General
Summer Plans and Projects
Posted June 17, 2022 by Ivy Noonan
Hello and happy (almost) summer! I hope everyone is resting and recuperating from the semester and enjoying their break! I’ve been adjusting to my new work schedule and taking advantage of my free time to spend it on passion projects. I enjoy playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends so I have two campaigns starting next week and will be starting my own campaign in the coming months. It’s definitely been a stretch outside of my comfort zone to run my own campaign since I am in charge of creating the entire world and subsequent creatures, but I wanted to challenge myself and ultimately get better at it. My campaign is run through Monster of the Week, which is less mechanically heavy than D&D and is more beginner friendly. It definitely has my recommendation if anyone is interested in games similar to D&D but finds D&D overwhelming. I also recommend this to anyone who enjoys writing and world building, definitely allows for skillset growth! I’ve also been adjusting to my new move with my partner…
Navigating Off-Campus Housing in Boston
Posted June 7, 2022 by Elizabeth Poland
Moving out of Boston has been weighing heavy on my mind recently; I live with my boyfriend in Allston, a neighborhood of Boston, and we are both itching for a bit of freedom from the hustle and bustle. My boyfriend has lived in the city for a few years and grew up in a town nearby, while I on the other hand grew up and lived in various parts of Connecticut until December of 2021. Now that the Spring semester has ended, I’m realizing that I’ve actually been extremely homesick. Not necessarily for Connecticut (no one is homesick for Connecticut, I can vouch for that), but for my high school and college friends, parents, grass, space to move, the sun! Our 450 sq. ft. basement apartment that seemed very cozy in December is now suffocating us. Compounded with us both getting covid recently, we are very ready to look outside and see greenery instead of traffic. I should say, I do really love Boston. It is a beautiful, walkable city that has so many parks,…
Into the Library-Verse
Posted May 31, 2022 by Katie Dillon
Why care about virtual reality? If you’re a current or aspiring librarian, VR might be morerelevant than you think. Simmons professors Catherine Dumas and Rachel Williams areresearching the use of virtual reality in library crisis training, and I recently got to be one of theirguinea pigs!Virtual reality is “the computer-generated simulation of images or whole environments that canbe experienced using special electronic equipment,” according to the American LibraryAssociation. In this case, an Oculus Quest and Mozilla Hub brought me to a simulated publiclibrary.I’ve only used VR technology a few times, and each time I’ve been blown away. Moving withinVR is very intuitive to me, which I don’t take for granted. Growing up, I hated when computergames moved from the point-and-click to 3-D model because I could never get my avatar or thevisual field to go where I wanted. With VR, there’s less need to translate my movement toartificial controls. Love this avatar of me that Professors Dumas and Williams created! As a research guinea pig, I entered the library-verse to watch a presentation on crisismanagement…
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.