General
New Blogger Welcome!
Posted May 23, 2022 by Lindsey Clarke
We are welcoming Elizabeth to our team starting this summer! She is entering her second year at SLIS! She is currently enrolled in the Archives Management concentration and is a fully online studentliving in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. She currently works in anacademic archive as a processing assistant while she completes her degree remotely. In her spare time, she love to spend time with her husband, bake and cook, inaddition to reading as much as she possibly can. Writing has been apassion and a hobby of hers ever since she was very small! Her love for socialmedia and blogging came later in high school, and she haven’t stopped since. We are so excited for Elizbeth’s perspective. Look for her first post soon. A warm welcome to Elizabeth.
The Finish Line!
Posted May 15, 2022 by Ivy Noonan
Well first I would like to say, congratulations to everyone who is graduating! Also congrats to everyone else who is finishing the semester! You should be proud, graduate school is no joke so take the next week to celebrate yourselves! I know I definitely will be, and not just because it’s my birthday next week. I also wanted to bring everyone’s attention to the Panopticon Spring 2022 Art Show! Many students, staff, and faculty added their beautiful creations to this project, so please go show them some love. Does anyone have any fun plans for the summer? I’m excited to be working my two part time jobs and hopefully re-learning Spanish! It’s been a goal of mine to re-learn a language since Library Science is so customer service focused. I also want to work at a university, hopefully once I graduate, and I want to be more accessible to all students and visitors. On top of birthdays and finals, I’m also moving to Watertown at the beginning of June! I am unbelievably excited. I’ve loved…
Onwards
Posted May 12, 2022 by Bryanne McArdle
I am sad to say that this will be my last post to the SLIS Student Snippets blog, but not for any sad reason. It is simply because as of May 20, 2022, I will have graduated and no longer be a Simmons Student, but an alum! Quite an upgrade if I may say (okay, okay, sorry for the bad joke). Farewells are never my strong suite though and make things too bittersweet for my taste. So, let’s not make this sign-off somber. Mainly because I have loved every moment being a Simmons student and almost don’t want it to end. But everything does come to an end, and it is time to move on to new things, and I hope the transition to being an alum is just as great as being a student. For exactly what the future holds for me is uncertain, like so many things right now, but I am embracing it. I am looking forward to taking a calculated step in my career as I apply what I learned at…
First Semester End
Posted April 28, 2022 by Elizabeth Poland
With only 2-3 weeks left of my first semester, I am feeling the pressure. Though I don’t have to take any exams or write any 20-page essays, the projects I have to complete are just as time consuming and intellectually taxing. I tried to get a head start on them a while ago, but it’s difficult to balance short-term deadlines with longer-term ones. As soon as I finish my weekly work and am ready to jump on bigger projects, another week comes around and I have new assignments due. It’s probably because I’m taking four classes (which once again, I do not recommend!!), but it’s a great learning experience and I know the future version of me three weeks from now is celebrating with a very long nap. One project I am about to finish is for LIS 432, Concepts in Culture Heritage Informatics. We were tasked with creating a prototype of a digital exhibition that would go along with a cultural heritage object that we have each been individually studying over the past semester….
MBTA Pro Tip
Posted April 27, 2022 by Abbey Metzler
When I think about it now, in front of this blank word document I am typing out to any prospective SLIS students reading this blog, it had to have been around this time last year that I received my admittance letter. I can’t remember the exact date. But I can tell you I was in the network room of what at the time was my new job here in Boston. I was a part time and temporary employee; with no idea this would stretch into at least a year of work in that brown stone near the Commons. There are probably countless things that I could go back and tell myself; things that would have prepared me for the next steps and next few months after I opened my decision email from Simmons that afternoon. I think I’ve done okay without any of that hindsight advice. Maybe my future graduated self will wish to go back and inform this second semester History & Archives student of something. Right now though, the only concrete advice I…
Planning Your Move: Spreadsheets, Time Machines, and Lime Skittles
Posted April 22, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
This blog post was originally published in 2021 and has been updated for April 2022. I hope that this article will help a new group of students navigate the complex task of transplanting to Boston! I moved to Boston cross-country from Texas in early August and so, with 1,839 miles and nearly thirty hours in a Kia Niro hybrid worth of experience, here are a few suggestions I have about how to prepare for your move if you, like me, need to cover a long distance: Utilize Google Sheets. There are many variables when planning a move so instead of relying on your potentially-running-on-overdrive-thanks-to-all-the-change brain to remember everything, start keeping track in Google Sheets. You can use formulas to tally costs, project budgets, make checklists, and organize it on separate tabs. It’s also a great opportunity to brush up on your Excel/GSuite skills. If you need more help, check out the resources provided from Simmons in the Technology Competencies Guidelines which was emailed out to students in mid-June. Choose your mode of transport wisely. From…
A Big Hello to Katie
Posted April 15, 2022 by Lindsey Clarke
We are adding another great voice to our Blogging Team! Here is a little about Katie: Katie Dillon is a student in the “DYO” concentration at SLIS, focusing on digital materials. Her passion for library science stems from a desire to make information discoverable – whether that means improved information literacy, careful data management, or intelligent resource collocation. She received a B.S. in health and nutrition from Cornell University in 2019 and hopes to build a career in science or medical librarianship. She currently works at the SLIS Student Services Center and at Emmanuel College as a part-time reference librarian.
Overcoming Growing Pains
Posted April 12, 2022 by Elizabeth Poland
I am very surprised to say I am nearing the end of my first semester here at Simmons! It feels like a whirlwind, to be honest – I applied and got accepted in October, moved to Boston in December, and started school in January. I am very grateful for the people who have supported me in this big life transition from my parents to my boyfriend to the friends that I’ve made so far in my classes. I definitely believe I made a smart choice moving to the city a full month before the semester started, but nothing could have prepared me for the transition into grad school life. It might have been because I accidentally signed up for 4 courses instead of the recommended 3 or fewer, so I quickly started to drown in responsibility. About a month into the semester I had one of those existential crises where nothing I was doing made sense — why was I going to grad school anyway? Why don’t I just escape civilization? What am I doing…
Welcome Elizabeth!
Posted April 8, 2022 by Lindsey Clarke
We have another new blogger joining the team! Be on the lookout for Elizabeth’s first post next week. Elizabeth Poland is a graduate student in the Cultural Heritage Informatics concentration here at Simmons SLIS. She great up in southern Connecticut, and loved reading, writing, and creating all different kinds of art. In 2020, she received a BA from the University of Connecticut in Art History, with minors in Studio Art and English. After working in museum education at Old Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts, she knew she wanted to dive deeper into the inner workings of museum collections. Her goal is to combine her passion for history with hands-on approaches in a career in collection or preservation management. In her free time she loves to hike long distances, sew her own clothes, and paint portraits of people’s pets. Since moving to Boston, she has also been able to easily take peaceful walks through local museums, absorbing all that the city’s cultural heritage institutions have to offer. Welcome Elizabeth!
Welcome New Blogger Ivy!
Posted April 1, 2022 by Lindsey Clarke
We have a new blogger joining our team! Ivy is a second year Archives and History dual degree student at Simmons and hopes to work at a university post-graduation. She works as a Student Ambassador and as the Serials Intern at the Boston Athenaeum. In her spare time she loves hiking, petting dogs, and (as many SLIS students can relate) reading and collecting books. Ivy’s blog posts will come rolling in soon. Keep your eyes open for some fun new content!