Events
Working for the Weekend
Posted November 19, 2012 by Sarah Barton
In high school and occasionally during college summers, I worked on Saturdays. It wasn’t ideal, and I’m sure my bustling social life suffered irreparable damage, but somehow I survived. Since then, most of my Saturdays have been unadulterated Sarah time. A typical Saturday involves waking up (not sleeping in, as I have lost the capacity for that), going for a run, sitting on the couch, and going out for dinner and drinks. In short, Saturdays are great. Now imagine my horror when I found out that the branch library where I work, which until two weeks ago was closed on weekends, would now be open on Saturdays, and that I will sometimes have to work on Saturdays. I was out of town the first weekend the library was open, but this past Saturday I had no excuse. I went to work. And it wasn’t all that bad. I must confess that I was only scheduled for two hours, so there was still ample time for running and sitting and going to dinner. And it was…
Boston Book Collector Weekend
Posted November 18, 2012 by lazylibrarian
Yesterday was Boston’s Book Collector’s weekend. There were two shows, the bigger one being the 36th Annual International Antiquarian Book Fair and the other was the Boston Book, Print and Ephemera Show. I spent a little time at both. The Antiquarian Book Fair is more for serious collectors; way out of my price range but it was quite fun to look around and ogle at the beautiful things money can buy. Dealers were there from Europe as well as all over the US. Out of curiosity I sought out the English dealers. I am a HUGE fan of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel. Many people know of the book and have had to read it at some point in their school career but few realize it is actually the first in a 20-some book series. Only the first one ever made it into print in the U.S. For years I have been scouring used book sales for copies (Yes I could buy them offline but it’s not as fun). Sure enough, the third English dealer I found had two of the…
The Librarian Toolbox
Posted November 13, 2012 by Julie Steenson
Librarians have lots of tools….our fabulous brains, all that stuff we learn at library school, binders of ready reference questions and answers, reference books, databases, and of course, bookmarks on our desktops to all kinds of useful links. I was inspired by Maya’s post this week about Reader’s Advisory to share some of my favorite Reader’s Advisory tools. Novelist – Novelist is included in many database packages, at least here in NH public libraries. Two of my favorite features of Novelist are the Read-Alikes and the book reviews. The Read-Alikes allow you to pick a book you like, and Novelist does an instant reader’s advisory by showing what other books are “like” that one. You can limit the selection based on certain terms or it will just do a general read-alike search. Then the book reviews allow you to learn more about these other titles. Novelist offers many more features and if you have it at your library, I highly recommend logging on and exploring some of your favorite authors, titles, or series. KDL –…
Do you buzz?
Posted November 10, 2012 by Maggie Davidov
Yes, do you buzz around like a bee? You see where I’m going with this? This week I represented the school I work for in the Wellesley Spelling Bee. With thirty lists of words to study I was engrossed and could talk about little else for the past few weeks. No joke, ask my friends and family who are glad it’s over. I learned words like butyraceous, jeroboam, tabetisol, and my personal favorite kakistocracy. I spent time with my colleagues/teammates from school as we chatted, studied, and laughed over the silliness of the words we were spelling. It was bliss for a true spelling bee nerd like me. You see, I was in the Peace Corps a few years ago. While I was there one of my biggest accomplishments was founding the National Spelling Bee of Macedonia with my friend Matt. We were both very passionate about making language learning engaging for students of every level. We knew that our students loved competition and this seemed the most logical way to make learning English fun.We put together…
Don’t Judge a Donated Book by Its Cover
Posted November 5, 2012 by Sarah Barton
I work at a small branch library, and I was surprised to learn that we are not supposed to take book donations. One or two books here and there is ok, but an “I’m moving tomorrow and here is my entire book collection” drop off is too much. It’s not that we don’t want them, but since the main library is better equipped to handle donations people are encouraged to bring their books there. I don’t necessarily agree with the policy, but after reading this I might be more inclined to enforce it. If I were going through donated books and came across a gun, I probably would have uttered a few choice words other than “Oh my.” A gun…in a book? The write-up doesn’t make it sound malicious, but still, a gun…in a book? Knowing nothing about guns, I would say that gun actually looks kind of cool – like something a cowboy would tote in a saloon. But that’s not the point. What is the real story? Why was that cool looking gun…
