General
Spring is Here!
Posted April 12, 2023 by Ivy Noonan
Am I the only one who got a huge mood boost once it got warmer out? While I am working tomorrow and Friday I will be outside enjoying the weather as much as I can during my lunch breaks. With the warmer weather begins the slow crawl to the finish line of the semester. I know I’ll be spending this next month working on the final drafts of my masters thesis. We’re still on track to graduate! Given that I’m almost done with the project here are a few tips that I think would help students who are just beginning this process. It’s a daunting project but definitely one that will teach you a lot of skills on time management and researching in the end. You can do it!
AWE-some
Posted April 7, 2023 by Lauren Redding
Ever since our class discussion about it last semester in Professor Rachel Williams’ LIS 450 “Public Libraries,” I have been thinking a lot about vocational awe. As preparation for the discussion, we read an article by Fobazi Ettarh “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves.” My class had a stimulating discussion about vocational awe and burnout and our own experiences in libraries as well as other former careers and jobs. Vocational awe is generally defined as the feeling that people can have for their own job, where they refer to it as a “calling” or a “vocation” or that the work that we do is “inherently good and sacred.” Helping professions like teachers, librarians, social workers, and nurses are particularly susceptible to this kind of thinking. We seemed to agree in my class that a little attitude like this, a feeling that the work we do is important and helps people, could be helpful to get out of bed in the morning some days. But the general thought is that a lot of…
MSLA Conference Happenings
Posted April 5, 2023 by Magenta Jasinski
I recently attended the MSLA (Massachusetts School Library Association) conference at UMass Amherst, one of my favorite college campuses in the state. This event was MUCH smaller than the last conference I wrote about, the Young Adult Library Services (YALSA) conference. It was held on a Sunday and Monday with an optional social on Saturday night. Between the two days, I think there were about 300 people who attended. I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of participants over wings and beer at the Saturday social at Hangar Pub which made me feel much more comfortable over the next two days of the conference. We had a tight group of Boston librarians that sat with each other at breakfasts and conference sessions. I loved having such a supportive group, and I aspire to be many of them; I am currently a library assistant and MLIS student, and all of them were full-time school librarians. Making those connections was so valuable, and connecting with librarians from Western Massachusetts (WeMA, as one of my friends calls…
Longer Days and Warmer Weather
Posted March 22, 2023 by Ivy Noonan
While I wasn’t super thrilled at losing an hour of sleep last weekend. I can definitely say I’m very happy the weather has gotten warmer and it’s not dark at 4:30! This has been really helping my overall mood and study motivation as we creep closer and closer to the end of the semester. Have you sat outside and done homework on campus before? I definitely recommend it. The trees in front of the 1 Palace Rd. building provide lots of shade and a cool breeze. The outdoor patio on the 5th floor of the Management building also provides stunning views and warm sunny rays while you take a break. One of my favorite spots to study is near the trees that look like they’re wearing sweaters between the Main College Building and the library. I’m glad they’ve been cozy all winter long! What’s your favorite study spot on campus? Or even off campus. I love studying in my office but I’m always partial to a nice coffee shop to work. I’d also always recommend…
Fighting the Mid-Semester Blues with a Little Green
Posted March 15, 2023 by Klaire Chandler
This Friday is St. Patrick’s Day, a big holiday here in Boston. I’ve lived my whole life in New England, so it’s always been an interesting day for me, but this year I have met a few out-of-town friends through Simmons who are excited about their first St. Patty’s. On the one hand, I’ve got archival subject headings to identify and a Civil War literature review to write, but on the other, I’ve got corn beef hash and brown bread to eat. School’s important and staying on top of assignments and readings is essential. However, I just want to encourage my fellow SLIS students to remember to enjoy the now. I know that sounds a little silly, but we only have so long here at Simmons and many of us will leave this school and this city within a few years. Beyond that, I think it’s good to take a step back and plan some time for yourself. This time of year a lot of us fall into a sort of slump. I’ve seen a…
Two Student Teaching Practica
Posted March 3, 2023 by Lauren Redding
