People
I locked myself out of my bathroom…and other tall tales.
Posted July 20, 2013 by Maggie Davidov
So when I say “tall” I mean true. I am sitting in my apartment, cautiously drinking water owing to the fact that I may not be able to relieve myself as I have somehow locked the bathroom from the outside. This all comes at the end of my seven day recovery period. Recovery from what you might ask? Oh, just the removal of the superfluous organ we call the gallbladder. But didn’t you have a ticket to Chicago for the ALA conference? Did you get to go? Why yes! And no I did not get to go to Chicago. The stars and my gastro intestinal system have chosen to align to combust this summer barring me from travel. And so, this is the time I chose to reflect on my life. In this summer of heat and nothing but time to muse in my pain reliever haze I reflect on my time at GSLIS. As I look back over my year of posting on this blog I realize I came into this program with a…
Preserving Morris Dancing
Posted July 16, 2013 by lazylibrarian
For the last two months I have been enmeshed in a collection about Morris Dancing. Until two months ago, I did not know such a thing existed. So imagine my great surprise Friday night when I ran into multiple Morris Dancer groups performing on the Common in conjunction with Shakespeare on the Common! I wasn’t even supposed to be there at that time but had absentmindedly gotten off at the wrong T stop and ran into the very people my collection documented! As I stood watching, a woman came up to me and said, “Has anyone told you what this is yet?” She seemed used to having to explain it to passersby. “It’s Morris Dancing!” I said excitedly and she looked at me as if I were the one jumping in the common with bells tied to my shins. Yes! I do know what it is! This led me to a wonderful opportunity to not only talk with her about Morris Dancing and how she came to be involved with it but also about how…
Drawn to Being Withdrawn
Posted June 24, 2013 by Sarah Barton
I have recently done an unusual amount of reading about solitude while also living a more solitary life than usual – I do not have classes, work less than thirty hours per week, and my significant other is interning in Washington, DC this summer. I am an introvert by nature, so this temporary low-key lifestyle is right up my alley. Any doubts about my chronic introversion were nullified by Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I also read The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Peale (as a counterbalance to The Positive Power of Negative Thinking by Julie Norem, which confirmed that I am quite the defensive pessimist, but that is a whole different story) and this speech by William Deresciwicz, both of which touch upon the importance of solitude and reflection in developing one’s thoughts and cultivating one’s best self. Over the past two weeks I have spent a bulk of my free time reading and writing instead of watching TV and socializing, and it has…
Privy to Privacy
Posted June 13, 2013 by Sarah Barton
I haven’t heard much, if any, nitty-gritty library lingo since classes ended in April. In my GSLIS experience, it seems that most of the jargon-y, theoretical stuff happens in the classroom while the more practical, practice-oriented application occurs in outside jobs, internships, or volunteer activities. Anyway, a big news story caught my attention last week not only because of its national ramifications, but also its parallels to things I have learned at GSLIS – right down to the jargon. Throughout the day last Thursday I followed an article on the New York Times website called “U.S is Secretly Collecting Records of Verizon Calls.” I will spare you the details of the article (its title alone provides a succinct synopsis), but the main thing that stood out to me about this news story was the amount of library lingo being thrown around. A senior Obama administration official was quoted as saying that the government was only collecting the metadata about, not the content of, the phone calls. It is one thing to… Wait, hold on a…
Let the Adventure Begin: Summer 2013
Posted May 22, 2013 by Emily Boyd
This week has finally arrived! I leave for Rome on Thursday and I could not be more excited to get this adventure started! I look forward to sharing all my stories when I’m back from my European travels. I’ve spent the last few weeks recovering from my first semester at GSLIS, preparing for my trip to Rome, and getting a kickstart on my summer reading list. Other than the short course I am taking in Rome (LIS 493 Intellectual Freedom and Censorship), I will have a school-work free summer and I plan to spend the extra time reading everything I can get my hands on. I recently stumbled upon a great blog called “Beerbrarian” by a librarian in the DC area named Jacob Berg. “The Four-and-a-Half Types of People I met in Job Interviews in May” is a recent post that caught my eye about his experience interviewing candidates for a position at his library (check it out here http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-four-and-half-types-of-people-i-met.html). The post raises a lot of really interesting points about the interview process in general…
