Classes
Making Plans!
Posted February 25, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
The summer course list was posted last week. I’ve been waiting for it because I’m trying to plan my final three classes. I can’t believe I only have three classes left! It’s exciting and kind of terrifying at the same time. Last summer I made the mistake of taking two classes and it was an insane amount of work. I am limiting myself to one class this summer, and it’s just a matter of deciding which class to take. I am intrigued by LIS 447, Collections Maintenance. The format is different for this class because it is face to face, and meets all day, three days a week, for two weeks. This means I can get the class over with and have a nice break before the fall semester. I am very interested in the subject matter, too. It’s about repairing and binding books, and other physical or administrative tasks related to collections maintenance. It would provide valuable hands-on experience and I think I would learn a lot. The downside is that it is all…
Working in an Archive
Posted February 24, 2020 by William Crouch
For LIS 438-Intro to Archival Methods, one of the required aspects is a 60-hour internship with an archive. For the class, Simmons helps you find an archive that will work well for your own situation based on your interests, transportation options, and where you live. I was assigned to work in the City of Boston Archives and Records Management Division with SLIS alum, Marta Crilly. For my internship, I was introduced to all of the other archivists within the office and they were all Simmons alumni which was really cool because it made me see just how big the alumni network is for SLIS. The City of Boston Archives has all the governmental records for the various divisions within the government like the fire department, police, and obviously the mayor’s office. My project for this semester will be going through boxes of photos from Mayor Raymond Flynn’s administration from 1984 to 1993 which had previously had been digitized onto a Flickr account. Over the course of the 60 hours I’ll be working there, I’ll be…
Presentation Time, and a Lucky Coincidence
Posted February 18, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I finished my first project of the semester this week. It was a Power Point presentation for Collections Development on a book genre of our choice. We had to research current trends in our genre, identify helpful resources, and analyze publishing statistics. We also had to create a two-page handout with a brief overview on the topic. This allows us to discover and share what is trending in the book world, so that ultimately we can build a library collection that satisfies user needs. Before I was back in school, I thought 5-7 minutes was a long time for a presentation, but it turns out it is not a lot of time at all. It goes by fast, especially if you have a list of items that you need to cover. Whittling down all the information into a narrative that is thorough, concise and makes sense is not easy. I’ve completed audio presentations for other classes and I’ve never recorded anything within the time limit on the first (or even second or third) try. It…
School Library Teacher Life
Posted February 14, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
So far, my student teaching experience is showing me that in order to work in a school, you really need to love what you do. The passion and dedication to this profession that I see in each of the teachers is incredible. I’ve also found that each day I learn something new from the kids. I tried teaching a lesson on kindness and a kindergarten student reminded me that it is good to have confidence in yourself. When I have trouble balancing doing chores in my house, and a fifth grader reminds me how important it is for everyone to help clean, that really resonates. Another example of these amazing children is that a group of fifth grade students have a book club, which participates in fundraising. Before they start reading a new book, they do a service project to raise money for children living in a homeless shelter, who don’t have books. Most recently, these kids were able to purchase 60 books to be delivered! How amazing is that? In case your wondering, the…
Let’s Talk About Books!
