SLIS West
Pleasant Suprises
Posted November 7, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
Whew! Busy week with a couple penultimate assignments and a presentation in my classes, plus attempts to get back in shape and return to meditating daily. It seems as though my new year resolution phase has kicked in a bit early. Or maybe I’m just excited for cookie season. So, I thought this week I might share a bit some of my pleasant surprises from my role as a metadata intern. When I started library school, I honestly didn’t really have an intention of becoming an information organizer to the extent of a metadata creator or cataloger. I found I really like my 415 class though (information organization), and suddenly I was considering resource description as a potential career. A piece of me thought I was just getting excited about something new to me, not really finding a new career path. So, I looked in other directions course and internship-wise for a while. Yet, the allure of info org has been too strong my friends — and it has remained a consistent presence for me…
Introducing — Amanda Pizzollo — A New Blogger for Simmons SLIS
Posted October 24, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
So, I’m coming up on my 10 year nurse-a-versary. Yup, it’s almost been 10 years since I took my boards and got my first job as a nurse. What? Oh, this is a blog about librarianing you say? I know, I know. I’m getting there. I’ve been getting, there, in fact, since I started training to be a nurse. Well, getting here that is, and by here I mean the library world. I loved nursing, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t what I would have chosen in college if it weren’t for outside pressures and a certain measure of indecisiveness. Don’t worry, I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not. I don’t think. Well, maybeeee… No really. I’m very sure about this whole library thing. But being a nurse is still a big part of my life, and a big part of who I am. As much as I try not to, I somehow end up telling people in library school that I’m also a nurse within about 2 minutes of conversation. It’s just…
SLIS West Career Night at Hampshire College
Posted March 18, 2016 by Katie Olivo
There will be a panel of librarians who are Hampshire alums who will come back to campus and speak about their career trajectories. The event is on Thursday, March 31 at 5 pm in ASH auditorium on the Hampshire College campus, and it is free and open to the community. Come hear about diverse paths and where these librarians landed and the sort of work that they do! Check out the link below for more information: http://sites.hampshire.edu/theharold/2016/03/16/down-the-rabbit-hole-hampshire-graduates-as-librarians/
Two Hundred Miles, A T Ride, and A Couple of Llamas
Posted September 19, 2014 by kbryan
My days begin and end with llamas. “Huh, what?” you ask. “I thought this was a blog about all the joys and challenges of being a SLIS student in Boston! What’s this llama nonsense?!? I want my money back!” Let me explain. Rest assured: This is definitely a SLIS “student experience” blog, and I’m very much a SLIS student. But as a SLIS West-er who takes the majority of her classes at Mt. Holyoke, most of my days are spent far from One Palace Road — 99.9 miles, if Google Maps’ accuracy can be trusted. The place I call home isn’t a Back Bay brownstone, or a walkup apartment in Brookline or the Longwood area. It’s an old white farmhouse with green shutters in a Western Massachusetts hill town. The Connecticut River is a stone’s throw away. And there’s a llama farm next door. Having llamas as my closest neighbors isn’t something I reflect on often. I’ve pet them a couple times. At least once a day, usually in the morning when I’m headed to…
Study Tips and Tricks to Help Get you Through Finals
Posted November 21, 2013 by Jill Silverberg
As I enter the final weeks of my first semester as a member of GSLIS, I’m somewhat in shock with the realization that it is almost over. Of course, it won’t be officially over until I get past the dreaded final weeks of the semester. Basically, in college terms, I’m stuck in the middle of what I affectionately call ‘academic crunch time.’ To anyone who has ever been a college student, they are probably familiar with this window of time; it tends to usually crop up whenever there are midterms or finals floating around. Now, as a four-year seasoned pro when it comes to dealing with finals and midterms, I’ve developed a few strategies for handling the stress. Of course, now that I’m in the big leagues that is grad school, I’ve had to adapt to a few changes, the fact that I’m not within proximity of a my school’s library being the biggest of them all. Now I know that I am not the only one who has to cope with the changes that…
East meets West – Part III – The Follow-up
Posted November 20, 2012 by Julie Steenson
