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Eras Tour (of my MLIS degree)
Posted May 5, 2023 by Lauren Redding
Graduation in less than two weeks! I feel like it’s coming tomorrow and at the same time I feel like I have a month’s worth of tasks to finish before the big day. While job hunting and revising finals, I’ve been reflecting on the three different “eras” my MLIS degree unfolded in and what I learned about myself and about my work during each of them. First I took a whole year (summer too!) of all-remote classes as a full-time student (from Utah!). My fall semester mostly entailed almost getting a textbook-shaped tan line on my legs from reading on my deck so much. Moodle was kind enough to automatically adjust deadlines for me from Eastern Time midnight to Mountain Time 10pm with its handy dandy by-the-minute deadline countdown timer. (This feature: so clear about expectations and yet so stress inducing. Do I really need to know there are 5 days, 2 hours, 52 minutes and 12 seconds until my quiz is due?) The following semester all my classes were asynchronous, and I realized I…
Wrapping Everything Up
Posted December 8, 2022 by Rebecca Devereaux
As the semester rushes to a conclusion, I am reflecting over the academic ride this firstsemester has been. I have been in three courses this semester: LIS 415 Information Organization,LIS 488 Technology for Information Professionals, and HIST 597 Historical Methods. Takingtwo library classes and one history is standard for dual history and library science students.I have experimented with online classes and discovered that they are well organized andstraightforward to complete. Going into the semester I was hopeful that my hypothesis wouldhold true, that if anybody can do online classes well it would be a school for librarians. So farthat has been the case. Even with learning the brand-new skills of basic coding I feel like I havegrasped the concepts! Taking a few courses online has been really useful since my schedule ismuch more flexible. I have been able to run errands and go to museums at quieter times, and Ihave been able to get a job which does not conflict with my school hours. If you are consideringtrying online courses, the Simmons library program is…
Registration Is Coming…
Posted October 25, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
Last week one of the most-anticipated parts of my semester arrived – course listings! It seems that every year departments post their course offerings for the next term at just the right time; I’m not bored with my current classes per-say, but I am past the midway slump with more items crossed off my assignment lists than still on them, and my end-of-term papers are set squarely in my sights. Knowing how much work I have yet to do, dreaming about next semester and all of the new content I will get to learn is a welcome break. The new semester also promises a fresh start where I can readjust my schedule to try out a new mode of learning. This semester I stacked my course and work schedule so that I only have commitments Tuesday-Thursday. It’s a lot packed into a little bit of time, but I am really treasuring my four-days-in-a-row off too. Next semester I’m interested in experimenting with an online course or two as I’ve watched my roommate totally thrive with…
Three Courses and a Practicum
Posted September 30, 2022 by Elizabeth Poland
It’s been a while since I last posted; I moved out of my old apartment in Allston, moved into a new one in Needham, and started the semester off on a very rocky foot. Who knew having a lease end on August 31st and the next lease not starting until September 15th would be so stressful? I also have a habit of completely rethinking all of my classes the second the semester begins. Thankfully (and hopefully), I feel like I’ve reached the point where I’m really enjoying all my classes, have cemented my schedule in place, and can now thrive! I’m currently taking two online classes and one in person. On campus I’m taking LIS 443/HIST 527: Archives, History, and Collective Memory. It’s a fascinating class that dives into how record-keeping and the writing of history entangle with the complexities of social memory. The course culminates in a semester-long project in which groups must break down an event, person, or era in terms of how it has been collectively remembered over time. In terms of…
New Semester Nerves
Posted January 25, 2022 by Abbey Metzler
As a first Student Snippets’ blog post of the new semester, this is an admission of nerves. The first week of classes is never my favorite time of the academic year. I always feel a little lost, whether in the carefully arranged but still difficult to navigate online syllabi or when trying to find my new classrooms. This inaugural week of spring semester was hosted online. A brief but harrowing few days where I got to go back to the virtual learning environment I had escaped at the very end of my undergraduate career in 2020. We all grinned and got through it, seeing the lower half of our professors’ faces for perhaps the only time before summer arrives. These first week jitters alone would not warrant a blog post about them. What makes me take to this word document with a lingering sense of unease is my technology class. I have always imagined my archival ambitions through a haze of crumbling old paper and the smell of used books. It was always the History…
The Pandemic Effect
Posted October 15, 2021 by Bryanne McArdle
