People
This is What a Librarian Looks Like
Posted July 14, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
It’s not news that popular aesthetics of librarianship are steeped in stereotype. Between visions of bibliographic babes with starched collars, pulled back hair, and horn rimmed glasses – librarians break these archetypes on a daily basis every time they get of bed in the morning to reveal looks as diverse as our professional responsibilities. The blog This is What a Librarian Looks Like has accepted the mission of displaying the real face of librarianship across the globe. On their about page, blog creators Bobbi Newman and Erin Downey Howerton write “Think you know what a librarian looks like? Go beyond the bun and challenge old, outdated librarian stereotypes. In the spirit of This is What a Scientist Looks Like, we bring you the ultimate complement to Library Day in the Life: This is What a Librarian Looks Like.” Through photographs and personal blurbs submitted by librarians from Norway to Oregon, this blog reveals a face of librarianship that spans across different ages, genders, and national boundaries. In development for over two years, This is What…
GSLIS Tech Lab. AKA GSLIS Awesomeness
Posted June 13, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
You may have glimpsed its capacious depths in a class evaluation. Or maybe you remember it vividly from orientation. Either way, hopefully your travels have taken you once or twice into the Tech Lab at Palace Road. Having been on the job as a Technology Reference Assistant for a few weeks now I feel bound to tell you that the Tech Lab is far more that a room filled with computers for class evaluations. It is staffed by some of the coolest, smartest and funniest people at GSLIS who work hard to make sure our students are informed about the latest trends in Technology. Guys, this is not a required class but it should be. Knowledge and hilarity oozes out of every crevice of these hard drives. Much of my time here is spent posting to the Tech Lab’s Tumblr or watching Lynda tutorials. Did you know that the Tech Lab actually has Google glasses? For serious, they have a LOT of stuff. If you don’t like intelligent, hilarious people then come for the amazing…
A Feast of “Air and Stories”
Posted February 20, 2014 by Alec Chunn
Because of Maggie’s previous post, I decided to take a chance and go to massmouth‘s Storytelling Festival last Saturday at the Boston Public Library. Well, maybe “chance” is the wrong word. I have long been a fan of the “idea” of storytelling. I decided to fulfill a dream, perhaps? Since I was a child, I have always feasted on stories. I know that I am not alone in this–certainly not in a program like ours. When many of us think of stories, though, we often think of books. Certainly I do. Yet, the raconteurs of my childhood were my father and my grandfather, who delighted in inventing tales that thrilled and terrified. It wasn’t until I grew older and learned to read on my own that my stories transformed into printed words narrated by a voice in my head (he’s quite good but, unfortunately, you’ll never get to hear him). Now I’m trying audiobooks. But nothing quite replaces the physical presence of a storyteller. Results of a survey released in September of 2013 revealed that…
A Valentine for my Macbook
Posted February 18, 2014 by Carolyn Lucas
Roses are redViolets are blueMy dear MacbookI love you. For a long time, I was a pen-and-paper kinda gal. If you read my most recent post about office supply rehab, this should come as no surprise to you. However, in the last few years of college and all of graduate school I have found myself starting to take more and more notes on the computer. This can be attributed to the fact that I was an art history major taking a Japanese art class, and my mutilated spellings of “Hiroshige” along with descriptive phrases like “View of Mt Fuji with Plants and bridge No. 2” led me to need to insert the actual piece of art itself, and since then I realized how much more easy it is for me to take notes on a computer. It hasn’t stopped there. I have started buying and reading my textbooks on my iPad, which is an absolutely amazing resource when it comes to not having to lug textbooks on the train if I want to refer to…
Confessions of a Kid Lit Fanboy
Posted January 29, 2014 by Alec Chunn
Let’s talk about fandom. Surely, there is somebody out there whom all of you are dying to meet. Yet, you’re probably also terrified of meeting this person, for fear of being tongue-tied, boring, or just all around beside yourselves (my grandmother, bless her heart, would use the phrase “tickled”). Well, a strange thing happened here at Simmons this semester: by some cosmic twist of fate, I am now taking a class from one of my heroes, Roger Sutton. See, Roger doesn’t know that I idolize him. He doesn’t know that one of my biggest motivations to come to Boston was to someday be his intern (fingers crossed). He doesn’t know that, on the first day of orientation last semester, when I found out he’d be teaching this class, my jaw literally dropped and I had to pick it up off the floor. He doesn’t know that, that same day, I all-too-energetically ran to meet one of the members of his staff at The Horn Book. At least, I hope he doesn’t know these things. And…
