Summer
It’s LIT!
Posted August 6, 2019 by Katie Carlson
The truth is, sometimes I think of myself as a ‘bad librarian’ for how few books I’ve read in the past year! It may even be less that I’m not living up to the librarian stereotypes, and more because I feel like I’m missing a piece of myself! In middle and high school (especially over the summer), I would read two or three books a week. College kind of killed my reading bug. I’d find it almost impossible to read for pleasure after 200-some pages of theory, so Netflix it was! I had high hopes that the ease of reading would fly back to me post-graduation, but that was not the case! One book. I read one book! ALL SUMMER! After Karin Slaughter’s thrilling but terrifying Pretty Girls (highly recommend), I was overcome with moving to Boston, making my first apartment home, and finding a tribe. Kicking off grad school meant more prescribed reading, three jobs, and more exhaustion. But even though summer is almost over, I decided I’d had enough. I work at a…
End of Summer Term, Plus Beach Reads!
Posted July 30, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s the last week of summer term! Yay! I am almost done with all my work. I submitted my final project for my Info Sources class, but I am still finishing my final paper for my Management class. It’s a grant proposal and I’m struggling with it. Grant writing is very different from academic writing. It needs to be very concise and to the point. I love to write and play around with words and sentence structure and having to pare down my language has been tough. I’m focusing on brevity but I’m also worried that I’m not explaining myself enough. I’m sure there’s a sweet spot between too little explanation and too much explanation, but I haven’t found it yet and I’m frustrated. It feels very sparse and cold somehow. Thankfully I have a solid base written out and I just need to make sure that I’m being addressing all the necessary points. But grant writing is something that I am probably going to be encountering in my library career, so it’s good to…
Summer Life
Posted July 29, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It’s hard to believe that July is almost over! I’ve kept busy this summer with studying, even though I am not taking any summer classes. I took the reading MTEL Communication & Literacy Skills subtest in June, and I have the writing exam next week. The MTEL Communication & Literacy Skills is an exam SLT students need to pass before they can do their last two semesters of practicum experiences (student teaching). Luckily, I saved my eighth grade grammar textbook and brought it out to Boston! Princeton Review has been very helpful in my studying. I also listen to a podcast called Grammar Girl to review the basic grammar rules. When I am not studying, I’ve been applying to part time jobs in the fall. I’ve applied to a few at Boston Public Library, one at Cambridge Public Library, and a couple of library assistant positions in local school districts. With six library job applications submitted, it is waiting time. Waiting to hear back is definitely the hard part, but at least I can catch…
Summer is Flying By!
Posted July 25, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Things have been crazy! Summer is just flying by! There are only seven weeks in my summer class (LIS 404: Principles of Management), and we are in Week 6, and there is so much left to do. During these last two weeks, we’re learning about Change Management, Grant Writing, Fiscal Responsibility, Budgeting, and Evaluation and Coordination of Library Functions! So many topics, so little time! There are still several assignments left to complete, readings to be done, and forums to participate in and it is crunch time. I’ve really enjoyed this class, especially because this class has more of a classroom feel to it. Even though this is an online course, this class utilizes “wikis” on Moodle where we have discussions that are more personal (like the one about the Jung Typology/Myers Briggs personality test that I mentioned in my last post), so we get to know our classmates. This past week (Week 5), one of our topics was Motivation and Drive, and we had a discussion on what our motivations were for pursuing our…
Adventures in Reference
Posted July 16, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s week 5 and I still haven’t gotten the hang of how fast summer courses go by. Including this week, there are only three weeks left in the semester. *takes a few deep, calming breaths.* How did that happen? Basically, because all I’ve been focusing on is my schoolwork and how to get everything done on time without cramming. I’ve been keeping a very regular study schedule so that I don’t get behind. When I get home from work, I eat, then do school work, and on the weekends, I spend a lot of time finishing up projects. There really is no time to procrastinate or take a break, and the time has gone by in a blur. But, I am loving both of my classes and have learned a ton already. I’m particularly enjoying LIS 407, Information Sources and Services. It’s all about reference services–basically, teaching us how to search more efficiently and effectively. We’ve learned many searching strategies, including how to combine those techniques to broaden or narrow our results, and how to…