I would like to follow up on Chelsea’s two blog posts about some of the differences between the Main Boston campus and West campus in South Hadley. For a general feel, I will start by referring you back to my earlier post, “The Tale of Two Campuses,” but I will try to be more specific in this post. Class Size – Chelsea is right here. I don’t know the names of half of the people in my Boston class but all my West campus classes have been small, leading to a very bonded group of people. At West, we bake brownies for class and seek out opportunities to work together via discussion boards, email, etc. during the week. The small class size does make a more “family” atmosphere. Demographics –In general, we tend to be older on West campus and in my experience, there are also more men at GSLIS -West. There are many more career changers on West, and that leads to the bonding over fitting in classwork and group projects around family and…
East Meets West Part II: The Details
Posted November 14, 2012 by cdelnero
After last week’s post, I got a comment from a prospective GSLIS student, Jodi. She writes, “As a prospective student (probably West), I would love to hear more about the differences between the two, especially from a student’s perspective. Anyone care to summarize that discussion at the Squealing Pig?” Jodi, and all who are curious (this is certainly a frequently asked question!), I will do my best to answer your question. We did talk a lot about some specific differences. I personally have not yet taken classes on both campuses, but I am taking a course in Boston at the main campus next semester. After talking with GSLIS Boston students, it really seems that the biggest difference between the campuses is class size, with the smaller classes at GSLIS West. My classes have never had more than 20 students, and only the core (required) courses were that large. Last Spring, I had a class with only 8 total students. According to the Boston students I spoke with, classes there tend to have at least 20…
East Meets West
Posted November 8, 2012 by cdelnero
I bet many of you have seen this map before. It’s funny! And sort of true. But some of us out in the dragon-filled regions see Boston not so much as the center of the universe, but more as a big scary jungle. That’s why last week, LISSA West sponsored a field trip to the Simmons main campus in Boston. Our goal was to give GSLIS West students the opportunity to visit the Boston campus and become familiar with things like parking and the layout of the library. Our hope was to eliminate fear of the big city and encourage GSLIS West students to take courses at Simmons Boston. There were four of us total and we had a busy afternoon! We started with a tour of Beatley Library led by the wonderful Linda Watkins, Liaison Librarian and Kate McGrath, Dean’s Fellow for GSLIS West. We got to see how things work in the stacks and behind the scenes. We had the opportunity to meet Justin Snow in the archives who let us into the…
Happiness, already rampant at a library near you!
Posted October 6, 2012 by Maggie Davidov
Does anybody else feel incredibly lucky? Seriously, does anybody out there feel like they’ve hit the profession jackpot? I do. I mean, it’s been quite a year for me in general. I finished 3 years of serving in the Peace Corps, married the love of my life who I met in the Peace Corps (yeah, those statistics are real), started a new job at a school library, and began my first two classes at GSLIS. I really don’t know how next year could compare by any small stretch of the imagination unless I sprout wings and fly to Neverland. However, I don’t think it’s only me that feels this way. I’ve spent the last three weeks getting to know my first year peers in my core courses and they couldn’t more jazzed about what they do. I remember all of our introductions on the first day of class and everyone’s talking about how they came to love libraries. You know what I’m talking about. Everyone has a story about how they came to the library….
The Tale of Two Campuses
Posted September 12, 2012 by Julie Steenson
I started my Simmons GSLIS career on beautiful West campus, at Mount Holyoke College. It was a long, two and a half hour drive, but other than a few dicey snowstorms, the commute through the meandering hills of NH and Massachusetts was a pleasant one. I enjoyed many great books on my MP3 player during the commute, and the faculty and students at GSLIS West were (and still are) a brilliant and supportive bunch. I had two classes that took place on campus and one online…I will blame my online one, with a remarkable Boston professor, for what happened next. Boston? I got it in my head to take advantage of ALL Simmons had to offer a library science student. Was I missing something by being on only one campus? Or is the choice simply one of geography? I decided to find out. So, last Saturday I attended my Database Management class on West campus, taught by a library professional and professor from Harvard (who also teaches the class in Boston), and on Monday, I…