Students
Welcome!
Posted September 19, 2015 by Amy Wilson
I’m Amy, a first semester student at Simmons School of Library and Information Science. I live in Somerville and work full time at a law firm, in addition to attending evening classes. In the past year and a half, my life has changed in many ways. It began last winter, when I very hastily applied to Simmons School of Library and Information Science. This is not to say that my decision was hasty, only that the process went very quickly. I had been sitting on the decision for a long time, and realized in the middle of January that if I applied by February 1, I would qualify for a scholarship. I had told people all along that I was thinking about it, but honestly, I wasn’t. I was enjoying my life as a non-student and didn’t feel any rush; however I also realized that if I didn’t make up my mind, another year could slip away. I knew that my deposit wouldn’t be due until May, and there was no harm in applying while I…
Website Launch and Other Odds and Ends
Posted April 18, 2015 by Samantha Quiñon
Last week at my cataloging internship at the American Archive for Public Broadcasting (AAPB) at WGBH Boston, our website launched and went live. This has been a long time coming and many, many people worked very hard to make this happen, so I wanted to take a minute and share it with you. Understandably, we had a party at lunch. I basically only ate cake and powered through the afternoon on a sugar high from the excellent buttercream frosting. Here’s a link to the AAPB, so you can see the results and learn more about the project I’m working on: http://americanarchive.org/. This week was busy, but I managed to break my routine a few times. First on Tuesday, I went to happy hour at a near by bar called the Squealing Pig. The event was sponsored by the SLIS Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists (SCoSSA), and there was all sorts of good food and good company. It was a nice mid-week break. Later in the week, I had an interview for an…
The Myth of Spring Break
Posted March 21, 2015 by Samantha Quiñon
Only after experiencing this week, the first week back at SLIS after Spring Break, can I now fully express why Spring Break is a myth. As an adult in graduate school, I was not expecting beaches and cocktails with umbrellas in them, but I was looking forward to some sort of respite. Here’s why that didn’t happen: Boston broke the record for most snow in a winter that week. And then the weather was great long enough for me to wear non-construction worker boots for all of a day for the first time in months before I had to ditch the cute shoes. All of my friends were either out of town or took a five-day short course on corporate library management, so I couldn’t really socialize with anyone. I still had to go to work and my internship. I had a paper due over the break for one class and another group assignment due two days after. Everyone acted like I should have been very rested and refreshed this week, when the only difference…
First Fridays
Posted March 15, 2015 by Samantha Quiñon
My friends and I have a sort of tradition, though I don’t know if that’s really the proper word. Maybe it’s habit or ritual or pattern. Anyway, I’m talking about how we always congregate monthly at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) for its “First Fridays” event, which happens on the evening of –you guessed it– the first Friday of every month. We do this for many reasons. First of all, the MFA is beautiful, and it’s a completely different experience seeing it lit up at night. It’s also only about two blocks from the main campus, so the location is convenient. Additionally, we all get in for free with our Simmons student IDs. (This is also true at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is literally right next door.) Just to reiterate: We have an amazing museum nearby open late with plenty to explore and free admission. If those aren’t enough reasons to go, the event also sells drinks for a reasonable price (rare in Boston) and has a tasty assortment of light snacks….
