Classes
It’s Crunch Time
Posted November 28, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
It’s crunch time everyone! My final project is due next week. The class discussion doesn’t end until December 10th, so I suppose that is the official end date, but the project is my main priority. My final project for LIS 488 (Technology for Information Professionals) is a personal website and portfolio that I have developed and built myself and coded by hand. I have a lot of the groundwork done- I have a paper mock up of what I want the pages to look like (no guarantees that it will actually look like this!), I have most of the HTML coding done, I’m working on the CSS, and I think it’s starting to come together. On one hand, I’m so, so impressed that I now have the skills to do this. On the other hand, I’m panicking because I’m making a website by hand. I’ve never had to code anything in my life before this class, and now I’m coding an entire website. I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride every time I see…
The SLIS Buffet
Posted November 19, 2018 by Katie Carlson
Hello again! I’m getting ready to register for classes in a few days, and I’m going to explain the way I’m feeling in true English major fashion — via metaphor. I feel as though I am at a Chinese buffet, overwhelmed by mouth watering scents, and surrounded by delicious food. I’ve already grabbed a tiny bit of scallion pizza, a donut, and a tiny bit of sesame stir fry, and about to go up for round two. But, just as I bounce over to the serving trays, someone walks over and informs me that I can only take NINE MORE BITES of food. As someone who (both in terms of course work and Chinese food) likes to sample a bit of everything, I can’t help but feel a bit distraught. In my advising meeting with Laura Saunders, I arrived armed in true future-librarian fashion) with a color coded Google doc, in which I had ranked by preferred courses per semester. That said, I know I will be taking LIS 488: Technology for Information Professionals, to…
Nonstop Action!
Posted November 14, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
In my last post, when I said “life is getting pretty hectic,” that was an understatement. I thought my description was accurate last week, but I was just part of the way through the mountain of work that awaited me. Since last week, I have gotten sick (get your flu shots everybody!), completed yet another huge project, have tried (and succeeded) to keep up with my weekly labs and readings, and have begun to think about my final project. Additionally, this is registration week! I’ve been talking about my plan for a while and it is now time to put that plan into motion! This has been a week of nonstop action, with not a lot of time to rest (which I can tell you from experience, is not the best thing for being sick). In fact, I had my first all-nighter of grad school this past week! I don’t usually pull all-nighters (I think I only had to do it twice in undergrad) because I really need to stay on a good sleep schedule…
Wait…It’s almost Thanksgiving?!
Posted November 13, 2018 by Maria Reilova
So it’s November. Already. I’m not sure where September and October went but apparently it’s the past. These first few weeks of grad school have been a whirlwind and when friends and family ask me what I’ve been up to my brain just goes blank and my response is always something along the lines of “library things” and “school stuff”. Being halfway through the semester is both exciting and terrifying. I’m glad to be done with some of my projects but I still have a ways to go before the semester is over. I love my classes but I am very excited for Thanksgiving for a little time to breath in between all the craziness of papers, group projects, and final assignments. Since I am taking all my the 3 core courses this semester the workload has been heavy, especially since I’m taking 415 and 407 back to back on Thursdays (hello overlapping deadlines!). I’ve survived midterms though, which means I’ve survived three group projects all due the same week! Nothing like group assignments to…
Hump Week
Posted November 8, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
I’ve dubbed this week “hump week” because I have major assignments due in BOTH of my classes on Saturday. They are the last assignments before our final projects, so it’s the last “hump” of the semester before the final hump. As such, this will be a brief post just to check in and confirm I’m still alive after last night’s adventures of writing papers and monitoring a child with a bad case of croup. I’d like to say it gets easier as you progress in your program and get into the rhythm of schoolwork, but that hasn’t been the case for me. Each semester has brought fresh new challenges, and each has necessitated some late nights and bouts of stress and anxiety. The fact that getting your library degree might be your dream or passion doesn’t make it any easier, but it does make the work more meaningful. We are more than halfway through the semester (only four classes left!) and it is just flying by. If my spring schedule shakes out as planned and…
Registration Part 2!