Time to refuel…
Posted May 1, 2013 by Julie Steenson
Classes ended on Monday. Tuesday should have been a day to relax, but then there was that Call for Submissions that I had been thinking about for months, due on Wednesday…so between all the academic pursuits, my public library job, and my volunteer time at the men’s prison library, I am only now coming up for air. This semester was my most rigorous. I only took two classes, but I balanced more than usual, as my cluttered house and cobwebs will attest. My day job expanded, I added volunteering, started a regular exercise routine, and had some pet and family health issues. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to being exhausted. I am sure my family and friends are tired of my response to most invitations, “In May…can’t do anything before May.” I am not trying to scare you away. Some great results came out of this: I discovered minimalist running shoes, and my knees don’t hurt anymore. After 18 years of marriage, my husband learned to do laundry. I found my calling…
End of Semester and the Simmons Community
Posted April 28, 2013 by lazylibrarian
I run a Tumblr about news that I feel is pertinent to women. A few times I have tagged things #simmons college, like this picture I posted that I snapped at our residential-campus café the other night. Since I have tagged a few things as Simmons or have mentioned it in my posts I have gotten more than one note from high school girls wanting to know more about the Simmons atmosphere. Unfortunately, I tell them that I am a Grad student and cannot provide much information about what type of classes they will take, what the undergrad events are like or even how roommate selection takes place. However I am always glad to be able to tell them that Simmons College has a diverse, warm and accepting culture. I see it in my limited interaction with the undergrad population, but also of course with the grad students in general and within my program. Friday night was the end of the year semester party hosted by LISSA, one of the student library association groups. It…
What’s the name of that book…?
Posted April 24, 2013 by Julie Steenson
Working in a public library, I often have requests for a book with an unknown title. These requests come in many varieties. A few of my favorites are listed below. It has a brown cover, sort of, is about this thick (patron displays width with fingers), and has an Indian on the front. Answer: The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks It is blue and was sitting right here on the New Shelf when I saw it about three weeks ago. Answer: Benediction by Kent Haruf I am looking for a book I read as a kid in the 1940s – it had a train and some kids…and they passed messages with the conductor or something… Answer: The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit We listened to an audiobook a while ago – it had some weird clock and something to do with eyes…and there might have been gypsies or something like that… Answer: The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski I love these kinds of questions. I heard today about another local library…
Information Overload
Posted April 21, 2013 by lazylibrarian
The whole world knows what happened in Boston this past week. I don’t wish to ruminate on the agonies, rather focus on the lessons. As common with tragedies, there are many. One that I came across, that might seem minor in the scheme of human suffering this week, nevertheless is the one I want to focus on because of its tie-in to library science. There has been much media coverage over the “social media aspect” of the Boston Marathon Bombing and in the horrific misidentification of the suspects in the New York Post but even before the New York Post coverpage there were thousands of people on Reddit and other websites trying to solve the crime like amateur Sherlock Holmes. I do believe their intentions were good but more and more I saw links to the supposed Twitter of the suspects, their Facebook, statements such as “if this is the same so and so then they worked here” or “if this is the same guy he won this award in the year X”. We’ve already…
World Book Night
Posted April 20, 2013 by Maggie Davidov
What a week this has been! I’m overwhelmed with relief, grief, exhaustion, and patriotism. It’s been a week. Incidentally, aside from being the week of the Boston Marathon Bombing, this week was also Library Appreciation Week, and this Thursday was also Poem in Your Pocket Day. How I wanted to celebrate these holidays. Yet they slipped through my fingers, and got away from me. Today, as we breathe a collective sigh and remember what’s important in life I’d like to point out another way to celebrate books, Boston and general well being. Next Tuesday evening, as you’re walking home from school or work keep an eye out for the ladies and gentlemen giving away free books in celebration of World Book Night. While April 23rd (this Tuesday) is UNESCO’s Day of the Book as well as Shakespeare’s birthday the people of World Book Night give away books, donated by a variety of authors, to promote the love of reading. This program is only 2 years old! It’s free to sign up to be a distributer…