Classes
The Summer Interlude
Posted June 11, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
Well readers, I was right – my enthusiasm for school seems to be dutifully returning now that I’ve had a sufficient break. My online class, LIS456: Records Management, starts in a week and I am looking forward to it. As a bonus, the instructor put the entire course up on Moodle way ahead of time and encouraged us to start the readings and lectures early – if we so desired. I am very pleased that he did this and it makes a lot of sense for an online, asynchronous, self-directed class. Our professor has acknowledged that folks may have trips and other things going on during the summer and has given us the capability to manage our time and plan accordingly – increasing our chances for success in the course. Thank you, Professor Wood! As it so happens, my family will be embarking on our first big trip of the summer the very week that class starts. I’ll be spending the first day of class at Hershey Park, PA. Woo hoo! I have mixed feelings…
Summer is Here!
Posted May 16, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
Within the past two to three weeks the weather has finally warmed up! Today it was 85 degrees outside! Can you believe it?! I can barely believe that just a few short weeks ago I was wearing a parka. Practically overnight all the trees have leafed out and everything is now so green. It just suddenly appeared. This is the weather I have been waiting for! However, as I am writing this post, there is currently a tornado warning and it is pouring rain, so I guess I can’t have everything. As I mentioned last time, I’m done with classes and I have a bit of a break before my next class starts on June 19, so I’m taking advantage of my time off to try and discover more of Massachusetts on the weekends, as I am kind of new to the area. Also, once class starts, I still want to try and explore while the weather is nice. A few months ago, I found the Massachusetts Office of Tourism and Travel’s website while working…
First Semester: Complete!
Posted May 2, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
As of 11:55 PM last night, my first semester at Simmons is over! Not that I was counting the minutes or anything. All of my lectures are done, readings completed, and my final project has been TURNED IN! Even though this class was a lot of work, I loved every minute of it and learned so much. As I said last week, I’m really proud of everything I’ve accomplished this semester, and now I have a break from schoolwork until mid-June, which is when my summer class starts. Because I have had absolutely no free time whatsoever for the past few weeks until today because of school, stress, and personal life issues, I am a little bit relieved that I will be having a break from schoolwork, just for a little while. As I will now be having free time, I plan on catching up on some reading. I’ve really been slacking off- I’m a voracious reader, and I usually try and read several books a month but I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t…
Third semester: It’s a wrap!
Posted May 1, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
I’m all done with my third semester at SLIS West!!! Even though my courses this semester were in many ways “easier” than my others, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a massive sense of relief. There was a lot going on in my personal life these past few weeks that made the end a major struggle. For example, the first thing I did once classes were over was to finally take my poor ailing five-year old to the doctor and find out he has a double ear infection (ouch!). I am a worrier by nature, and two things guaranteed to create a lot of worry for me are school and sick children. The difficult thing about being a mom AND a grad student is that you literally get no break. You’re with the kids all day long, and any “personal time” you manage to etch out must go to homework. You can’t just go to bed early one night if you’re super tired because then you’ll get behind in your homework and there will…
The End is Near
Posted April 25, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
I have less than one week until my first semester is over. My final project is due next Tuesday, May 1, and then I am done with my first semester at Simmons. I’m happy, stressed, excited, and terrified all at the same time because it’s crunch time and I’m working away on my project and I can see my deadline looming closer but I know I have a break coming up (until my summer class starts). This semester has gone by so fast and I’m so proud of the work I’ve done and all of the new skills I’ve acquired. In just this one class, I’ve learned how to conduct reference interviews, I’ve learned about ready reference sources, I’ve learned about ethics and professional standards in the library and archives industries, I’ve learned a variety of new search strategies and techniques for databases and web sources, I’ve learned about evaluating information and resources, I’ve learned how to plan and create a basic instruction session, I’ve learned about making LibGuides, and so much more! I think…
Crunch Time
Posted April 23, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
We’ve now entered the last two weeks of the semester, otherwise known as “crunch time.” I have three end-of-semester projects on the horizon that I’m busily plugging away at. Now is the time when my kids get away with a little extra TV in the afternoons and I remind my husband daily, “just two more weeks….” The summer break is so close you can taste it, as it hovers like a sunny promise just out of reach. Oh how the pleasure reading and the hobbies and the home organization projects are calling! In my experience, you never know quite how the end will play out until it is suddenly upon you, but this semester (so far) I feel like the crunch won’t be too bad. The end of the semester is always an exciting time, and not just for the prospect of homework-free evenings. It represents the culmination of all we’ve been studying and working on throughout the semester and usually includes some kind of presentation in front of our peers. The project I’m most…
Living Grad School to the Fullest
Posted April 16, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
This post was inspired by a guest speaker we had in academic libraries – a recent SLIS West graduate that many of us knew. Marco is now a Reference & Collection Development Librarian and he gave a wonderful interactive presentation about his current job. I remember taking Collection Development with Marco and it was inspiring to see how he had made that his work and now he was behind the podium, teaching us with the very same material he had been learning just the previous year. Marco was full of confidence and enthusiasm, and it made me feel very encouraged about the value of our preparation at grad school. Observing Marco gave me something to strive toward: a vision of what I hope to achieve after graduation. Library school is a lot of work on its own: there are some weeks when all I can do is submit assignments on time and get myself to class in some semi-prepared fashion. But I’d like it to be more than that. I’d like this to be a…
Updates
Posted April 11, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
I cannot believe how quickly this semester has gone by! It’s already the second week of April, and I only have three weeks left in this semester. As I mentioned in my previous post, last week was Fall 2018 registration, and this fall I am taking LIS 488, which is Technology for Information Professionals. I’m not going to lie, I am a bit nervous about taking that class because while I am a child of the Internet, and I know my way around a number of technological devices, I do not know much about coding and programming. However, I have heard nothing but encouraging things about this class, and I am eager to learn new skills. In other news, I have officially decided to take a class this summer. I have signed up, and I have organized my schedule so that it will fit, and I am ready to go! I am taking LIS 415, which is Information Organization. Admittedly, I was hoping to actually make it to Main Campus for my next class, meet…
Comprehensive Reading List and Learning to Love Old Genres
Posted April 10, 2018 by Ashley Jackson
Are you an avid reader and stuck in a genre? I certainly was before I attended Simmons. I have my preferred genre’s and have difficulty convincing myself to read something different. Especially when it comes down to books I read for pleasure. In the Children’s Literature program, you will be reading a lot of books. I was so overwhelmed at the beginning of the semester, the few books I brought with me from Texas to read in my “spare” time sat on my little bookshelf collecting dust. Each week I had anywhere from two-five books to read. While these books are young adult books, some of them falling into my preferred genre, there were some I was not too excited for. It had been quite some time since I read anything outside of fantasy so when books like The Boxcar Children (a book I loved as a child), Little House in the Big Woods, or Happy Endings are All Alike showed up on our reading list, I was a bit apprehensive. However, as each week…
My Unexpected Library Class
Posted April 9, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
If you are like me, you’ll come to library school with some idea of what librarianship looks like and what subjects your course of study may include. I can tell you that there are plenty of courses that you might expect, such as subject cataloging, history of the book, collection development, and library programs and services. But you will also find courses that you might not expect, like usability and user experience, knowledge management, web development, and information visualization. The fact of the matter is, there will be more classes offered that you want to take than you can fit into your program. Library school is both too long and way too short. If you’re curious about Simmons’ course offerings, you can view the full course catalog here. Database management is one of those unexpected classes that I’m so excited to be taking. My interest in databases dates back to my internship at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the day my staff sponsor asked me if I had any knowledge or experience with Microsoft…