday when everything is due at…
Week 12 — Almost the End of Another Semester!
Posted November 28, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It’s Week 12, which means there are only a few more weeks left of this busy semester. Although I do need to start planning for my elementary practicum, the semester is still manageable. I only have 2 big papers and one project left until I’m done with the fall semester! At this point, it can be a struggle to not take a nap once a day or every few days. I also need to remind myself that leaving the confines of my desk is important! Almost every day last week, I felt like I was trapping myself in my room with two big papers due and a wedding to prepare for. After feeling down on Monday and being hard on myself for doing nothing, one of my friends reminded me that I need to take time for myself. After all, we are “human beings” and not “human doings.” Some ways that I am taking time for myself is writing poetry for fun and making time to read for pleasure. Reading different YA and children’s books…