SLIS West
The Life of a SLIS West Student
Posted October 30, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
It’s been a while since I’ve written specifically about the SLIS West student experience, and I’ve now taken spring, summer, and fall classes so I’m not the “new girl” on the block anymore. I’ve never been to the Simmons campus in Boston so I can’t exactly compare and contrast, but I can give you a good description of what makes a SLIS West student. 1. SLIS West students commute. Based on all the people that I’ve met and talked to, the SLIS West commute is anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours, and most are somewhere right in the middle. My drive, at 2 hours, is one of the farthest I’ve heard of and to me it really doesn’t seem that bad. Traffic is usually pretty good on a Saturday and the views are lovely. Right now, it’s dark when I hit the road and I get to watch the sun rise as I drive. 2. SLIS West students have jobs and families. I have yet to meet a SLIS West student who is just…
Hellooo Summer!!
Posted June 7, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
June – the first real month of summer – has arrived and my summer class at SLIS West is almost two weeks underway. In the time since I last wrote, I have enjoyed about a month of no classes, took a family vacation to my beautiful hometown in southwestern Virginia, celebrated my 29th birthday, hosted my parents and little brother for Memorial Day weekend, and read two books in rapid succession (should’ve read more). It was a pretty glorious break. Just look at this picture I snapped from the Blue Ridge Parkway overlook down into my valley: Getting out of Connecticut every so often is good for my soul. I like a lot of things about where I live, but I’m a small-town, mountain-loving girl at heart, and Fairfield County, CT is just a little too urban, a little too crowded, and a little too rushed for my tastes. But I love the opportunities I have here, especially the opportunity to attend Simmons! Let me tell you about my summer class, LIS 453 Collection Development….
Whole-self Librarianship
Posted April 13, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
I learned passion and enthusiasm from my dad. My dad is a college English professor and his passions include subjects such as Victorian literature, poetry, Shakespeare, and John Milton. He has other passions as well that he indulges outside of the classroom, like birdwatching and playing the guitar. Both his professional and personal interests make up who he is and tend not to honor the distinction between “professional” and “personal.” His academic interests follow him home from the office, work their way into casual conversation, and inform his worldview. Likewise, his personal interests flavor his teaching style and influence the way in which he relates to students and colleagues. I have observed my dad in his various capacities and positions within the home, at the workplace and in our church and I can tell you he is the same man all across the board. I was reminded of the importance of passion at SLIS West on Saturday. First, there was the lunchtime panel on interview skills with Tom Raffensperger, the Dean of Academic Information Services…
Do You Have Time?
Posted April 6, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
Last week, I began a study in the name of science (and academic success)! You see, while counseling with my advisor recently, I was given this handy little factoid that you should expect to spend 10 hours on your coursework for each class, per week (in addition to class time). I had never heard this before! In the following weeks I began to wonder how many hours I was actually spending on my homework. So I decided to pay more attention to my time usage and record hours spent on schoolwork. These are the questions I hoped to answer: How much time do I spend on schoolwork in a week outside of class? How difficult is it to achieve the optimal 20 hours? Are those 20 hours sufficient for completing my assignments? How is my workflow? How efficiently do I work? For the purposes of this study, I have not included activities such as reading/responding to school-related email or writing blog posts as part of “homework time.” This study is in its early stages and…
Why You Should Go to Library School (or more specifically, SLIS West)
Posted March 23, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
A post from our new student blogger, Megan Ondricek. Since you are here, reader, I can probably safely assume that you are already in grad school or seriously considering it. Maybe you don’t need convincing. But if you’re like me when I was researching my options, you might be having some questions like, “Is library school/SLIS West for me?” “Will it further my dreams and ambitions?” “Am I going to like it?” Here are some of the happy discoveries I’ve made so far that have confirmed that coming to SLIS West was the right thing for me to do: SLIS West is small! The program generally enrolls around 80 students. Your classes will be small, your discussions will be intimate, and you will get to know most of your classmates and make friends quickly. The setting is quaint and beautiful. Don’t get me started on how much I love the Mount Holyoke campus and surrounding environs. This really needs its own blog post. Students here come from all ages and stages of life, and bring…
