Relaxing
Let it Go!
Posted March 29, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
So, I’m going to come clean. I watched Frozen for the first time this weekend. I don’t want to say it changed my life, but I’m definitely in some sort of magical place. I was thinking about the last time I was in this euphoric state and I remembered it exactly. It was when I finished the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. No, I’m not a sadist. I don’t enjoy suffering and death. It was just such a wonderfully romantic story. It filled me with hope and I think pushed me to further understand the human condition. I tell you all this because I think libraries are in a unique position insofar as they are the dispensaries of these emotionally transformative materials. Amazon is not the only peddler of these fine products. We too share these artistic treasures, and what’s more, we put a human face behind it all. We have the opportunity to share our opinions about these books and films with patrons in a number of forums: blogs, reference…
Baking a little bit of springtime
Posted March 4, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Normally, I am a very big fan of winter. Snow, ice, the cold; I love it all. Or I used to. Although I am no stranger to New England winters, this year, the winter seems longer, colder, and snowier than ever before. And normally, I wouldn’t be complaining. However, it seems my love for winter has waned over the course of these past few months. I guess the same would happen to anyone after experiencing temperatures in the single digits for almost two straight weeks and a seemingly never-ending bombardment of snow storms. Indeed, I am so done with winter that I am actually keeping track of how many more days are left until spring (fifteen days to go!). Although it seems like it is forever and half away, soon (hopefully) all the snow will be gone, the flowers will bloom, and most importantly, it will be WARM. And to help get myself amped up for the upcoming warm weather, I decided to bake a springtime dessert this past weekend, just a little something to…
2014 Olympics Fun Facts
Posted February 7, 2014 by Emily Boyd
It may be a stereotype, but in my experience it has been true, that librarians (and archivists) love their trivia. In anticipation of the Olympics starting this weekend I decided to find some Olympics fun facts for all your trivia needs. The student lounge on campus is a place where lots of great trivia tidbits are exchanged and I hope to put some of these to use in the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to having lots of olympic action on in the background while I catch up on homework and try to keep warm in the bitter cold. So, because its 2014, I think its only appropriate to provide you with 14 fun facts about the Olympics, past and present, to use to impress your friends and family. 1. The Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece is rekindled every two years using the sun’s rays and a concave reflective mirror. 2. With a total of 303, Norway leads with the most medals from the winter games through 2010. The U.S. is second with 253….
The Super Bowl from the Perspective of a Non-football Fan
Posted February 3, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
I’m not going to beat around the bush, I am not really big on this whole football thing. Don’t ask me why, because I can assure you that at age 22 ½, I’m still trying to figure it out. My three other roommates, on the other hand, are about as nuts about football as cats are to cat nip. Every Sunday evening, they can found in our common space with a game on (because there is always a game on, somewhere), surrounded by chips, dip, and beer. Like the fans in the stadiums, they hoot, they holler, they make snide remarks about the opposing team. Even from the perspective of someone who would much rather listen to silence than hear a baseball game broadcasted over the radio, my roommates somehow always managed to make whatever they are watching seem like they are watching the greatest show on earth. And so, after months and months of listening to their weekend hoopla, I found myself Sunday night, over at a mutual friend’s apartment watching the Big Game….
