Learning
Building Blocks
Posted January 28, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
One of the things I love about my classes at Simmons is that they build on each other. It’s exciting when a topic I learned about in one class is referenced or expanded on in a different class. It’s fascinating to go more in depth on certain topics and to see how they tie together. Even though this semester is only three weeks old, it has already referenced a lot of what was covered in my previous semesters. Collections Development has built on many of the subjects covered by Introduction to Management (LIS 404). This includes types of budgets used by libraries, how those budgets are used, mission statements, and vision statements. It has also mentioned environmental scanning, which is a topic that came up in Digital Libraries (LIS 462). Environmental scanning entails keeping track of what similar libraries are doing in order to measure what your library is or is not doing, and what it can do in the future. It’s a way of staying competitive and relevant in the community. Metadata has…
Library Setup
Posted January 22, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I had my first assignment for Collections Development last week and it was very interesting. Each student chose a different library to focus on for the semester, and the first thing we had to do was visit that library and observe how it was set up. I visited my library late on a Thursday afternoon. As I went through each room, I noted what was there and how it was arranged. I also focused on who was there and what they were doing. I normally don’t spend a lot of physical time in the library because I request items through the online library catalog and go directly to the circulation desk to pick them up. I know where everything is in the library, but I never thought about how it was arranged. Obviously setting up a library is more complicated than simply placing books on shelves. It must have an order and be easy to navigate. I never had to think about that before, but I tried to keep that in mind when I browsed…
New Year, New Semester
Posted January 15, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2020 (although it is now halfway through January)! I had about a month off of work and school and even though it was great to have time off, it’s good to be back in the saddle again. This week is the first week of the Spring 2020 semester for me here at Simmons, and it is also the first week of the Spring 2020 semester for the students at the university library where I work, so things have been busy for me both at school and at work! This semester I’m taking LIS 453: Collection Development and Management, although sadly I’m not in the same section as Amie. I’m very excited for this class and to learn more about how library collections are developed and maintained and get a thorough understanding of the collections process. While a few of my previous classes have briefly touched on some topics relating to this, such as budgeting and weeding, this class is going to be an in-depth look at collection development as…
Two Years Down!
Posted December 18, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
As I mentioned in my last post, I am now officially halfway through my program! I started at Simmons back in Spring 2018, and I have completed 18 of the 36 credits needed to get my MS in Library and Information Science. WOO!!! I’ve learned so much in these past two years, and I’ve grown a lot as a person. Last December, I did a post of the lessons I learned and my takeaways from the program, and I thought I would expand on that now that I’m halfway done. I’ve learned so much over the past two years. I came to Simmons with no library experience whatsoever, and getting this degree has been such an education for me. My first year I took all the core classes, so that really laid the foundation of learning about search strategies, information organization, technology, and professional standards in the LIS industry; whereas this year I took all electives that helped me explore different areas of LIS, and helped supplement my knowledge. I’ve learned the importance of having…
Putting Theory into Practice: Tackling Information Literacy for Incarcerated Students
Posted October 2, 2019 by Katie Carlson
One of the components for my Information Services for Diverse Users class (LIS 410) this semester is a service learning project. I did a lot of community based learning in undergrad, so this was right up my alley! I signed up to work with the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College (TUPIT), which brights Tufts faculty and students “together with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, corrections staff, educators, and scholars of criminal justice to facilitate creative and collaborative responses to the problems of mass incarceration.” Because I have a background in restorative justice and a vested interest in the rights of the incarcerated, getting to combine these passions with my library studies was a dream come true! This past Friday, I was able to meet with my project supervisor to get a better idea of what our goals are for the semester. As it turns out, we will be creating an annotated bibliography and miniature lit review on the subject of education and information literacy in prisons, as well as the book to prison…
The Dog Days of Summer
Posted July 11, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
It’s Week 4 of LIS 404! Oh, my goodness, this class has been keeping me on my toes! As I’ve said before, this class is a lot shorter than a regular semester class, but we’re doing the same amount of work, which is a little bit intense! There’s a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time, so each week there’s an abundance of readings to be completed, notes to go over, and lectures to watch. I know that theoretically it is same amount of work as a regular semester class just in an accelerated timeframe, but between this class and my summer class last year, I feel that there is a lot more reading in summer classes than there is during the semester. However, this could just be because of the timing- maybe I just don’t notice the amount of reading as much because it is more spaced out during the regular semester classes? These past two weeks have been more ‘participation’ weeks rather than ‘assignment’ weeks, with us participating more…
Changing Direction
Posted April 1, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to when I was applying to college for the first time. I had several conversations with my dad that went like this: DAD: You should major in computer science! ME: Ugh, no! I’m artsy, not techy! My dad is a computer engineer (happily retired now, although still the go-to computer troubleshooter for everyone in our large extended family), and he wanted me to major in something useful that could get me a job after graduation. I, on the other hand, wanted to major in something that I enjoyed, like history and writing. I majored in art history and ended up working at an accounting firm, which was not what I was expecting, but I have no regrets. I’m bringing this up because I had a full-circle moment last week. I decided to switch out of the archives concentration and into a design your own concentration focusing on…drumroll please…computers. Specifically, my focus is going to be on digitalization, digital libraries, and programming. …
Developing and Managing Collection Development and Management
Posted March 11, 2019 by Katie Carlson
I, Katie Carlson, am a ‘microwave thinker.’ This idea was introduced to me by a professor at Mount Holyoke, and indicates that given a moment, I can always supply an idea. Put simply, my brain moves fast. (Sometimes too fast – especially when the goal is quality over quantity.) Microwave thinkers are placed in opposition to ‘slow cooker thinkers.’ These are people who need time to let their ideas marinate, especially before they feel comfortable sharing them with a group. A round table discussion can be torture for these ‘slow cookers,’ especially when the room is populated with ‘microwaves.’ While I originally responded negatively to being a ‘microwave’ — thinking of unevenly heated food with weird textures — my professor stressed that one brand of thinking is not better or worse than the other! We landed on the idea that in any educational setting, it’s important to plan activities and allow for opportunities that work well for both ‘slow cookers’ and ‘microwaves.’ The reason I bring up this ‘thinker’ dichotomy is that…