The grande finale of the School Library Teacher concentration is the two school practicums we complete in our final year of the program. Since our certification is for K-12, school library teachers complete two semesters of student teaching practicums: one in an elementary school and one in a middle or high school. With 150 hour requirements each, I spent about three days a week in each of my schools through the course of the semester. The time passes in a flash with teaching, co-teaching, observing, managing the collection, mini-projects, getting to know the students and teachers, and sitting in on as many technology and administrative decision conversations as possible. This semester my practicum placement is Boston Latin School, a 7th-12th grade public exam school right next door to Simmons’ Boston Campus. In a school with over 2400 students, the library is a huge, gorgeous facility with space for over a hundred study hall students in addition to a full classroom. Even with two full-time librarians, there is still lots of work for me to do!…
Mentorship in the Massachusetts Library Association
Posted February 27, 2023 by Magenta Jasinski
One of the biggest assets to the Simmons Library Science program is being able to make connections outside of the program, surprisingly enough. Because Simmons is so widely recognized in Boston and New England as a highly ranked library program, many organizations form partnerships with the university. One of the partnerships I’ve benefited from is with the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) and their mentorship program. I got an email about the program several months ago, and I’ve been working closely with MLA, the “Up Close and Personal” Mentorship program, and my delightful mentor. There are a few aspects of this program that I find unique and highly beneficial to my library praxis, so I’ll go through them here. First, the program set me up with my mentor, who works at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols (BB&N), an independent school in Cambridge. I hadn’t heard about this school until I met my mentor; it is a hop, skip, and a jump away from Harvard. Their motto is “honestas litterae comitas,” which means “honor scholarship kindness.” The school…
Mid-Semester Update
Posted February 24, 2023 by Rebecca Devereaux
And just like that, we are almost halfway through the semester! It’s crazy how quickly ithas been zipping past. At this stage in the semester the larger projects are beginning to loomlarge in my to do list. My class on reference librarianship asks each of the students to develop aresearch guide. This is a cool project because I can add this to my resume not only as a skill butas an example of my work. In my archiving class we are learning the theory and practice behindprocessing plans and writing finding aids. On the library side of things this semester’s homeworkfeels very practical. I get to try my own hand at things which librarians regularly need toaccomplish. Slowly but surely, I am developing into a librarian!On the history end of things, I am off to a nerdy and exciting start. My history class thissemester is Transnational Labor History with Professor Sullivan. The topic of my final paper forthis course is loosely going to be tied to the labor of central Washington’s fruit industry. I amlooking…
Thesis Thoughts
Posted February 22, 2023 by Ivy Noonan
Hello everyone! I hope everybody’s been having a good semester so far. It’s crazy to think that this is potentially my last semester with Simmons. I’m currently writing my History thesis and taking LIS 456 – Records Mangement. Taking a class alongside the thesis is a lot of work but it’s been nice to be able to switch my brain off from historical writing to focus on an LIS project. Managing my classes and two jobs requires a lot of time management and planning out my days well in advance. I’ve found it’s super easy to get caught up in my to-do list and then forget about self care and doing fun small little things with a little bit of my free time. I’ve made a short list of things that don’t take a ton of time in the moment but you can walk away from feeling better. There are many others but these have really been helping me when I need a break. Good luck to everyone writing their thesis this semester and to…
New Blogger: Lauren Redding
Posted February 18, 2023 by Lauren Redding
Hi Everyone! My name is Lauren Redding and I am so excited to be blogging for SLIS Student Snippets. After a longer-than-planned stint with remote classes, I’m psyched to be on campus, at Simmons, and involved with the SLIS programs in person. Even in my final semester, I still feel like I find out about a new and exciting thing Simmons has to offer with every passing week. I am a MLIS student in the School Library Teacher Concentration. Final semester for SLTs means I am in the thick of my second of two semester-long teaching practicums (a.k.a. student teaching). It’s been engaging and exhilarating to finally be able to apply the skills I’ve been honing and learning in my Simmons classes for the past five semesters. I grew up in Utah, outside of Salt Lake City and attended undergrad there as well. Ever since I experienced the noted contrast between the warm, fun, social, vibrant library center at the middle school I attended and the studious, quiet, work-focused atmosphere at the high school, I…