Posted February 12, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
This week I have one of the most fun projects that I’ve had since starting at Simmons! I get to talk about BOOKS! I know, I know, this is library school, shouldn’t this be a common thing? Actually, no, this is not a usual assignment. I don’t think I’ve actually had an assignment where I’ve gotten to wax poetic about books, genres, publishing, or anything of that nature since we talked about readers advisory waaaaayy back in my first semester when I was taking LIS 407: Information Sources and Services. This week is my Genre/Topic project for LIS 453: Collection Development and Management. For this project, I get to talk about a particular topic or book genre and discuss publishing trends, what’s hot and what’s not, popular books, any books that are going to be released as movies and/or TV shows in my genre, etc. Doesn’t that sound like fun? I’m excited for this project for a variety of reasons. First, as I mentioned earlier, I GET TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS! Like many others who…
Mastering Metadata
Posted February 11, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
One of the most interesting things about metadata is that there is a big difference between reading about metadata and creating metadata. I learned a little about this last year when we covered the topic briefly in LIS 415, but I’m learning a lot more about it now. The readings make metadata creation seem straightforward, but when I try to complete my assignments, I often get stuck. There is so much to think about, and so many categories to cover. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out if I’ve covered all the possible information I need to for a particular item. For example, this week we have to create our own metadata schema to describe three different music albums. We don’t have to describe the albums yet, just come up with all the categories necessary to describe them. The starting point is the album cover and back, which includes information such as the title of the album, the artist and other contributors, and the song titles. There can also be information on the producer(s), the studio…
Week 2
Posted January 30, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
Last week, I started student teaching at an elementary school in Waltham. I have never worked an 8-5 job before, so the first week was quite a shock. Getting used to the routine of being at school at a certain time and working with different grade levels is a lot to adjust to in the first week. In the first couple weeks, I mostly shadowed the librarian to get to know the students and other teachers in the school. By watching the librarian, I learn about what books the kids like to check out and how to engage the students in a read aloud. The hard part about committing so much time to practicum (student teaching) is balancing the one other class. SLT students at Simmons only take one other class with practicum, and it is usually an elective. This semester, my one other class is the required LIS 460: Technology and the School Library Teacher. I was so tired on Friday night after my first week that I didn’t get to any studying that…
Reflecting on Collection Development!
Posted January 29, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
Let’s talk about Collection Development and Management! Week 3 of the semester just started, and my first big assignment is due in a few days. As I mentioned in my last post, I don’t have much, if any, practical experience in collection development–my current job as a Reference Assistant in an academic library mainly consists of me doing reference work, as well as some circulation and outreach. Collection development is new territory for me, and I’ve been learning so much! However, something that I have noticed is that there are common threads throughout a lot of my classes at SLIS, including this class. Even though the overall topic may be new, there are elements that I’m building off of from other classes. For example, in LIS 451: Academic Libraries, and LIS 404: Introduction to Management, we talked about how mission statements and core values informed the library and the overall structure of the organization, and how they relate to academic libraries (LIS 451) and management (LIS 404) in particular. In this class, LIS 453: Collection…
Building Blocks
Posted January 28, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
One of the things I love about my classes at Simmons is that they build on each other. It’s exciting when a topic I learned about in one class is referenced or expanded on in a different class. It’s fascinating to go more in depth on certain topics and to see how they tie together. Even though this semester is only three weeks old, it has already referenced a lot of what was covered in my previous semesters. Collections Development has built on many of the subjects covered by Introduction to Management (LIS 404). This includes types of budgets used by libraries, how those budgets are used, mission statements, and vision statements. It has also mentioned environmental scanning, which is a topic that came up in Digital Libraries (LIS 462). Environmental scanning entails keeping track of what similar libraries are doing in order to measure what your library is or is not doing, and what it can do in the future. It’s a way of staying competitive and relevant in the community. Metadata has…
It’s the Final Countdown!
Posted January 27, 2020 by Maria Reilova
Happy 2020, everyone! I’ve been kind of absent from the blog last semester, so I am way overdue on given y’all a HUGE life update. I’m officially in my final semester and I am busy. Last semester I had the opportunity to work for the Fine Arts Library at Harvard University as well as intern for the Museum of Fine Arts Registrar’s Office. Now for anyone who doesn’t know me, this was a dream come true! My background is in art history and I have always seen myself working in either a museum library or a specialized academic library. At Harvard, I was working as the Collection Assistant and was able to learn so much about how they run their library and also see first hand some of the incredible things that the Fine Arts Library collects. I also on a few occasions got to work with the paper conservator on flagging some materials for preservation. All the things I loved learning about in my classes were really coming into play in my new role. …