Year in Review
Posted December 20, 2013 by Emily Boyd
Wow, what a whirlwind 2013 has been! It feels like yesterday I was starting my first class at GSLIS and now I am 2/3 of the way done with my degree. Instead of a usual post, this week I decided to follow the trend of year end blog posts and write a list of everything I’ve accomplished in 2013. This year I: Moved back to Boston and started the Simmons GSLIS program Started writing for the Student Snippets blog Experienced the horrible events of the Marathon Bombing with friends, classmates, and fellow Bostonians Travelled to Rome with GSLIS and then visited Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary with an old friend Visited Chicago for the first time and attended the American Library Association’s Annual Conference Spent a week in Northern Michigan with one of my best friends and her family Started working as a Reference Assistant at the Norman Williams Public Library Watched the Red Sox win the World Series!!! Commuted between Boston and Vermont for four months without going (too) crazy Started another job working for…
Two Years in the Life
Posted December 9, 2013 by Sarah Barton
On February 1, 2012, I applied to become a contributor to this GSLIS Admissions Blog by writing a post about my first two weeks at GSLIS and cutely calling it “Two Weeks in the Life.” I just realized the post was never published; however, given that backstory I think it’s fitting that this, my very last post, is about two years in the life – my whole GSLIS experience. Ok, here goes: In short, my GSLIS experience has been a success. Thank you, and goodbye. Alright I guess I can do better than that, but feel free to peruse my past posts if you really want all of the gory details. It would be silly for me to try to capture two years of classes, assignments, jobs, internships, volunteering, and life into one post. That post would be obscenely long and essentially defeat the purpose of two years of (mostly) weekly blog posts. You know how people say the journey is more important than the destination? Think of this final post as the destination and…
Confessions of a Book-Loving Librarian
Posted December 9, 2013 by Emily Boyd
I have a confession to make, I wanted to become a librarian because I love books. Shocking, I know. If you are new to the profession this may not seem odd, of course librarians love books. However, one of the first things I learned when entering the library world is that books are far from the main focus. In fact, librarians are actively trying to work against the misconception that working in a library means sitting around and reading all day. Alas, part of me wishes that were the case, but in the short time since I began work in a public library I have spent maybe thirty minutes of work time reading. That said, the larger part of me is glad to have discovered that working in a library involves so much more than helping patrons find books. Although reader’s advisory and chatting with patrons about their latest reads are among my favorite parts of working in a small library, I like the tricky reference questions much more. To be successful in this profession,…
Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Allison Driscoll
Posted December 7, 2013 by Maggie Davidov
It’s that time of year. The end of the semester when I feature one of my favorite classmates from the semester. As usual, I can’t resist the intelligent dual degree children’s lit and library science people. Allison was in my storytelling class and she blew us all away the first day with her interpretation of Don Coyote and the Burro. Please meet the lovely and talented Allison Driscoll… Q: What made you choose the dual degree Children’s lit and LIS program? A: I’d thought for a long time that I’d like to be a librarian, because I could see myself being satisfied doing it for a long time. Still, I held off on applying to any programs because I was hesitant to invest time and money into something if I wasn’t 100% positive about it. Then I found out Simmons had a dual-degree program, and I immediately started getting my application together. I’ve always loved children’s lit, and the idea of spending time with others who felt as strongly about it was really the last push…
Okay Google Now…
Posted October 8, 2013 by Julie Steenson
I need to talk about Google. Most librarians have a love/hate relationship with Google as it is such a useful tool, the ultimate federated search, but also often perceived to be the biggest threat to our job security. With my last tuition payment this month (cheers all around!), I celebrated by finally joining the smartphone world. I opted for a Motorola Droid phone as they have good antennas and I live in the boonies, and I expected to love being able to check email and have a really nice camera with me at all times. I did not expect to fall in love with its excellent voice recognition software and my ability to ask Google whatever I wanted to know. I remember when a computer with far less processing ability than my little phone would literally fill a room, so I am enthralled with the power in this little device. My favorite feature is “Okay Google, now…” which allows me to ask it anything. Gasp! A librarian who is having an affair with Google…. We…