An Evening with SCoSAA
Posted November 19, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
With the final weeks of the fall semester just around the corner, life has been a bit hectic around here. In between the reading, papers, and projects that I need to do for all three of my classes, finding time to relax has become somewhat of an afterthought, at least for me. However, every now and then, an event on campus catches my eye, something that despite how busy I am, I want to try and find time to attend. Well, last week, I found out from a classmate that SCoSSA (the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists) was going to be hosting a panel discussion on the topic of community and social justice archives. With guest speakers from Northeastern, Brandeis, and Simmons, the event, which was held last night, would focus on discussing the challenges and considerations connected to community and social records and the responsibilities and decisions of the archives and archivists to handle them. Considering that 1). I only live about ten minutes away from campus, 2). this was a…
Mid-Semester Status Update
Posted November 2, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
So — I’m halfway through my first semester at SLIS. For anyone out there looking for a status update, especially anyone considering becoming an older student with kids at home and work on the side, here’s my assessment of things so far. Better than Expected The people. I thought I would be the old lady in all my classes, and not make any friends. I was partially right — I am the old lady — but the rest of the students are by and large kind, interesting, smart, thoughtful people, and it’s been a treat getting to know them. The professors. Outstanding. I feel so lucky that I got to take a course with Candy Schwartz before her retirement (note to future students: you still have two years!). And I love how different professors have lectured in 401, exposing us to their styles and personalities. The resources. From the tech lab to career services to the writing center, Simmons offers an incredibly wide range of support to students — please take advantage of it! Harder…
Massachusetts Historical Society Visit
Posted November 1, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
On Thursday night, my Introduction to Archival Methods and Services (LIS 438) class visited the Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded in 1791, the society is an independent research library open to the public that specializes in early American, Massachusetts, and New England historical documents. Before our visit even began, most of our class walked together from Simmons to the historical society, which is a little less than a mile away. It was (finally) one of those classic New England brisk fall evenings outside, and we walked over bright, damp leaves as everyone chatted and observed the omnipresent geese. When we arrived, Director of Collection Services Brenda Lawson gave a short talk to welcome and orient us. She told our class that she too went on a tour of the historical society with her archives class when she was getting her MSLIS at Simmons over 25 years ago. Then, carrying out a long-running tradition, we broke into three groups and took a two-hour tour. We saw all the essential parts of the repository, like the processing room,…
Losing It
Posted October 26, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
Well, I lost it. I thought I was doing a pretty great job at keeping it all together. School, kids, work, check. House, parents, in-laws, friends with issues, got it. Crazy scheduling? Husband travelling? Bring it on. Until I lost my notebook. My 415 notebook. My 415 notebook for the class taught by Candy Schwartz, the legendary SLIS professor. Not good. I think I lost the notebook sometime last Friday, when I met three classmates to work on a group project. My kids didn’t have school that day, so I brought them with me — and they were really well behaved, but still, I was a little distracted, trying to focus on the group work but also make sure my children didn’t wreak havoc in the Harvard Coop or Cambridge Public Library, the two places the group met. It seemed to go so well. But today, when I sat down to finish one of Candy’s never-ending-quite-challenging-yet-interesting assignments, I couldn’t find my notebook. I called the library and the Coop, and it wasn’t in lost and…
Small victories this week
Posted October 25, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
Making an Important Decision I’m staying in the archives concentration after a little internal debate about whether or not to study something more general. I can’t do everything I may love, so I’ll do one thing I’m certain I love. I’m really passionate about people accessing and using archives, so I’ll find a way to do something with that. Having this decided brings me a little peace of mind, especially for selecting my Spring courses during registration next week. Getting a Flu Shot I got a free flu shot on a break between classes in the Main College Building near the Fens Café. I love how Simmons uses its students in nursing school to administer the vaccines. They get to practice their new skills, and everyone else gets to not be in agony this winter. It took literally three minutes from filling out a piece of paper to getting the vaccination in my left arm, which is still a little sore when I try to lift my backpack which weighs a ton. It’s like Hermione’s…
Myths about SLIS and Library School
Posted October 11, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
Myth: I’m going to have a tough time getting a job when I graduate. Truth: You aren’t going to graduate from SLIS and become director of the New York Public Library, but you are going to graduate and find employment. If you are willing to re-locate outside of Boston, you definitely won’t have problems finding a job. If you continue to live in Boston or have a specialty (like art or law librarianship), you will still get a job, but you might either have to wait for a few months or work in something that isn’t your preferred specialty, until you can find exactly what you want. When people outside of the field joke that no one needs librarians anymore with Google and the Internet, they fail to account for the resurgence in library hiring since the recession and for non-traditional librarian jobs. As I’ve mentioned in my prior posts, SLIS’s Simmons Jobline is constantly being updated with new positions in all of the information sciences at every level (student, pre-professional, and professional). Also, many…