Online
Changes Ahead
Posted March 17, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
To say the last week has been crazy would be an understatement. Coronavirus has already changed a lot of our lives, and I’m sure by the time this is published, things will have changed even more. It’s definitely scary. The good thing is that Simmons has had an amazing response to the coronavirus, sending regular emails detailing exactly what is going on and what will happen. Simmons is doing a great job of looking after its students and making sure they are properly taken care of, and I am grateful to each and every one of the people who have helped ease us through this transition. Thank you for all your work! I’m an online student and my classes have resumed as usual following our spring break. I’m actually happy to have schoolwork because it gives me something to do other than worry about what’s going on with coronavirus, although I admit my focus is not at its best right now. Unfortunately, the on-campus students are bearing the brunt of the changes, with their in-person…
Reflecting on Collection Development!
Posted January 29, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
Let’s talk about Collection Development and Management! Week 3 of the semester just started, and my first big assignment is due in a few days. As I mentioned in my last post, I don’t have much, if any, practical experience in collection development–my current job as a Reference Assistant in an academic library mainly consists of me doing reference work, as well as some circulation and outreach. Collection development is new territory for me, and I’ve been learning so much! However, something that I have noticed is that there are common threads throughout a lot of my classes at SLIS, including this class. Even though the overall topic may be new, there are elements that I’m building off of from other classes. For example, in LIS 451: Academic Libraries, and LIS 404: Introduction to Management, we talked about how mission statements and core values informed the library and the overall structure of the organization, and how they relate to academic libraries (LIS 451) and management (LIS 404) in particular. In this class, LIS 453: Collection…
Registration Time!
Posted November 13, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Guess what time it is? Registration! This is Registration Week for SLIS! I have officially registered for the Spring 2020 semester! Woo! I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working on going through the course description list and the two year projected schedule, and I’ve been trying to think about what I want to get out of the rest of my time in my program here at SLIS. The whole registration process has always been a bit stressful for me for a few reasons: not every class is taught every semester, and then some classes are only taught in specific locations specific semesters or are only online or only in-person, and then adding in the fact that I’m only taking one class at a time it can feel like if I don’t jump on an opportunity to take a class now I will miss my chance. It was a bit easier when I was taking the core classes (LIS 407, LIS 415, and LIS 488), because those are taught Fall, Spring, and Summer,…
Live Session!
Posted October 15, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I had a live session of my Social Informatics class last week, and I really enjoyed it! There were three sessions available, each on different days and times, and we were required to choose one. I chose the evening session that started at 9pm. This made me a little nervous because I’m usually wrapping my day up at that hour, but I’m pleased to say that I made it through without yawning every two seconds. The worst thing about the meeting was that I looked horrible on the camera (laptop cameras do not do anyone any favors), but I’ll take that over a technical malfunction or brain freeze any day. We didn’t do anything major in the live session. It was more about allowing us all to talk and interact in real time. We started out talking about any questions we had about the course or the assignments, and then talked more about how information is transmitted and used. One of the most important themes of this class is recognizing that there is always someone…
Fourth Class: Complete!
Posted May 15, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Last week was my final week of class! My fourth semester, and fourth class of grad school is over! I’m done with LIS 451: Academic Libraries! I originally thought it was a bit strange having our big final group project due, and then having one final week of class with lectures, readings, and participation after that, but as our final week was about academic library careers and job interviews, as well as future trends in academic libraries, I think it was a nice way to wrap up the class. In all of my other classes, the final week has been this big stressful build up, and then I turn in my final project, and then that’s it, we’re done. While sometimes that’s very cathartic, I really appreciated the opportunity to reflect and think ahead in the final week of this class. I ended up completing my final week of class on the road because I’m currently on a short summer break for my job! Yay for intersessions! As I work in an academic library, I’m…
Group Work Thoughts
Posted April 18, 2019 by Megan Ondricek
My family and I have been spending the kids’ spring break down in southwestern Virginia at my parents’ house and absolutely loving it. Spring is farther along in Virginia than it is up in Connecticut and all the burgeoning green and flowering trees are simply gorgeous. This trip has been so good for my soul. Having grown up in small towns and fresh country air I honestly feel suffocated living along the crowded, overdeveloped I-95 corridor. If I couldn’t get out every now and then I think I’d burst. Anyway, we are one week closer to the end of the semester with just about two weeks left of class! Things aren’t exactly winding down yet, but I’m hoping that having the end in sight will give me the strength to get through this last final push. One thing is wrapping up though, and that’s my group project for the Metadata class. We’ll be turning it in this week and viewing the presentations of the other groups for class. I used to hate group projects in…
Spring Is Here!
