Classes
Out with the Old, in with the New
Posted November 14, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
In January I left my last nursing job so that I could better pursue a position in the wonderful world of librarianship. When I did so, my partner and I sat down and talked about how to make that decision work economically. He’s in grad school getting his doctorate in science, so he gets paid through that. It’s a pretty fixed amount, and not something that would keep us easily afloat for long without me working as well. Especially since I went to Nurse Practitioner grad school for a year, and I’m still paying off those loans, plus now I’m gathering more debt from LIS school, and we bought a house last year. We’ve both spent years saving up for all of this, but still. So, we sat down and thought of the lowest priorities for spending and how and where to cut corners. We ate a lot of rice and beans until I starting get more jobs, and we cut our cell phone plans. Now- we still had cell phones because we’d paid those…
Advising — Should I Take An Internship Course
Posted November 10, 2016 by Elizabeth James
One thing I was extremely surprised to note when I started my program online at Simmons was just how approachable the professors were–they responded quickly to any of my requests to speak with them, and were very open to talking on the phone with me about any questions I might have. Recently, I was required to turn in my tentative planning statement for my program of study, but I wanted to talk with adviser to make sure that the schedule I was picking was feasible given the planned courses for the next year and a half, and would be a viable match for my future career interests. She happily set up a time to talk later in the week, and I had a really productive conversation with her about required courses, and whether an internship would be beneficial to me. Because I have a lot of library experience, it never occurred to me that an internship for course credit was not something I should do while I am in school. I already volunteer at several library and…
Pleasant Suprises
Posted November 7, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
Whew! Busy week with a couple penultimate assignments and a presentation in my classes, plus attempts to get back in shape and return to meditating daily. It seems as though my new year resolution phase has kicked in a bit early. Or maybe I’m just excited for cookie season. So, I thought this week I might share a bit some of my pleasant surprises from my role as a metadata intern. When I started library school, I honestly didn’t really have an intention of becoming an information organizer to the extent of a metadata creator or cataloger. I found I really like my 415 class though (information organization), and suddenly I was considering resource description as a potential career. A piece of me thought I was just getting excited about something new to me, not really finding a new career path. So, I looked in other directions course and internship-wise for a while. Yet, the allure of info org has been too strong my friends — and it has remained a consistent presence for me…
Being An Online SLIS Student
Posted November 4, 2016 by Elizabeth James
Like many people, I was initially really skeptical about getting my Master’s degree online. I wasn’t sure if the classes would be as difficult as in-person courses, and I wanted to make sure I got the best possible experience that would leave me prepared to actively contribute to the field. Little did I know, I didn’t need to worry! Even though I’m only in my first semester, I already get to collaborate with other students working in hugely diverse geographic areas and types of libraries. It sounds really impressive when you can tell your friends you’re having a group meeting with people in West Virginia, California, and Connecticut! In addition to giving me experience collaborating with others in a national setting, the online experience gives me a chance to practice networking with individuals in other institutions the same way I will in my eventual professional career. My advisers and professors are readily accessible and very responsive to questions, and have office hours that are accessible to online and in-person students. Plus, I get to avoid…
T-Minus Ten Days (and Counting)
Posted August 26, 2016 by Tara Pealer
In theory, I have ten days left in the summer to chase excitement, hunt down adventure, and capture magic. In reality, there are only ten days standing between me and the semester, and I am not ready. Don’t get me wrong: I have the binders. I’ve rented the books. I’ve figured out my class and work schedule. I’ll be meeting with the rest of the LISSA leaders today to discuss our plans for the semester concerning events and other exciting plans. I even–get this–went to the Annual SLIS Retreat to learn more about the future of SLIS as a school and as part of Simmons College as a whole. I know I can handle classes, though I’m taking Database Management, which is a different kind of approach to information than I’ve taken before. And I know I love what I do and where I work. I’m excited for my classes and for the kind of work I expect to be doing in them. So, technically, I’m more ready for this academic year than I have…
Guest Blog Post About Medical Librarianship
Posted May 3, 2016 by Katie Olivo
