Projects
The Simmons Zine Collection
Posted April 4, 2024 by Olivia McGovern
About a month ago, I started a new job working in Beatley Library on campus. I got my very own cubicle, equipped with a computer, a scanner and a label printer, but one corner is dominated by two boxes of uncataloged zines. I came to learn that Simmons houses a sizable collection of zines that have been curated for years, and it was the job of my predecessor to catalog and process them. Unfamiliar with zines? Here’s the rundown: “zines are a noncommercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines which their creators produce, publish, and distribute themselves” (Duncombe). There is usually a DIY crafting component in the creation of a zine, followed by photocopying, folding, and stapling into pamphlets. Zines are inexpensive and easy to make, which has led them to play an important role in activism. The Simmons librarian, Dawn Stahura, who really kicked off the zine collection wrote (in a zine): “Zines are not only creative they are unique primary sources, a gateway into the lives of the marginalized, the silenced, the overlooked.” A unique cataloging…
Useability Testing – A Mid-Project Reflection
Posted March 17, 2023 by Lauren Redding
For the past week, I’ve been in the thick of a practicum project based around useability testing for our school library website. The school library teacher practicum requires us to complete two “minor” non-teaching projects, one in the “administrative” side of things and one in the “technology” realm. Useability testing is “a research and development method that involves end users who provide feedback on the web site design.” In essence, I’ve spent this week sitting next to student volunteers, watching them navigate our website and talk through the decisions they are making and the thoughts that are going through their head. This weekend I’m going to start transcribing, comparing, and analysing my notes and the students’ rates of success on the given tasks. My mentor librarians and I have so many questions about how the website works in practice: Are the students comfortable using it? Were they taught how to use it effectively? Do they remember being taught how to use it? Have they practiced those skills since? If something in the website is hard…
Joy in the End
Posted November 15, 2022 by Johnna Purchase
I have managed to freak out most of my friends when dropping into casual conversation the fact that we only have four weeks of class left. To me, this signifies fewer 10%-assignments, most of my due dates crossed off my list, and a chance to focus on my final projects and research papers. As an English major in undergrad, I am used to working on large-scale analysis that brings together research and original thought so final projects are where my brain is happiest. And, I finally know not just something but almost a lot-of-something about my course topics. It’s a time for celebration! My friends are less than convinced. The looming deadlines that all seem to cluster around the same two days, the uncertainty that maybe we don’t know as much as we think we do, the will-they-won’t-they arrive in time ILL requests for research papers, I will admit it can be a stressful time. With Thanksgiving Break disrupting this final sprint to the end and the whispering guilt of needing to work on projects…
Into the Library-Verse
Posted May 31, 2022 by Katie Dillon
Why care about virtual reality? If you’re a current or aspiring librarian, VR might be morerelevant than you think. Simmons professors Catherine Dumas and Rachel Williams areresearching the use of virtual reality in library crisis training, and I recently got to be one of theirguinea pigs!Virtual reality is “the computer-generated simulation of images or whole environments that canbe experienced using special electronic equipment,” according to the American LibraryAssociation. In this case, an Oculus Quest and Mozilla Hub brought me to a simulated publiclibrary.I’ve only used VR technology a few times, and each time I’ve been blown away. Moving withinVR is very intuitive to me, which I don’t take for granted. Growing up, I hated when computergames moved from the point-and-click to 3-D model because I could never get my avatar or thevisual field to go where I wanted. With VR, there’s less need to translate my movement toartificial controls. Love this avatar of me that Professors Dumas and Williams created! As a research guinea pig, I entered the library-verse to watch a presentation on crisismanagement…
Spring and the Midway Point
Posted March 21, 2022 by Bryanne McArdle
The past few weeks have been your standard Boston spring weather. Beautiful days sometimes going up to even fifty degrees followed by frigid windy days that sting at your face and snow that covers the ground, only to melt in the next few warm days. Meteorologically speaking, it is a strange time, but so is coming back to classes after a weeklong spring break. For all my classes, we have officially passed the midway point. It’s a great feeling and my classes have all been going really well. But it’s also strange to be nearing the end of the semester and, in the grand scheme of things, my time at Simmons. I’m starting to realize how much I will miss my classes. I know that may be strange to say, but I did miss the lectures and discussions last week, and it made me start thinking about the future. But let’s not dwell on melancholy topics. I am truly excited to really start getting into my assignments for the end of the semester. I have…
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;…
Close to the Finish Line!
Posted July 30, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
We are getting close to the end of the semester everyone! We are in Week 7 and the summer term ends in just a few days! As you can imagine, I am feeling the pressure! Even though my class is ending in a few days, there is still so much left to do! As I’ve said in previous posts, summer classes are condensed courses—you are learning two weeks of material during a one-week period, so you are taking in a lot of information. LIS 475: Organizational and Information Ethics has been a very interesting class. The early weeks were less focused on library and information-related content, and were more focused on introducing us to the concept of what ethics is and ethical frameworks. We didn’t really start talking about information ethics or anything super-related to libraries until later in the course. We’ve covered so many topics in this class already, such as Ethical Frameworks, Ethics and Organizational Culture and Management, Ethical Decision Making and Legal Compliance, Information Ethics, Privacy and Access, Digital Equity, Intellectual Freedom,…
Winding Down
Posted July 28, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
There are only two weeks left in the summer semester and I can’t believe it. It’s gone by fast. This is the first time I’ve taken only one class, and it’s been very nice. It’s also been a bit weird, since I’m used to juggling two or three classes and having more work to do. But I’m not complaining! We’ve finished the last of the hands-on activities and will have lecture classes and a discussion with a conservator the rest of the semester. Two weeks ago, we had our most difficult assignment: making boxes out of heavy paper and corrugated cardboard. Boxes are created for items that cannot be put directly on the shelves because they are too delicate or because they are damaged. Creating a custom box for these items gives them physical support and allows them to be handled by the public (with a little bit of caution, of course). Otherwise, these items would be unavailable. The boxes have to fit the item perfectly to make sure the item will not move around…
A Great Group Project
Posted April 23, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I completed my group project for Metadata and honestly it was one of the most enlightening group projects that I’ve done. Each group was assigned a different metadata schema. This is usually how it goes for a group project, but what was different here was that the schemas were for unusual items like Tweets (Tweet Object Records), music (Music Encoding Initiative), cultural heritage objects (MIDAS Heritage), biological records (Darwin Core) and even math (MathML)! I watched all the presentations and learned a ton about how metadata is used. I did not know that you could create metadata for a math formula or that metadata for a simple Tweet contains huge amount of information, including the number of followers the person had at that time, the number of likes the tweet got, and how many times it was re-tweeted. It was so interesting to learn how each schema described its resources. My group was assigned PBCore, which is used to create metadata for audio and visual resources, like tv episodes or radio shows. I enjoyed…
Almost to the Finish Line!
Posted April 17, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
We are in Week 13 everyone! It’s the second-to-last week of the semester! We’re almost across the finish line! Usually at this point in the semester, I’m working on some sort of big final project to turn in at the end of the class, but oddly, this semester that’s not the case. I suppose you could call the Social Media Assignment my big project, as it was supposed to last until the end of the semester, but I actually met all the requirements for the project itself a while ago. Since my last post, I’ve completed my other two assignments, so all that stands between me and the end of the semester is some forum posts, readings, and lectures. This has been the strangest semester–and I didn’t even have to deal with too much disruption or transition as I was in an online class anyways. Even though the pandemic has been going on, and we’ve been surrounded by change, chaos, and uncertainty, LIS 453: Collection Development and Management has been one of my favorite classes…