Posted April 17, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Spring is here! The birds are chirping, flowers are starting to bloom, and most importantly, it is not cold outside! There is still (still!) a pile of snow in my yard that refuses to melt, but I think it is on its way out. With the weather getting warmer, it makes me think about how close the end of the semester is. We’re in Week 12! Where has all the time gone? It feels like we just started! I think a part of the reason why this semester has flown by so fast is because I’ve been so busy. I usually try and take time to relax, and lift my head out of my books, but I haven’t been doing that lately as my schedule has been getting more intense. The busier I am, and the more stressed I am, the faster time seems to go (even though it really isn’t moving quicker). I really should work harder on scheduling time for relaxation–at the beginning of each semester I start out strong and schedule time…
Participation
Posted April 16, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I’ll start with good news. I was able to register for all the classes I wanted! Yay! I also signed up for two summer courses: LIS 407, Info Sources & Services (my final required course), and LIS 439, Preservation Management. I might switch out 439 for LIS 404, Principles of Management, but it was full and I had to sign up for the waitlist. I don’t know if I’ll end up getting in, but I won’t go wrong with either course. I’m not too worried about it. Now, onto this week’s topic. One of my main questions heading into this semester was how the participation part of my classes would work, since both of them are online. The answer is: discussion forums. Each class has forums for instructor announcements and general help questions, but how many other forums there are, and how often to post to them, can vary. For my technology class, we have one main board in which we discuss current technology trends and articles. I don’t usually keep up with technology…
Enjoying the Journey
Posted February 28, 2019 by Megan Ondricek
As the semester goes on I continue to feel very pleased with the way that it has turned out. Taking that two-week preservation course at the very beginning was the best thing I could have done. I enjoyed the topic more than I thought I would, and it left me with just one class to worry about for the rest of the semester! It does feel a little strange to not be driving up to South Hadley every Saturday, but I am thrilled to have my weekends back and to spend them with my family. It is a good thing too, because the weekly class schedule for metadata makes all the assignments and discussions due on Monday – which means I’m pretty busy over the weekend. Fortunately my internship makes up for the missed classroom interaction and sociality I enjoyed up at SLIS West. On Thursday I got to observe Matt, the senior instruction librarian, teach the class that I’ll be teaching next week! The lesson plan, activities, presentation and materials are already provided for…
Going Home and Going Online
Posted February 13, 2019 by Maria Reilova
I got back from winter break a little later than everyone else since I had my brother’s wedding to attend the last week of January. If anyone needs a refresher (I’m sure I mention it in nearly every blog post) but I am from Florida, and in true extra Florida fashion, my brother got married on a 3-day Disney cruise to the bahamas. It was fantastic, I got to spend quality time with my own family and my new sister-in-law’s family, most importantly though I got to spend that time with family in the sunny caribbean. I mention this lovely vacation not to brag (that’s a lie, I am totally bragging about how great Florida is) because in order to spend the most time with family over break and for the wedding, I decided that this semester I will be taking classes fully online!. It just made the most sense given that I wanted to spend as much time as possible home in Florida. Which is one of the great things about Simmons, they offer…