I’m sure this is a buzz word in some circle. Maybe it’s a phrase that’s used so much now it just counts as normal vernacular at this point. I’m not quite sure. Just like I’m not really sure how during a global pandemic I was able to apply, enroll, and succeed at a Library Science Program. It’s all kind of…a nebulous mystery. Just like the where on Earth this past year a more has gone?! But at the same time, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I enrolled to study ways to increase people’s accessibility to resources and information, just as everyone suddenly needed access to resources and information in an extremely turbulent time. When politics and divisions were highlighted, I got to see clearly where I had wanted to shine a spotlight focused on by others too. It was incredibility reaffirming in my choices. So, all in all, the pandemic effect has not been a bad thing for me. You just have to look at it differently, like looking at the pretty colors…
End of the Semester and End of the Year
Posted December 17, 2020 by William Crouch
Hey everyone. It’s been a long time since I last posted a blog. My semester has been pretty crazy as I imagine everyone else’s has been. Trying to keep up with the election, the pandemic, and continuing classes fulltime has been pretty stressful so I began to limit the amount of time I am on social media each week to basically zero which has been pretty helpful I would say. In my Collective Memory course, our final project was a group presentation on a historical event, person, or group that our understanding of has been affected by the idea of collective memory. My group chose to do our project our Crispus Attucks, the first victim of the Boston Massacre, and how his identity as a runaway slave and martyr helped with the abolitionists and even in the Black Lives Matter protests. In Archival Access, our final project is to create a MARC record and Finding Aid for a collection. We’ve been learning about how to create Finding Aids with XML code and MARC records so…
That’s a Wrap!
Posted December 16, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I am almost done with my last paper for the year. I just need to double check that all my citations were done correctly, and then I’ll be all set to turn it in! I had to choose six books (three nonfiction and three fiction) to include in my library’s collection. To do this, I read fiction and nonfiction book reviews from the January 2020 issues of Booklist and School Library Journal. It was a much more daunting task than I had anticipated. A lot of books were reviewed, especially fiction books, and it was overwhelming. Luckily, I printed out the reviews so I could write myself some notes. I highlighted the most important parts of the reviews and noted my overall impressions of whether to book would make a good addition to the collection or not. Otherwise, all the reviews would have run together. I was impressed with the variety of books that were reviewed. There were many genres and books that featured diverse or marginalized voices. I recognized several of the titles, but there were many more that I didn’t know about. I added several books to…
The End is Near
Posted December 14, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
Can you believe it’s almost the end of the semester? The end of the semester is always such a crazy time, with due dates and projects. Since my last post, I’ve had two assignments due, and my big semester-long project is due next week. It is definitely crunch time! As I discussed in an earlier post, my semester-long project is the Electronic Resources in Libraries Case Study Project where we do a thorough investigation of an academic library’s electronic resources offering with a partner. My team is investigating the resources of MCPHS University, as that is where both of us work. It’s a huge project—we’ve had to interview the electronic resources librarian, thoroughly investigate the databases, the research guides, the different ways to search the library’s resources, and more. My team has been working really diligently throughout the semester and having regular virtual meetings to check in and go over our project, so we’re doing pretty well progress-wise. I’m not too worried about our actual written report, the thing that I am nervous about is our presentation. I’ve done plenty of presentations at Simmons;…
Almost There!
Posted December 2, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I’m on to my third (and last!) paper of the semester. It’s not due until December 15 but I want to complete it early so I can get it done and enjoy the holidays. Plus, the assignment has several parts and is better done one step at a time. The assignment incorporates much of what we’ve learned in class throughout the semester, and deals with collections development, which I love. In the first part of the assignment, we choose a library and examine its collections development policy. Each library has a unique collections development policy that explains how it will build its collection. The policy is heavily geared towards the library’s community. For example, a school library will tailor its collections development policy towards its students, and a public library will tailor its policy towards its community. If a community has a large Spanish speaking population, the library might focus on buying Spanish language materials, whereas a community that does not have a large Spanish speaking population would not focus on this area. This is where the community statistics from the census come…