We have a special guest blog post this week by current SLIS student Jessie Cass. Jesse is currently (Spring 2016) in her last semester at Simmons SLIS. She is finishing up an internship at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester doing collection development and creating a libguide. She hopes to continue to do similar work in the future, though she would also love to combine her interest in cognitive science with the skills in library and information science gained throughout her time at Simmons. She has always lived in Massachusetts and will be remaining in the Boston area since it has so much to offer! When she is not doing homework she loves walking her dog and reading science fiction novels. You can learn more about her academic career at www.jessiecass.com Medical Librarianship Guest Blogger, Jessie Cass In the spring of 2016 I completed an independent study which I called “Comparing Medical Librarian Roles: Circuit Riders, Clinical Librarians, and Informationists”. I worked with a medical librarian (Catherine Carr) from…
Homework Craze(d)
Posted April 7, 2016 by Tara Pealer
There’s been a little radio silence from me in the past few weeks, but it wasn’t intentional. It’s just that the semester decided to get ridiculously busy. In the past two weeks, I’ve learned javascript over the phone, shown my friends how to write javascript for an assignment, written 12 double spaced pages and four single spaced pages, taken a quiz, and all around tried to keep ahead on my homework. It’s been a very busy few weeks. However, Friday I was able to start to get ahead on my homework, which was a blessing and a half. April, for whatever reason, seems to be a little less crazy, though there’s still a lot to do. For 403, besides the third assignment and the final 25 page paper, I signed up as part of an extra credit Usability team. For 453, I finished my tweets and usage statistics assignment early but still have the final policy to write and put together. 488 still has a paper, the final webpage, some graphics work and a relational database assignment to get started on. Oh, and Camp NaNoWriMo…
Beating The Bug
Posted April 2, 2016 by Amy Wilson
Most of my week was unfortunately consumed by a stomach bug, and I didn’t make it back to work until Thursday morning. Is there anything more frustrating than wasting PTO to be sick? I spent many hours on the couch and felt so miserable that I couldn’t even get ahead on homework. Instead, I watched/dozed through a lot of Jane Austen movies, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Becoming Jane, and Mansfield Park. I also got really sick of toast and applesauce. By Wednesday, when I still wasn’t well again, I was starting to freak out because I had presentations in both my classes this week; Wednesday was my individual presentation on a legal research database, and Thursday was a group presentation on reference in special libraries. Luckily I’m not a procrastinator so all my research/design was done, but I knew that there was no way I could make it to campus on Wednesday night.Google to the Rescue: Channeling my inner Rob, I started searching for technological solutions. I quickly found a Chrome plugin called Snagit that would…
Very Special Libraries
Posted March 19, 2016 by Amy Wilson
Last week, while most of Simmons was on spring break, I was on campus every day from 9am until about 3pm. I took the week off of work in order to complete a 5-day, 3-credit course with SLIS legend, Jim Matarazzo. Jim has worked in corporate libraries for decades, and he is the original social networker. I’m pretty sure you could ask about any major company and he will tell you the history of their corporate library and name two contacts there. This class was heavily career focused, extremely practical… and wicked fun! Our assignments for the week included two papers and two (group) presentations. We looked at a set of corporate libraries that had closed and another set that were “successful,” then evaluated how corporate libraries can survive and thrive. We also each summarized a chapter from the textbook (which Jim co-authored). My favorite day of the week was Tuesday, when we did our site visits. We started at the New England School of Law, whose library has an impressive reference staff and a very cozy study space….
On Hobbits and Morning Classes
Posted January 28, 2016 by Tara Pealer
I woke up early on Monday morning– –after hitting the snooze button for twenty minutes and silently yelling at myself to put down the phone and make breakfast, that is. These past few weeks, save a few days of work and ALA Midwinter, I have had the privilege to sleep in until 9 or 9:30, laze around for half an hour, eat cereal, then another half hour later I’d make some toast, and then, an hour later, I’d make an actual breakfast with actual substance. By the time I had finished that, it was lunch time and the cycle could begin again. I have long ago accepted the fact that I am probably a hobbit. However, hobbits don’t have morning classes. I have two 9 AM classes this semester, which means that my hobbit-esque schedule is irreparably broken. Waking up at 6:00 am? Definitely something I have to re-accustom myself to. Luckily, my first class of the semester, LIS 488 (one of the options to fill the technology requirement), I have with two of my…