SLIS
It’s That Time Again
Posted April 9, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
Fall registration is this week. I always love registration time but this year I’m a little stressed out because the Fall semester is my last one at Simmons! I only have three classes remaining–one summer class and two fall classes–but I’m interested in a lot of classes. I’m trying to narrow it down and I am not succeeding. For the summer semester, I’m taking LIS 447, Collections Maintenance. It was supposed to be an intensive two week in-person class, but it, along with all the other summer courses, was moved online due to coronavirus. It’s going to be interesting to do it online because it’s traditionally a hands-on class where you work directly with the books. However, the professor emailed all of us who registered and said that she’s made some changes and is confident it will work online. I was considering taking LIS 484, Theories of Information Science, to get the Information Science and Technology concentration, but I’ve decided not to do that. I think I’ve taken a great mix of technology centered classes…
How-To Cope During COVID-19: Katie Style
Posted April 8, 2020 by Katie Carlson
Learn how to propagate plants from your favorite Student Snippets blogger: me! Host virtual coffee hours//dance parties with your friends. Gather mailing addresses for everyone you know. Doodle. Send said doodles to your friends (pineap-PALS) via mail with the Gwen Ifill stamps you’ve purchased from USPS. Suddenly become someone who enthusiastically participates in chain Facebook//Instagram challenges. Keep your nails looking IMMACULATE even though only your roommate will see them. Don’t forget to show your plants//pets//kids on Zoom meetings. We could all use the break! Make LOTS of buttermilk pancakes. Use chocolate chips. (This is essential.) Hate-watch Love Is Blind. Love-watch Full House. Host your own version of chopped with pantry items! Binge watch all of Tiger King. Videochat your parents about Tiger King theories. Play endless games of Yahtzee! (Mail your girlfriend some dice so she can play along!) Jazzercise. Do a chemical foot peel. Feel nothing but regret (and very soft skin). Break out the watercolors you bought for a costume design class in college. Force your roommate to craft with you! Take advantage…
Still in Boston
Posted April 6, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It’s been over two weeks now since everything changed, starting with St. Patrick’s Day being cancelled. A lot of my friends went back home to their families during this hard time, but I am still in Boston. My parents keep asking when I will go visit them, but considering I am from Upstate NY, where there are a lot of cases, it is a bit scary to travel there. The hardest part is knowing that there are COVID-19 cases in my hometown in the Albany area. This is real, and so close to home now. I am not completely bored in Boston, as we are in the home stretch of the semester. When I get all of my work done for student teaching, I hope I can find a way to see my family. Today, I had a video call with my online technology class. It was my first time connecting with these classmates over Zoom – so nice to see their faces! The video call was a tutorial on how to prepare for doing…
Uncertain Times
Posted April 3, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
It’s now April and things are still….not great. When I wrote my last post in mid-March, while many people were working from home, I was still going in to work. However, by the end of that week, I was working from home, and since that post, all non-essential businesses have closed their physical spaces until May 4. Simmons had made the decision to transition to online learning when I wrote my last post, and that has been going on since March 23. That decision didn’t actually affect me too much as I was already in an online class. New changes are happening every day and I’ve basically not left my home since my last day “at work.” COVID-19 has really thrown this semester, and future planning, for a bit of a loop. I’m taking LIS 453: Collection Development this semester, and as I mentioned, it was already an online class, so I didn’t really have too much of a transition, but the virus has definitely messed with my sense of structure, time management, and overall…
Admitted Student Session
Posted March 31, 2020 by William Crouch
On Saturday, we had our first admitted student information session. With everything being remote now, the session had to be moved online through Zoom. It was actually a really interesting way of having the session work. Everybody, about 120 admitted students, started in an initial Zoom session that went over the basics of SLIS such as campus, professors, rankings, that was presented by our admissions team. Some faculty members from all the concentrations then introduced themselves to give students a sense of who their future faculty will be. After some questions that came from a chat function, everybody moved into various different Zoom breakout sessions based on their specific interests or concentrations. I was placed in the Archives and History session with Professor Kathy Wisser of SLIS, Professor Sarah Leonard of the History department, and alum Sarah Nafis, to answer questions that these students had about the program. One question that was asked was about the feasibility of working fulltime and taking classes full time. I was able to address that by detailing how Simmons…
Time Flies. And Stands Still.
