SLIS
Papers, Projects, and Finals – Oh My!
Posted April 29, 2022 by Ivy Noonan
I hope everyone is taking care of themselves this finals season! Part of that for me is turning my heat back on since Boston has been incredibly chilly the past few weeks. I know some people call it the windy city and that is certainly correct on some days. But all the flowers have started to bloom and on my study breaks I’ve been taking walks to look at all of the new shoots starting to come up. Speaking of study breaks, I feel like every semester I’m continuously updating my study habits. I start out thinking that I have a strong understanding of what helps me stay on top of my tasks…. And then finals roll around and I find myself mistaken. Which isn’t to say it’s been bad, I just now have a better understanding of what DOESN’T work for me and I can adjust accordingly. Which brings me to the question, what’s everyone’s favorite study hack? As someone who has multiple 20 page papers to write, I found that if I write…
Career Prep: Resume Revamp & Career Fair
Posted April 20, 2022 by Katie Dillon
April in Boston means occasional sun, occasionally moderate temperatures, and more than occasional networking opportunities! Besides a slew of conferences over the next few months, the Simmons SLIS career fair was this past week. SLIS hosts the career fair virtually on Handshake, a networking app specifically for students and recent graduates. Since I’m still a year away from graduation, I used the career fair mainly as an opportunity to learn about a few potential future employers (and, of course, getting my name out there couldn’t hurt!). I’m on the fence about whether academic or corporate libraries would be the best fit for me, so I signed up for group info sessions for a few of each. I particularly enjoyed a session on Data Management services at the Harvard Medical School library – one of my favorite information science topics from a library on Simmons’ back doorstep! Naturally, I want to put my best foot forward. The Simmons Career Education Center has plenty of advice, but I’ve learned a lot from other sources, too. In March…
Future Plans
Posted April 15, 2022 by Ivy Noonan
I feel like I blinked, and all of a sudden I’m registering for classes for my third and final year at Simmons! My graduate History thesis is right around the corner, and I can hardly believe it. I’m still deciding on my topic, but I think I’m starting to build a pretty good idea. It feels like the true adult world is coming quicker than ever. Speaking of, this past week I attended the annual Spring SLIS virtual career fair and got to meet with several awesome employers and get some ideas for my job prospects next spring. It’s exciting to hear about all the opportunities that are available for me when I graduate and all the places I can potentially work at. Until then though, I’m happy to announce I got into all the classes that I wanted for next semester. I will be taking History 562 taught by the new faculty they hired, and LIS 442, one of the required archives courses. I did experience true senioritis though: I kept forgetting that my…
Career Fair in Review
Posted April 14, 2022 by Bryanne McArdle
Last week I attended the Simmons SLIS career fair. It was a really informative experience that allowed myself and other students to talk to current LIS professionals about current job opportunities and fields that we should keep an eye on. I personally attended to get an idea of where the field was at. I used to, before studying for my masters, work for a museum internship program and would attend these fairs on “the other side of the table.” So, I was going to see what had changed since then, what my perspective as a student had changed, and hopefully to get some information on the state of LIS fields. I walked away feeling much more informed and confident about my job prospects once I graduate this May, regardless of where I end up. Everyone I talked to was really kind, helpful, and happy to answer questions. The best thing was a walked away with was interest in fields, like development fundraising research to law libraries, that I had not before. And as someone who…
Assignments and Resumes
Posted April 5, 2022 by Bryanne McArdle
Now is the time in the semester where everything is busy and lots of assignments are due. These past few weeks since coming back from spring break I have had at least one major assignment due each week. It has been a little stressful and certainly busy. But even so, the amount of pride and excitement I get when I finish these assignments is great. I always feel so much more accomplished than I did going into them and often, I am much more confident of my own skills on whatever the topic may have been, from metadata to programming to book reviews. It is a wonderful sense to become more confident and surer in my abilities. This is also the case with me polishing up my career materials as I creep closer to graduation. One of the ways I did this was by attending the Resume Revamp hosted by SLA this week. I was a great event hosted by the Special Library Association Student Chapter at Simmons where they connected students who submitted resumes…
Spring Sprint
Posted April 4, 2022 by Abbey Metzler
From the basket of laundry next to my bed, to the hundreds of unread and unorganized emails in my inbox, the evidence of this semester’s time crunch is everywhere I look. The workload from my first semester at SLIS didn’t feel like a particularly far jump from the end of my undergraduate career. The reading was heavy, and the papers forced me to slow down and remember back to the kind of academic writing I hadn’t practiced in the year I took between my graduation from Syracuse and starting at Simmons. The three classes did keep me buzzing from one day to the next. But, in a mid-March reflection, I’m realizing now that this semester has been a whole other beast. I run, often literally, from work, to class, to my LIS 438 field placement. Each of these pieces to my schedule is vital. I can’t miss class, or else then I’ll be behind in content and deadlines. Can’t afford to miss work and still be able to order the delicious food found…
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…
A Snowy Boston Day
Posted February 1, 2022 by Bryanne McArdle
Over the weekend, a huge blizzard hit the area and blanketed everything in snow. I’m a born New Englander, so this weather doesn’t faze me at all. I actually really love all kinds of storms, but especially snowstorms, since you can ski and snowshoe after. But there is always an issue when the snow falls, and if you aren’t used to snow, you may not realize it. Where to put all of it? Snow stays around, especially when it’s cold. And after the storm on Saturday, there’s was a lot of snow that’s wasn’t going anywhere. For me, I simply just strap on my boots, put on my warm jacket, and off I go. Sure, the commute into Boston took longer and the trains had some issues, especially since some plows accidentally took out a few of the crossing guards while cleaning up (oops). But I realized when I got to campus and chatting with fellow students, that my attitude of how normal this is, is not always the case. For the Simmons students who…
New Semester Nerves
Posted January 25, 2022 by Abbey Metzler
As a first Student Snippets’ blog post of the new semester, this is an admission of nerves. The first week of classes is never my favorite time of the academic year. I always feel a little lost, whether in the carefully arranged but still difficult to navigate online syllabi or when trying to find my new classrooms. This inaugural week of spring semester was hosted online. A brief but harrowing few days where I got to go back to the virtual learning environment I had escaped at the very end of my undergraduate career in 2020. We all grinned and got through it, seeing the lower half of our professors’ faces for perhaps the only time before summer arrives. These first week jitters alone would not warrant a blog post about them. What makes me take to this word document with a lingering sense of unease is my technology class. I have always imagined my archival ambitions through a haze of crumbling old paper and the smell of used books. It was always the History…
Returning to Campus, freeform style
Posted January 20, 2022 by Bryanne McArdle
The sound of the train pulling up to the platform, ~~~ The squeak of metal, ~~~ The quiet and noise of the people in the ancient subway, ~~~ So many people, but with so little interaction, ~~~ The way the car weaves and bobs, ~~~ Jerking me awake from time to time, ~~~ Until my stop comes, ~~~ And I walk the streets, ~~~ Filled with busy people, frantic cars, and bored buses, ~~~ The cold air feels refreshing, ~~~ Until campus looms, ~~~ The smiles of students, ~~~ the hum of excitement, ~~~ the murmuring of studies, ~~~ and the focus of lunch, ~~~ Makes this place feel like an oasis in the city ~~~ Of learning, of fun, and of community ~~~ I’m glad to be back.