SLIS
Adventures in Ethics
Posted June 25, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
We’ve completed the first week of the of the Summer 2020 term everyone! As you know, classes at SLIS are online for this term due to the pandemic. I’m not going to lie; I came very close to forgetting it was the first week of classes last week. If I hadn’t received an email from my professor announcing it was the first day of class last Monday, I would have completely forgotten. I’m taking LIS 475: Organizational and Information Ethics this summer, and as is usual for Simmons summer classes, it is only seven weeks long, but is the same amount of work as a normal semester-long course. This means we cover two weeks-worth of material a week. If you’ve read my past posts about summer classes, you know my feelings about this. Summer classes have a lot of content in a very short amount of time. I’m not wild about the rushed feeling, but this summer, like last summer, there is no “locked” content, so I can see everything ahead of time. In summer…
Surprise Online School & (Not-So-Final) Farewell
Posted May 14, 2020 by Katie Carlson
If being a grad student in my final semester during COVID-19 showed me anything, it is that my friends and future librarian colleagues are amazing and ADAPTABLE. With life suddenly thrown online, I saw recorded modules, voiced-over power points, sing-a-long zoom meetings, virtual coffee dates, Animal Crossing birthday parties, YouTube story hours, interactive book club Moodle sites, WEDDINGS, and so much more! I’ve also witnessed so much patience that warms my heart! From what I’ve seen, everyone has been great about adapting their expectations and making accommodations! Now for the second part of this little post: I’m done! I’m a whole MASTER in the field of library and information science! These two years have absolutely flown by, but I wouldn’t do anything differently! To make at-home-graduation even more special, my girlfriend made diplomas, organized a photoshoot, and even conducted a ceremony for Adaliz and me! Grades are in, and as I write this, I have my Zoom-uation Virtual Graduation tomorrow! It might be a little unconventional, but we made it through! Signing off for now…but…
Seven Classes Down, Five to Go!
Posted May 8, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
We are DONE with the Spring 2020 semester everyone! Seven classes down, five to go! This summer I’m taking LIS 475: Organizational Ethics. I was originally going to take a different class, but due to the unpredictability associated to COVID-19, I switched classes. This class looks very interesting—based on the description, I think it’s going to be more of a theory-based class and we’ll be covering a lot of interesting topics. However, the class doesn’t start until June 15, so I have a bit of a break before school starts again. Usually, when the semester is over and we come up on a break, I’m thrilled. However, this time it is different because there is a pandemic happening. This now means that there is a gaping hole in my everyday routine. The stay-at-home advisory has been extended until May 18, and my sense of time and structure during the pandemic has pretty much come from two things, school and work, and now one of them is gone until mid-June. On one hand, it’s nice not…
Summer Job – Something New
Posted May 1, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
Today I filled out my paperwork for a new job, which is so exciting! I will be a personal shopper at Stop & Shop, working in the Peapod home delivery department. Although the semester is coming to the end, I’m excited to have a new beginning. I am not taking summer classes, so a job will give me something to do this summer. Except for a few forms to be signed for practicum, I am all done with the semester! I got my last grade back for my online technology class a couple days ago, and I had my final meeting with my supervisors for practicum yesterday. It feels so weird thinking about how the semester is over now, after working so hard. Thinking about those students at the elementary school in Waltham, I am so sad that I missed out on a whole month in school with the kids. I am happy that I still saw the Kindergarten students I got to teach my 4-lesson unit with on Google Meets, but it isn’t the…
End of Semester Round Up!
Posted April 30, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
It’s the last week of class, and all of my work is done except for two small forum posts. I’m relieved to have everything done, but I’m also kind of sad because I really enjoyed my classes this semester. Collections Development was a straight up, pure library science class and I loved it. I looked at a ton of statistics, created budgets, and discovered ways to find information on new books and trends. I also learned how to use Twitter! I now use it regularly to check in with my local libraries and keep up to date with everything book related. Metadata was fascinating because it showed how all types of information can be classified and sorted. I loved creating records with XML (Extensible Markup Language). It’s kind of like a puzzle. I get to fill in the pieces and make sure all the names and categories are in the right order. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and excitement when I create a useful, error-free XML document. I know that might sound weird,…
Virtual Interviewing 101
Posted April 27, 2020 by Adaliz Cruz
When I was asked to write a blog post about interviewing, I scratched my head for about a week. What should I write about interviewing? I told my roommate, I’m no expert on this topic! However, after thinking about it for a few days I realized I do have some experience to share with all of you. I’ve interviewed for different things my fair share of times. I’ve also attended and sat in on presentations, webinars, and symposiums that covered this topic. Here, I’ve compiled some tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way. I hope they are as useful to you as they have been to me! Go through the job posting before hopping on the call so you’ll be prepared for questions. Always have an answer to the age old question: WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THIS POSITION? Outside noises will be inevitable, but try to find a spot where noises will be minimal. Mind your background (or choose an appropriate Zoom background). Wear something that makes you feel “on”. For me,…
Being Positive
Posted April 24, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It is the last two weeks of the semester, and I must admit I’m getting excited for it to be over. One thing I’ve learned for sure this semester is that student teaching is a lot of work. If I am struggling doing two lessons in one week, I’ll certainly be up for a challenge when I have 20+ classes in one week for grades K-5. Because I’m graduating in the fall, I have had to figure out how to record my lessons and teach virtually. But I have had tremendous help from my supervising librarian and practicum supervisor in decoding virtual teaching! Trying to think on the positive side of these difficult times, my LIS 460 technology course has taught me a lot about digital tools to use for teaching, which comes in handy when I need to record videos. Technology is so important in times when schools are closed. When recording videos of an activity such as how to use a database, I will be using a screencast program such as Screen-Cast-O-Matic or…
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…
Mentee-ing 101
Posted April 13, 2020 by Adaliz Cruz
Today I’m going to hype up my mentors. I can honestly say that without them, I wouldn’t have even considered librarianship, let alone finish my degree (in a few weeks). I have many mentors from different parts and times of my life; some are “official” mentors, some are people I look up to, and some are even self-appointed. I even started a newsletter because there were too many to keep up with! At one of my conferences, I found myself surrounded by a crowd of people introducing themselves to each other as “I’m her mentor”, “I’m also her mentor”, “Wait, I’m a mentor too”. I’m not going to lie, it was stressful! I can’t emphasize enough what the value of having a mentor is. This is a person that you look up to and who has your back and your best interest. They help guide you in your professional career and provide moral support when things don’t go the way you planned. They talk you up to their peers and give you a reassuring push…