Posted March 30, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
It’s been another weird week, but I think I’m getting used to this new normal. Some days have seemed endless, but others have flown by. I’ve established a pretty good new routine and set a schedule for my job and my schoolwork. I don’t usually schedule out my days, but it’s been the most effective way for me to remember everything that I need to do. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get caught up in all the negatives and uncertainty and get nothing done as a result. What I didn’t realize in the frenzy of the past three weeks is that there’s less than a month left in the semester! I have two big projects to finish before then. The first project that I have to finish is my group project for metadata. It’s due next week, and we have already gotten a good start on it. That’s the last big thing for that class, other than a few small assignments which I consider “easier” only because I get to do them myself and don’t…
Libraries, Twitter, and Me!
Posted March 25, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
It’s week two of life during coronavirus, and I’m still struggling to focus on my schoolwork. I’ve been using my phone calendar to set reminders for things I need to do, because I keep getting distracted. I’m stuck in an endless cycle of hand washing, freaking out about the news, going to work, doing schoolwork, and stress eating ice cream. That being said, I haven’t needed any reminders for one particular project for my collections development class: our Twitter assignment. The initial assignment called for us to tweet pictures of interesting things at the library, like themed displays, or links to events at the library. Sadly, I had only been tweeting for three days before all the libraries started cancelling events and eventually closed entirely. But there has still been a lot to tweet about! Because so many people are stuck at home and need things to do, they are turning to their libraries for help. Libraries in turn are doing everything they can to help, and this is where Twitter comes in. Libraries can…
Conference-ing 101
Posted March 24, 2020 by Adaliz Cruz
Hi all, I hope you are well, safe, and healthy. Due to the present circumstances, I am currently working and studying from home as most of you are as well. This means that two of my upcoming professional development (aka conferences) events are cancelled. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty bummed. I love going to conferences. Why? Well, the high of attending of course. You must be thinking, what in the world is a conference high? A conference high is what I call the tired, but exhilarated and pumped feeling during and after attending a conference. While I have not polled every single conference attendee, most people I talk to say that they have a sense of renewing one’s love of the field after attending a conference. While at a conference you get to meet/catch up with the colleagues you met thanks to my last post who live far away from you. If you are part of an affinity group, especially from marginalized communities, conferences provide the perfect setting for an impromptu support meeting…
Everything Changed
Posted March 20, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
I almost cried on Monday the 9th when I found out that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was cancelled. My week did not get better from there. Of course, I watch the news and saw that a Corona virus was proving to be deadly in cruise ships, China, and Italy. I had student teaching last week. Tuesday was a normal day in the library, checking out books and doing read alouds with the K-2 grades. Wednesday was also pretty normal. There were no updates from the school and I went about my day as usual. Thursday came along and everything changed. I wore latex gloves when handling books, which definitely felt weird. I spent my day disinfecting books, laptops, tables, and everything in the library. Kids could not sit on the cushions for the reading nook. For a few minutes in the morning, the librarian was afraid the principal would tell her it was too dangerous to check out books. At the end of the school day on Thursday, one of the other teachers told…
The World Has Changed
Posted March 18, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
I’m writing this blog post on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!) and the world has certainly changed since my last post. Things could completely change between me writing this and this getting posted–who knows?! COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, and it is still going strong. Schools have closed, restaurants and bars have closed to the public and are doing take out and delivery only, and many universities, including Simmons , have transitioned to online learning for the rest of the semester. Many people are now working remotely, and social distancing is now the new norm. If you are social distancing, under quarantine, working remotely, transitioning to online classes, or just simply need to take a break and relax for a few minutes, here are some of the things that I’ve been reading and watching lately as an escape. Some are new favorites, some are old standbys, but they bring a smile to my face, and I hope maybe one of them will help you! READ: See what’s available in an eBook…