Student Snippets A Window Into The Daily Life & Thoughts of SLIS Students

Classes

The Balancing Act Begins!

Well, my first full week of school is over, and my two biggest accomplishments were getting a student discount (10% at Tags!) and making my kids do my homework. Kidding.  Kind of. Going back to school at age 41, with a husband and kids and part-time work, is, in some ways, just like going to school at any age.  I puzzle over how long it will take me to get to school from our home in Somerville (almost an hour!), where to get my ID (the campus card office), what kind of notebooks to use, whether I needed a snack during a 3-hour class (yes!). There are some major differences, too.  Before I leave for class, I make lunches for my kids and get them ready for school.  I check my phone during breaks to make sure the school hasn’t called.  I drag myself to book club one night, and we talk about our parents’ health problems (probably not what my 20-something classmates are discussing over dinner).  I balance my freelance work and shifts at…


Dissecting Computers

I blog and I’m in library school, so sometimes people think I know a lot about computers. While I can understand why they would make this assumption, to be perfectly honest, technology really intimidates me. This goes back to a when I was in the second grade and my family got a new peripheral device and remote control for our cable television. There were so many colorful buttons! I started pushing away at them, trying to find the guide channel. As result, the TV froze and would not turn back on. It took two days to get someone from the cable company to reset everything, and by the time it was all over, I had a fear of touching expensive machines and always tried to get other people to handle technology for me. My first personal computer? My boyfriend set it up. My first iPod? My brother put all of my music on it and on every iPod I’ve owned since. When I moved away from home for the first time? My boyfriend at the…


Grad School Year Two: Bring it On!

I’d like to start this blog post by first welcoming back my fellow returning grad students and by welcoming those starting their first year in SLIS! I have a good feeling that this semester is going to be a good one, and I wish the same to all of you. Since the last time I posted something here, I’ve made the move from Brighton to Roxbury Crossing. Not only am I now living with other students from SLIS and the Children’s Literature program, but I am also within fifteen minutes from school. Essentially, I will be at Simmons a lot this year, either at the library, at the Student Services Center desk, or in the tech lab. I even purchased an awesome blanket from the Simmons Bookstore to keep me warm while inside the Palace Road Building. Still deciding if bringing a blanket to class would be a bit too much. What do you think? Beyond the above, I’m sort of ashamed to admit this but, the reality that my second year of grad had…


Hanging out with JFK

Did you know that just a short bus ride away from the JFK T stop on the red line is the JFK Presidential Library and Museum? Did you also know that the papers and writings of Ernest Hemmingway are also stored there? No? Well, neither did I. That was, at least, until I went on a field trip with my Preservation Management class last Thursday. Yea, that’s right, I went on a FIELD TRIP! Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus would have been super proud of my class. Not only did we get to learn about the responsibilities and skills required to be an archivist and deputy curator to a Presidential Library, but we also learned about the JFK Library’s disaster plan and how it was tested during an actual disaster that happened last year. For those who don’t know, the library had a fire last April and though smoke, water, and firefighter damage was great, the library and museum did not lose a single item. Now that’s what I call impressive. Considering that my course,…


(Not) A Lazy Summer

When I look out my window, I find it hard to believe that less than three months ago, there was still snow on the ground. Not only that, but it felt like the winter of 2013/2014 was never going to vacate the Boston area. And yet, here we are; the sun is out in full force and people are starting to gather in any air conditioned space that they can find. However, considering just how unbearably cold the first half of the year was, I won’t be complaining about the heat anytime soon. But if the city gets hit with another heat wave like it did last July, well, let’s just say that you will most likely be able to find me sitting at a table inside JP Licks. Speaking of summer, this one will be my first ever as a resident of Boston! But just like my last few summers back home in Long Island, I will be spending the bulk of this summer tucked away inside, either at work at the BPL or in…