Baby’s First ALA
Posted July 15, 2019 by Katie Carlson
A few weeks ago I took part in a librarian rite of passage, and made my way down to Washington D.C. for the ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition. As a grad student on a tight budget (especially a full time grad student living in Boston), attending conferences can be expensive. That is why I was extra thankful that LISSA offers Professional Development Reimbursement at Simmons! More information on PDR funds can be found here, but essentially LISSA will reimburse students for up to $250 incurred by engaging in LIS-related professional development activities. My $250 went directly towards my ALA experience, including covering a good chunk of the gas I purchased making the 879 mile journey from Boston to Washington, D.C. and back. This ALA trip truly was brought to you by a giant cooler filled with sandwiches, a 15 hour long playlist, PDR funds, and lots of iced coffee! As you probably know by now, one of my jobs is working as a SLIS Admission Student Ambassador. This meant I also manned the Simmons booth…
The Dog Days of Summer
Posted July 11, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
It’s Week 4 of LIS 404! Oh, my goodness, this class has been keeping me on my toes! As I’ve said before, this class is a lot shorter than a regular semester class, but we’re doing the same amount of work, which is a little bit intense! There’s a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time, so each week there’s an abundance of readings to be completed, notes to go over, and lectures to watch. I know that theoretically it is same amount of work as a regular semester class just in an accelerated timeframe, but between this class and my summer class last year, I feel that there is a lot more reading in summer classes than there is during the semester. However, this could just be because of the timing- maybe I just don’t notice the amount of reading as much because it is more spaced out during the regular semester classes? These past two weeks have been more ‘participation’ weeks rather than ‘assignment’ weeks, with us participating more…
To All the Bookstores I Ever Loved
Posted July 8, 2019 by Maria Reilova
Now that summer has officially started, I am finding myself with something I almost never have, extra free time! I am interning full-time this summer so I am still busy throughout the day but it is so nice to be able to leave my work at the office and come home and not have to worry about catching up on my assignments or readings for class. So obviously, my conclusion for how to occupy all this new free time is that I can finally start catching up on all my leisure reading. This also means I have to make a trip to my favorite bookstore because you can never have too many books. I live pretty close to Brookline, and Coolidge Corner has always been one of my favorite areas to take a stroll and hang out when the weather is nice. The Trader Joe’s is there, a great tea shop, a yoga studio (I keep saying I will take a class at one of these weekends), and best of all Brookline Booksmith, (a used…
The Summer Semester Has Begun!
Posted June 27, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
The summer semester has begun! This summer I am taking one class, LIS 404: Principles of Management. Summer classes at SLIS are shorter in length than normal semester classes, but have the same amount of work. My class this summer is only seven weeks long. You may have noticed in Amie’s post that she is also taking LIS 404, and we are both in the same online class section, so that’s exciting! The really good thing about this class is that all of the course content is available, so we truly can move at our own pace. There are due dates of course, but if I want to see what assignments are coming up, or work ahead, I have the option to do so. For my summer course last year, there was a lot of “locked” course content, everyone had to move at the same pace. I understand the logic behind that, but with the shortened time frame and so many things being due each week, I really appreciate being able to know what is…
Back at It
Posted June 25, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
Summer break #1 is over. It was nice to have a few weeks off, even though I was lazy and didn’t do a lot of the things I meant to do. But I got to relax, which is great because I don’t think I’m going to relax again until the end of summer term. I’m taking two classes, LIS 407: Information Sources and Services, and LIS 404: Principles of Management. Each week of a summer course is equivalent to two weeks of a fall or spring course, so there is a lot of work. I was expecting this, but I was still shocked when I saw the syllabus for each class. There is a ton of reading. A TON. It’s pretty intimidating. I am going to have to be super organized to fit in all the reading and the assignments each week. I know I can do it, but I’m probably going to be miserable the whole time. Having said this, I managed to make it…