Posted November 7, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
I have an update on my last post! So my desk is completely covered in Pro/Con lists, and I have officially decided to not take LIS 438: Introduction to Archival Methods and Services next semester, therefore delaying my decision on deciding what to do about my concentration and instead just take an elective. I know at the end of my post last week it seemed like I had talked myself into doing that, but then I started going back and forth again, but now I have decided! The world, and course catalog, is my oyster! So many wonderful choices! I’m now trying to decide between a few different classes. I’m planning on continuing to do what I’ve done for the past few semesters and only take one class. Between work, my personal life, and financially, taking one class a semester has really worked for me. Also, unless if I can find a Saturday class that works for me, or a blended class that has a really good time, because of my work schedule next semester,…
Next Level Research Paper-ing
Posted November 1, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
I think it would be really interesting to know exactly how many research papers I have written in my life. You would think with all my years of academic experience that I’d be getting better and better at writing papers, that each one would be just a bit more polished (or at least easier) than the last. But for some reason, every time I start a new paper it feels like I’m starting over, back at square one. Choosing a topic is so hard. Reading and sorting through all that literature and selecting the most relevant and important bits takes so much time and work. Generating creative analysis and original thought involves some secret formula that I still haven’t mastered. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? You will not have many tests at Simmons SLIS, but you will have lots of papers. As you may have guessed, I’m working on a big research paper due at the end of the semester for my archives class. This time our professor has really upped the ante by requesting “publishable”…
Registration!
Posted October 31, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
Registration time is upon us! And…I have no idea what class to take. As of December, I will be a fourth of the way through my program, and I’ll be done with my required core LIS courses. Now, I am currently in the Archives Management concentration, so logically, I should be taking LIS 438: Introduction to Archival Methods and Services, which is a prerequisite for a lot of the archives classes and is the recommended first archives class. However, in a past post of mine, I talked about how I was thinking about switching from the Archives Management concentration to just the regular DYO Library and Information Science MS degree, and I still haven’t decided what to do yet! It would make sense to take an archives class to be absolutely positive that I don’t want to do the Archives Management concentration, but I honestly don’t know if I can take LIS 438 next semester with my work schedule. LIS 438 is a course that includes a required 60-hour internship, and I’ve talked with some…
America’s Test Kitchen Library Site Visit
Posted October 30, 2018 by Katie Carlson
Araceli Hintermeister ’16MA/MS was gracious enough to give us a tour of the America’s Test Kitchen facilities. We were able to follow her through the pantry, onto the various sets, and of course, into the America’s Test Kitchen library. I made sure to fangirl over the beautiful and sleek set kitchens, but was equally as drawn to the photography studio. Araceli shared that the studio puts out thousands of photos a day. They have a plate and bowl collection that I am still having dreams about. Once in the library, the books were predominantly cookbooks, with a few reference texts thrown in here or there. In a move I’ve never seen before, but greatly enjoyed, the books were organized by cuisine origin, with each area of the world being assigned a color combination, as indicated by tape placed on the book’s spine. Araceli then brought in fellow information professionals who work at ATK, and we were able to grill them about their intersecting food and information interests. After our tour had concluded, a tall…
Soaking It In!
Posted October 26, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
I had a very full and productive class day this past Saturday, in which I participated in some lively class discussion, attended our LISSA West town hall meeting, gave a presentation, and sought valuable counsel from my mentors/professors about what I should do with my last semester. It was the kind of day that so perfectly encapsulates my entire experience at SLIS West that I just wanted to pause and soak it all in. It’s a feeling that has come with the realization that my days up at SLIS West are numbered. The weather was New England fall perfection. My drive began in the dark and ended in the dark, but I got to observe both the sunrise and the sunset in the brooding, cloud-torn autumn sky. When I arrived, I parked at the little collection of shops and restaurants that holds the SLIS office so that I’d have a farther walk to class – through the cool air smelling of wet leaves and by the majestic old brick and stone ivy-clad buildings of Mount…