How to be a Public Library Director in 5 Very Packed Days

I got to spend last week talking about one of my favorite things, public libraries, with one of my favorite professors, Mary Wilkins Jordan. During my time at Simmons (so far) I’ve taken three intensive courses and I must say I love the format. While learning about the many aspects of library management (budgeting, outreach, programming, evaluation, collection development, and advocacy to name a few) in one week was a bit overwhelming at times, it’s also a great way to cover a lot of ground quickly and get to the heart of issues. Many people in graduate school, especially at GSLIS, are also working and do not always have a whole semester to devote to classes like LIS 450 Organization and Management of Public Libraries and the week-long intensive format is a great alternative. The class was structured in five jam-packed days over the course of one week and we covered a lot of ground in a very short time. This is a subject that I’m incredibly passionate about so it was wonderful to be…


Semester Wrap Up and a Library Gala

My final “real” semester of school has finally wrapped up and it was quite a whirlwind! Had I known how difficult it would be to simultaneously juggle two intense classes and two demanding part time jobs I’m not sure I would’ve done it. That said, looking back I’m happy I survived and managed to find a reasonable amount of balance along the way. Next Friday I will participate in the GSLIS graduation ceremony and receive an empty diploma as I still have two courses left before I’m officially done. I’m looking forward to listening to our speaker David Weinberger and participating in the ceremony. The courses I’ll be taking over the summer are both week long intensives and should be a lot of fun. First I’ll be taking LIS 430 Organization and Management of Public Libraries the last week of May with Professor Mary Wilkins Jordan. I started this class in the fall semester but dropped it (because I signed up for too many classes) and I think it will be a fun and informative week….


What’s Next?

I am graduating in December. This is painfully evident to me as many of my friends are graduating this spring. I watch them as they introduce themselves at the job fair in their smart pant suits. I linger over their announcements on the last day of class: This IS my last class at GSLIS. I jump for joy when they reveal in triumph: I GOT A JOB! This is what’s next this week: parties, life without homework, and the jobs on the horizon.  But what about after that? What happens after the cheering is over, the reading for fun begins and the day-to-day routines of library jobs set in?  This is inevitably what is addressed, or should be addressed, in any last class rant by a professor of substance. My two professors, both crazy intelligent beings, Amy Pattee and Linda Braun, spent their last moments with us pronouncing those fateful words: THIS IS NOT THE END! They’re right, it is only the beginning. I pass their words of wisdom on to you, dear readers, as…


Where Did the Time Go?

I’ve looked at my calendar more times than I can count in the last few days. Surely the date can’t be right; wasn’t it January just the other day? Although it says that today is the second to last day of April, I’m about 95% certain that my laptop’s calendar is wrong. Shouldn’t the last few days of April be warm? I’m pretty sure that the weather outside is more like something I’d find in late February, or early March at best. No, this all has to be one massive, over the top hoax; any moment now Ashton is going to pop and inform me that I’ve been punked. Any moment now…still waiting….Ashton?   Alright fine, I’ll face the facts, the semester is literally days from being over which means that somehow,  I’ve just completed my first year at Simmons. Of course I’m over the moon excited by this fact; I have just one small twenty-five paper standing in between me and summer break. And yet, it seems like just yesterday I was leaving for…


Beginning of the End

That’s not entirely true, I’ve got so much work to plow through between now and the end of spring semester that at times I feel like I’ll never be done. However, Wednesday afternoon I signed up for my last ever classes at GSLIS. True to form, I’m taking the road less travelled and finishing up my GSLIS career with two weeklong intensive courses over the summer, including one that I think is intended for archive students. My final semester as a masters student will be done in short intensive bursts. I’ll spend the last week of May taking LIS 450: Organization and Management of Public Libraries, a class I’d planned to take in the fall semester but timing hadn’t worked out. The second course will meet for two three day periods during the month of July, LIS 425: History of the Book. I’m most looking forward to LIS 425, in fact, it’s the class that made me originally decide I wanted to go to school to become a librarian. I remember very distinctly the day…


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