Academic Peace at Last: Finding that Place to Study
Posted January 20, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
For those of you who might not know, I am a commuter student. While I did have the option of living on Simmons campus, I opted to rent an apartment right outside of Boston in the Brookline/Brighton area. I’ve included the slash since my apartment is located in a place that if I take two steps to the left I’ll be in Brookline. Now don’t get me wrong, I deeply love living in an apartment; it allows me to feel like I’m one step closer to entering the world of being a working professional without actually entering the professional working world. However, as much as I love living a few T-stops away from the hip and happening place that is Coolidge Corner, there are quite a few luxuries of living on a college campus that I truly miss. While I could create another list featuring the five things I miss the most about a college campus, I will save that for another time. Rather, I think I am going to talk about the one thing…
Best of the Best: My Favorites of the 100 Books I Read Last Year
Posted January 17, 2014 by Emily Boyd
I hope everyone has had a nice relaxing holiday season full of fun, food, and family. I for one enjoyed the break from classes but did not have much opportunity to slow down otherwise. As my last post suggested, 2013 was an incredibly busy year for me and 2014 promises much of the same. Of everything I accomplished in the last year, reading 100 books is one of the things I’m most proud of- even if it did take me a few days into the new year to complete. I read some awesome books this year so I thought now would be a great time to offer my suggestions. I had originally intended to summarize my top five favorite books, but then I went through my list and I had not five, but twenty books I absolutely had to share! Clearly that’s too many to summarize in a short blog post. That said, before I give my list of favorites I think it’s worth noting the range of genres represented on this list. Trying to…
Kicking it Old School
Posted December 17, 2013 by Jill Silverberg
Well, it’s official: my first semester in GSLIS is now over! All fanfare aside, I’ll admit, it does feel somewhat strange to not have any classes to attend or homework to do. I mean, after about fourteen weeks of classes, readings, and other assignments, one does kind of get used to pulling all-nighters while fighting deadlines posted on Moodle. However, now that I have had a week to relax and simply longue around the city of Boston, I’ve decided that it is high time that I find something else to do other than re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After some careful thinking, I’ve decided to go back into my childhood and re-read a series that, like all the other people who were kids during the 1990s, made me constantly stare out my window awaiting the arrival of an owl to change my life forever. That’s right, I am going to spend my free time this winter break re-reading the Harry Potter series. As I write this post now, I’m currently halfway through the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, a book…
Daily Musings: Twelve Years a Slave
Posted October 27, 2013 by Jill Silverberg
As a big fan of historical dramas, be it a novel, a play or a film, when I first heard about the film 12 Years a Slave, I knew it would be a film worth seeing. Well, I just got out of the theater and I have to say, I made the right choice. Set during the mid 1800s, the film depicts the experiences of a kidnapped free black man, Solomon Northup, and his struggle to both survive and return to his family. Based off the book with the same name, the story perfectly captures the attitudes that were prevalent towards slavery during this point in American history. I won’t give away any details other than the fact that director, Steve McQueen, did an excellent job with casting for the film. Actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Dano, Michael Fassbender, and Benedict Cumberbatch are all outstanding in their respective roles. You feel differently for each of the characters that these actors represent, emotions ranging from pure sympathy to absolute disgust. I haven’t had the chance to read the source…
Baking Fun!
Posted October 19, 2013 by Jill Silverberg
If you haven’t noticed, we are already more than halfway through pumpkin month! It is kind of hard to believe that October is nearly over, meaning that I’ve already been a student at Simmons for two months. Time certainly flies when one is busy at work with their studies. But between learning about MARC, RDA, AACR2, and how to create a finding aid, one needs a little time to unwind. Well, considering that I love to bake and it is almost Halloween, I decided to take some time off between writing papers and MARC to try my hand at something new. Whoopie pies are something that I have known about for a long time but have never had an opportunity to make. Well, this past week I decided to take a break and try something new. Well, the whoopies pies I ended up baking turned out to be not only phenomenal but super easy to make. So the next time you feel like taking a study break, give this recipe a try. The results are…
Winter is Coming
Posted August 19, 2013 by Sarah Barton
I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones on June 22 as an escape from the afternoon heat in Washington, DC. Fast-forward 24 hours, and I had watched five more. The only thing stopping me from completing the entire ten-episode season by dinnertime on June 23 was my flight back to Boston. I hurried home from the airport and immediately went to my library’s webpage to request Seasons One and Two on DVD. When I saw that there were 100-something holds on 90-something copies of each season (my library is part of a network of libraries in the greater Boston area, hence the large numbers), I added myself to both hold lists and vowed to start reading George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series upon which the Game of Thrones television show is based. It didn’t take long to become so immersed in the books that I forgot about the queue for the DVDs. The novels initially intimidated me, as there are currently five (with two more forthcoming) that…