Post Spring Break-a-thon
Posted March 13, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
So long Spring Break, and thanks for all the fish! Spring Break was fun. You know: non-stop parties, sunbathing, margaritas, that kind of thing. JUST KIDDING! hahaha. buwahhahahahah! (I could go on but will spare you). I’m in grad school and per my situation in life that was not my personal spring break experience. It was nice, though, to have a break from classes so that I could catch up on homework and reading for class (so exciting, right?!) and because I just increased my working hours. Why the increase in hours? Well… I got a professional librarian job! Wohoo! I’m now the Bicentennial Metadata Librarian at Amherst College and thoroughly stoked about it. I get to create metadata and metadata guidelines for digitized collections that are going to be made available in ACDC (rock on! No, actually it stands for Amherst College Digital Repository). I’ll especially be working on digital collections that highlight the history of Amherst College and its alumni and students for the upcoming Bicentennial of the college in 2021. So that’s…
Ode To Metadata
Posted March 1, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
We’ve reached that time in the semester that I refer to as the grind. It’s not overwhelming, it’s not all time-consuming, but it is a grind. Read, write, exercise (cataloging exercises, not the sweatin’ to the oldies kind), repeat. And so, I need a grind break. Therefore, this blog post will be a poem- a bad poem. Ode to metadata We learn all about you,data about data,and then we learn quickly-that that don’t come near to explaining ya’ You’re the label on the can of soup.The title of a book,the stuff we need to know to find thatfor which we look. You help us keep stuff separate;and so, we can lump things together.Because of you, I run a search,and find all the books written about leather. You’re the love notes to ourselves,and to future library fellers.So that we know how to take careof the treasures in our cellars. Without youI would not know who took this pic,or if it’s of a magic wandor just a wayward stick. So here’s to you metadatabecause I never met…
Other Librarianing Fun
Posted February 20, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
Well hello there, blog watchers! It’s been a whirlwind of a time for me the last couple of weeks. I’m thankful to have a few big presentations inside and outside of classroom out of the way so I can catch up on some reading (for class- of course, but also for Discworld- of course). Yesterday was sunny and reached up into the high 40s where I am in MA, so I’m feeling pretty good this fine President’s Day. I thought it would be fun to devote this blog post to some things you may not get a lot of in depth experience with in LIS school, but you will get to experience in the wide world of libarianing (with variation of course depending on your specific position). This post was inspired by my SLIS West buddy Jenney when she told our friend “way to embrace the glue and glitter!” after he shared some recent projects he’d done. Readers’ Advisory – okay, you do get time spent on this in school- especially depending on the classes,…
“SLIS Wester”
Posted January 17, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
PS (presript in this case rather than post): I like the term SLIS Wester. SLIS Westerner would of course be more technically appropriate if you’re uptight about prescriptive language. I’m not sure if anyone else uses either of these terms- so if you decide to start going around being like “hey, SLIS Westers, let’s go party!” and get only blank stares, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Welp, the winter break is coming to a close. I’ve started my pre-class reading for the course that required it, but mostly this weekend has been about lounging around and working on fun little projects- taking advantage of my last weekend without class or homework for a while. Recently, I had someone ask me about being a SLIS West student compared to being a Simmons Boston student, and I figured- hey! why not make this explanation a blog post too. Now, of course the problem with trying to answer “what is it like to be a SLIS West student?” is that it’s like asking someone “what’s is it…
The Week Before Finals
Posted November 28, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
‘Tis the week before finals, and all through the landSLIS students are scurrying to finish up plans.Slides, lesson plans, websites galore!We finish up presentations that we hope the teach will adore. We tidy up projects and put citations in papersAs the weather turns ready for frost and scrapers. So forgive the silent blog, dear fans, as we put on our thinking caps;When really our brains are ready for long winter’s naps. You’ll hear from us again soon, with good tidings and cheer. For after 12/10 will be finished with half of this school year! We’ll take long breaks or graduate, and play and work, work, workTo make use of the break. You’ll see us in society again, and we won’t just lurk.We’ll have lives again – at least for a month. So bear with us, dear fans, as we finish up this crunch!