Tweeting NEA
Posted November 4, 2012 by lazylibrarian
Blake Spitz@bgspitz At the mothership in Boston @simmonsgslis for #NEAfall12. Excited for a full day! The event/conference of the week was the fall meeting of New England Archivists (NEA), hosted by none other than your very own Simmons College! Since I currently work in a library and not an archives I did not have the option of excusing myself for professional development and missed the workshops and banquet on Friday night. (Though I did go to Guy Fawkes Pub Night on Friday and drank Samuel Adams with Samuel Adams’ spirit in the Old State House!) But living in the dorms means that I rolled out of bed at 8 am and walked over to the academic campus where sessions started at 9. I tweeted the conference through my twitter handle (which until last night was simmonslazylibr now it’s puschartwarrior) so here is the day in tweets! Stacie Parillo@stacieparillo Every room I’ve been in seems really young. I wonder what the average age is of NEA attendees? #neafall12 Since Simmons hosted there was A LOT of Simmons grad students present,…
“We’re Open to Serve You During Storm Recovery”
Posted November 2, 2012 by Maya Bery
Unless you live under the proverbial rock, you know that this week, the east coast was battered by Hurricane Sandy before the remnants of the storm moved inland to cause further havoc as far west as Wisconsin. It was a pretty remarkable sight seeing essentially every school in the state closed for the day on Monday, and on Tuesday, many districts still opted to stay shut, but it’s back to business here now. We got extremely lucky in that Boston was spared a lot of the damage that places further south of us, namely New York and New Jersey, have had. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with libraries. Well, earlier this summer, I wrote about how the libraries in Boston were opening as cooling centers on some of the hottest days of the year – a place where those without air conditioning could come, for free, and be safe and cool. In the winter, libraries often offer the reverse service – a warm place for those in need of protection…
Crossing the Finish Line
Posted November 1, 2012 by cdelnero
My last post was about yoga, and this one will be about running. But first, I need to provide a disclaimer: I don’t do fitness. I’m not claiming to be in shape or know anything about how to get there. I am someone who is completely new to the idea of physical challenge but I am finding that it can be just as rewarding as challenging myself intellectually and I want to share my experience. Last weekend, a close friend and I ran our first 5k. And by “ran” I mean jogged. And by “jogged” I really mean jogged 1 out of the 3.1 miles, and not consecutively. Regardless of this, the rush of adrenaline I felt when I crossed the finish line was incredible. There was a crowd of people cheering us on and waiting to congratulate us on finishing. We took our time but accomplished something great and didn’t even come in last place! I know it’s cliche to compare running a 5k to other non-physical accomplishments (like getting a masters degree in…
A Hurricane Can be Good for Library Business
Posted October 30, 2012 by Julie Steenson
In honor of Hurricane Sandy, my Monday class at Simmons was cancelled so I filled in at work at my local library for a colleague who has a long drive. All the local NH schools had also cancelled and to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be a busy day. What a surprise! With the winds still mild and the showers light in the morning in NH, we did a brisk business as everyone scurried in to stock up on books the way squirrels stock up on nuts. The last storm left us in the dark for ten days so we had to be ready. When Governor Lynch urged us all to go home and get off the roads by 3 pm, we reluctantly closed at 2:30 pm, just in time as the winds really started to howl. Power and phone were knocked out a couple of hours later and I am writing this on my laptop with my DSL modem hooked to the generator. It was a good day at the library. It…
Boston Book Festival
Posted October 28, 2012 by lazylibrarian
Two weeks ago I wrote a post about volunteering for conferences and other events around Boston. Well Saturday was one of my favorite events: The Boston Book Festival. The festival is only in its fourth year but it has amazing organization and a huge turnout. Of course being in Boston, and being affiliated with the Boston Public Library allows the festival to bring in some big names. This year Lemony Snicket himself was the keynote speaker for the children. That’s one reason I love the BBF. Its not just for one group, there are children’s programs, teen programs, and adult programs, and except for the keynote speaker, all are free. Last year I volunteered and enjoyed it so much that I did it again this year. Both years I have been assigned to the children’s room helping the costumed characters. Last year I got to meet Moe Williams and helped with Elephant and Piggy as well as Geronimo Stilton. This year I worked with Frog and Toad and Curious George. The kids LOVED Curious George,…