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

Events

Priority Deadline Tomorrow, February 1st!

Just a quick note for all prospective students applying for Summer 2013 or Fall 2013 – the priority deadline is tomorrow! If you’d like to be considered for merit-based aid, your application must be complete, meaning we’ve received all your recommendations, transcripts, etc. by or on February 1st. For all Summer 2013 applicants, February 1st is also the final deadline for applications. Those of you applying for Fall 2013 but do not need/want priority aid, the final deadline is March 1, 2013. To check on the status of your materials and application, please visit this page and click on the “check your application status” link. This will allow you to sign in and view any applications you’ve begun or submitted and the status of each requirement necessary to complete the application. If you have any questions or concerns, please call our office at 617-521-2868 or email us at [email protected].


The Big Picture

  It has been a year since I started the GSLIS program, and it has taken me this long to understand the value of a degree program.  I am not just talking about the “getting a job” piece – this is a professional program so it goes without saying that the purpose of the degree is to enhance employment options.  There is another value that isn’t well understood.  The degree program doesn’t just teach us skills. It teaches us how to be visionaries. That might sound a little lofty, even to me, but I came to this realization recently at my job at a public library. I am in a pre-professional job, which is great experience, but ultimately a dead-end position.  (Hope my boss isn’t reading this, but I think this is important to share with you.)  I do a lot of circulation and I am the inter-library loan coordinator.  I answer reference questions, coordinate the use of the library meeting rooms, do an occasional program,  prepare user instruction materials, and maintain some usage statistics. …


Dreaming of a more peaceful time…

Growing up, I used to have a routine before going to bed.  I would say goodnight to my parents, grab a beverage – sparkling water in the summer, hot tea in the winter – grab whatever book I was in the middle of, and spend the last delicious hour of consciousness lost in whatever fantastical world those pages contained. In between leaving my home for college and being halfway through a graduate program, something changed. My evenings are no longer filled with the writings of great minds; my dreams are no longer of magic, dragons, and wizards.  There are still plenty of hot beverages, though – but not tea.  Now I find myself guzzling coffee at all hours of the night, attempting to wrangle one more hour’s worth of energy into finishing whatever project I am working on.  And I still read – but instead of characters with beautiful names and tragic back stories  I read the (rather dry) biography of Melville Dewey.  Or the historical conflict between archivists and librarians… or archivists and record keepers……


Putting Evaluation Into Action

Last week at my internship, my boss overheard me telling a co-worker that I am taking my final core class, Evaluation of Information Services. My boss was intrigued, and suggested that we schedule a meeting sometime next month to look at the evaluations she has done in the past and perhaps start thinking about future evaluations. This is a prime example of GSLIS curriculum in action, and a perfect way to incorporate my coursework into an actual work setting. But, to be honest, my first reaction was to momentarily freak out. I didn’t have a meltdown or anything, but I felt as though she had asked me to design a prototype for a spaceship. I have only had two classes so far this semester, and I guarantee that my boss knows far more about evaluation than I do. What type of insight could I possibly bring to this meeting? Once I got over that initial freak out, I calmed down and realized that this is a great opportunity for me. My boss didn’t recommend meeting…


Reference Questions Via Email

One of the more common topics discussed in Library School is “the reference question.” For many of our patrons this still fits in nicely to the librarian stereotypes and what they expect when they enter a library:  the tall foreboding desk with an old maid sitting behind it that you only go to ask questions of as a last resort. Of course, more often than not, the stereotype is not true but it is still true that the reference desk is a familiar aspect of libraries, and answering questions and providing information is a core part of the librarian’s duties. As such, a lot of emphasis is placed on how to navigate a reference interview during library studies. Many times when a patron asks a question they tend to ask a very general one which might not be exactly what they are searching for. The question, “Do you have any books on butterflies?” might seem like a simple question request but if the librarian simply answers “yes” and delves no further she will not know…


Technical Difficulties

There seems to be an assumption that all twenty-somethings are incredibly tech savvy.  I wish I could say I fit this stereotype, but in actuality I have a lot of room for improvement.  I don’t want to suggest that I am living in the stone age (I do have an iPhone and an iPad after all!), but troubleshooting gadget mishaps and searches more complex than Google can be baffling to me.  Truth be told, I was initially attracted to the library field because I thought it would be a way to escape technology.  Could I have been more wrong?  Technology is the backbone of this profession and it is crucial for librarians to keep up with constantly evolving new developments.  Although I am nowhere near where I need to be, I have become more open to experimenting with and embracing new technologies since starting at Simmons. All new GSLIS students are required to take a self-guided course called the Technology Orientation Requirement (TOR for short) during their first semester.  The course takes you step by…


A Change for the Better

  One year ago, I started the GSLIS program worrying about catching up on technology and the laundry, and filled with both anticipation and anxiety about going back to school.  It seems like a long time ago. I am not the same person I was last January.  Where there was fear, there is now confidence. As a future student considering our program, the question you need to ask is, “What happened?”  What transformed me from a forty-something who was afraid to get into the car on that very first day of grad school into a confident and comfortable graduate student who embraces challenges and seeks out new professional experiences? The Faculty I have been fortunate to have great faculty who have treated me as a fellow librarian regardless of how many credits or how much experience I had.  Rather than being intimidating authority figures or haughty experts, they are respectful colleagues. They have helped me to grow, acknowledging that we all come to librarianship from different places. They have encouraged me to step far outside…


“Libraries are still vibrant…”

How can we, as students, help libraries improve for their patrons? What is most important to them? Read what Americans have to say about libraries in this post on the Christian Science Monitor… http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0122/Libraries-are-still-vibrant-say-Americans-but-need-to-keep-up


Practical Versus Passionate

Like many of my fellow GSLIS students, I graduated university with degrees in English and Art History.  After graduation, I was essentially pushed out the door, told to “go forth and acquire employment.”  After looking around, my worst fears were realized: what was I going to do with two degrees and relatively few marketable skills?! I worked for a while temping; I sent out resume after resume and made phone call after phone call.  It was one day, after my mom called me and recommended that I look into going to graduate school to obtain these marketable skills that are apparently so desirable in the working world, that I started to consider libraries and archives as places of employment. But once I got to library school, I felt myself being pulled into the same trap.  Fascinating courses called to me – The History of the Book?!  Storytelling?! Organizational/Informational Ethics?! These are ALL courses I want to take.  But, because my time – and more importantly, my money – is limited, I need to decide on…


The one thing we ignored in our syllabi this week…

It’s the first week of classes! I spent my week looking deep into the future of my semester. Oh what fun projects I will do this year! The possibilities are, pardon the cliché, endless! Oh, the places I will go! Yet, as I reflected at the end of the week, every class had one commonality that I think doesn’t get talked about enough. Ever hear of the Simmons honor code? If you’ve read a syllabus in the past week you’d remember teachers dutifully reminding their students that plagiarism is taken seriously at this institution. I suppose in light of the recent cheating fiascos across the river you can hardly blame them. However, I remember skimming that part of the syllabi I had the fortune of reading this week, or rather skipping that part. It has occurred to me that this behavior is probably typical and symptomatic of the academic arena we were all raised in: DON’T COPY, DON’T CHEAT, DON’T STEAL…but most importantly, DON’T GET CAUGHT! I teach an information literacy course for high school…


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