Classes
What’s Next?
Posted April 30, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
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?
Posted April 29, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
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
Posted February 28, 2014 by Emily Boyd
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…
Monday with Julia Child
Posted February 24, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
This past Monday I ventured over to the Schlesinger Library, which is part of Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study. Although I was making this trip for research purposes, I won’t deny my excitement about getting to handle the papers and letters of THE Julia Child! To begin with, this was the woman who not only taught America how to cook, but she was part of a food revolution that helped pull America out of its bizarre obsession with disgusting Jello-molds and pre-packaged foods. Going beyond that, this woman is somewhat of a role model to me. Like her, I went through most of my relatively short life not totally sure of what I wanted to do. Just like her, I tried different things, each fun but never quite providing me with the level of fulfillment of satisfaction that I was searching for. But then, I discovered how much I loved baking, and a passion began to grow. Sure, I didn’t have the same degree of a food epiphany that Ms. Child had when…
The Agony and Ecstasy of Group Work
Posted February 23, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
One of the main differences between undergrad and graduate school that I would probably have appreciated knowing about ahead of time was how different the workload tended to be. Instead of lots of small assignments, you usually only get 3 or 4 big projects per class per semester. I hate to tell you this, but most of them involve group work. I have to admit that I didn’t know that going in. For some people it doesn’t seem like a big deal – group work? So what? For others, though, myself included, knowing that my entire academic life at Simmons was going to depend on groups of peers working together was enough to make my heart sink. The first time I heard about the approaching group work storm, I was sitting at a table with five or six other new GSLIS students at the Orientation Day last spring, and we were shooting questions about GSLIS classes and professors at someone who was about to graduate. I swear that when he mentioned group work, every single…
Construction Paper Revelations
Posted February 13, 2014 by Alec Chunn
Before the first day of The Picturebook, Professor Megan Lambert sent us an email requesting that we bring the following items to class: a stack of construction paper, a pair of scissors, and a glue stick. If you’re anything like me, these magical three are the things you bring to craft nights because you can’t sew or embroider or knit or [insert equally awesome skill here]. They’re the essentials. They’re the things that make you feel like an artist even when people say you aren’t. Therefore, you can imagine my delight when I realized that the activity planned for class was nothing other than starting the project that would be creating our very own picturebooks. In grad school. Awesome, right? When I found out, I told everyone. As I rejoiced and Instagramed my process over the next few weeks, I realized that the people I was telling were making certain assumptions about the level of difficulty of my program. I can imagine why they would. Picturebooks, normally 32 pages, tend to have simple text and…
Hidden Value in Boring Courses
Posted January 31, 2014 by Emily Boyd
I’m about to say something that may shock you. Not all classes in library school are riveting. One in particular is considered by many to be the most boring class they could possibly imagine. This course has only recently been removed from the list of core courses and I’m here to suggest that when you come to GSLIS, you take that boring course. This infamously boring course is LIS 403 Evaluation of Information Services. Perhaps the name is a giveaway for why it might be considered a bit of a snooze. In truth, no it wasn’t my favorite class to sit through, for three hours, in the evenings, on Mondays, but I am now applying so much of what I learned to my current library job. Professor Mary Wilkins Jordan did her best to keep classes lively and interesting, and considering that the subject matter is dry, I’d say she succeeded most of the time. The real value of the class was the semester long assignment to create a research proposal for a theoretical evaluation….
Confessions of a Kid Lit Fanboy
Posted January 29, 2014 by Alec Chunn
Let’s talk about fandom. Surely, there is somebody out there whom all of you are dying to meet. Yet, you’re probably also terrified of meeting this person, for fear of being tongue-tied, boring, or just all around beside yourselves (my grandmother, bless her heart, would use the phrase “tickled”). Well, a strange thing happened here at Simmons this semester: by some cosmic twist of fate, I am now taking a class from one of my heroes, Roger Sutton. See, Roger doesn’t know that I idolize him. He doesn’t know that one of my biggest motivations to come to Boston was to someday be his intern (fingers crossed). He doesn’t know that, on the first day of orientation last semester, when I found out he’d be teaching this class, my jaw literally dropped and I had to pick it up off the floor. He doesn’t know that, that same day, I all-too-energetically ran to meet one of the members of his staff at The Horn Book. At least, I hope he doesn’t know these things. And…
Learning the World of Computers
Posted January 27, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
As we all know, last Tuesday’s snow storm caused Simmons to cancel class that night. As I stayed nice and warm inside, I decided to do the responsible thing and do some reading for class. It was while I was reading through one of my two books for LIS 488 (Technology for Information Professionals) that I realized that I have a lot to learn in regards to computers. Now for those of you who might not know, LIS 488 focuses on the conceptual foundation and context of computing, Internet, and other technologies used within information-based professions. Besides learning the concepts and skills related to various pieces and aspects of technology, we are learning about the inner workings and history of computers. Considering that I grew up in the 1990s and had a front row seat to all the changes that occurred within the world technology, I figured that this course was going to relatively easy. Boy was I wrong. But not for the reasons that you’re probably thinking. I’ll be the first to admit that…
New Year, New Semester, Already So Much To Do
Posted January 14, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Well, the truth can be denied no longer; my second semester at Simmons has officially begun. As of 9am this morning, I became a student once again, putting an end to my month-long academic hiatus. Sure, I will miss the luxury of being able to sleep in past 7am and not have to worry about finishing all my homework before the weekend, but I know that its high time I get back to focusing on my academics. After all, I have a lot to look forward to this semester. For example, I will have not one, but two night classes this year, something that I am both dreading and excited about. Additionally, I have my first history course to look forward to, representing my first step towards completing my dual degree. But classes at Simmons are not all that I excited about. You see, right before I went home to celebrate the winter holidays, I went into Fenway High for a job interview. While I’ll be the first to admit that I did not land the job, I walked…