Summer
Summer Reading
Posted June 12, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Summer Reading Summer is here! My summer class (LIS 404: Principles of Management) doesn’t start up until next week, but the course materials are online, so I’ve been trying to get head start by looking at the readings and seeing what my assignments are. I remember how busy last summer was as summer classes at SLIS are shorter than actual semester-long classes (my summer class this time is only seven weeks long). Even though I’m looking ahead to my summer class, I’ve been enjoying my last few days of summer break by reading and relaxing. I’ve been reflecting on what I used to do during summer break when I was a child. One of my favorite activities was the summer reading program at our public library. I was a voracious reader as a child (I still am–not an uncommon trait for someone in the SLIS program), and I not only did the summer reading program at the library, but also at all of our local bookstores. One of the reasons why I’ve been thinking about…
Finding and Landing a Summer Internship
Posted June 7, 2019 by Maria Reilova
I had been worried about finding another job or internship over the summer months since I knew that I was going to be staying in Boston the whole time and did not want to just laze about until my South Korea trip. To be honest I was applying to almost every viable job that was popping up on Jobline. I was lucky enough to be asked to interview for 3 positions at 3 very different libraries. It was a hectic fews weeks in terms of every job I applied for emailing me at the same time, while I was also dealing with my general classes and internship deadlines, in addition to also preparing for a trip home to run the Star Wars 5k at Disney World! It was a lot to handle, but I somehow made it through with only slight strain on my sleep schedule (it is always those 5am flights that are the cheapest unfortunately). Which leads to my big news, everyone…I scored my first job in a real library! This is huge…
Reading and Volunteering
Posted May 20, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It has been about two weeks since classes ended for the semester, and I celebrated with friends last Thursday in a bit of an unusual way: by giving out food to the homeless. Back Bay Mobile Soup Kitchen is a group organized through St. Clement’s Church, located on Boylston Street in the Back Bay area of Boston. A couple of SLIS friends and I met at six a.m. in front of the church, and we prepared to go out into the streets. Carrying bags of bananas, granola bars, sandwiches, socks, and water bottles, the group of us enjoyed conversations with the people we encountered while handing out whatever they needed from the items we had on hand. I hope to volunteer with Back Bay Mobile Soup Kitchen on a weekly basis this summer. Back Bay Mobile Soup Kitchen is just one way to get involved in volunteering when I am not swamped with studying. After my friends and I volunteered in Back Bay, we went out to dinner in the Prudential Center. The Prudential Center…
Fourth Class: Complete!
Posted May 15, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Last week was my final week of class! My fourth semester, and fourth class of grad school is over! I’m done with LIS 451: Academic Libraries! I originally thought it was a bit strange having our big final group project due, and then having one final week of class with lectures, readings, and participation after that, but as our final week was about academic library careers and job interviews, as well as future trends in academic libraries, I think it was a nice way to wrap up the class. In all of my other classes, the final week has been this big stressful build up, and then I turn in my final project, and then that’s it, we’re done. While sometimes that’s very cathartic, I really appreciated the opportunity to reflect and think ahead in the final week of this class. I ended up completing my final week of class on the road because I’m currently on a short summer break for my job! Yay for intersessions! As I work in an academic library, I’m…
End of Semester Reflections
Posted May 6, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I can’t believe my first semester is over! It sounds cliché but I really did learn a lot. When I first read my course syllabi, I was very intimidated by everything we were going to cover. I had no idea what most of the topics even were, so it’s really gratifying to be able to identify and understand them now. While I might not have mastery over all the concepts, I do feel like I have a strong foundation for my remaining classes. Even better, my brain has started to think like a librarian! I’ve been paying a lot more attention to how the library catalog is set up, examining the call numbers, and thinking about descriptions and relationships between authors and their works. There is a whole complex structure of organization and classification that I never paid attention to before. It’s exciting to be able to “read” and understand some of that code. And speaking of coding, I can’t believe I not only survived but thrived in my tech course. I would not have…
Almost There
Posted April 30, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I can’t believe the last week of the semester is here already! Where did the time go? My only remaining assignment is my group project because I managed to finish my tech project early! I submitted it on Friday, and then I jumped up and down and did a happy dance with my dog ?. I am so glad I got it off my plate because I got to actually relax a bit over the weekend. I had some readings and a small extra credit assignment to do, but nothing majorly time consuming. My part of the group project is done and I’m just waiting for us to put everything together. It’s due on Friday and probably won’t be submitted before then because of all the coordination that needs to happen. But I don’t care when it’s submitted, as long as it’s on time. I also need to double check that I’ve fulfilled all my participation requirements for both classes. I’m pretty sure I have, but it never hurts to double check. So what’s next? …
The End of Summer
Posted August 29, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
So, I thought that my fall class started next week- I was wrong. Guess who gets two more weeks of summer?! That’s right, I do! The students in my class got an email from our professor a few days ago giving us details about the class (LIS 488: Technology for Information Professionals), and it said that our start date is September 11, which means that I get more time before school starts! Now that I have the syllabus and some more details about the class, I can see that this is going to be different than other online classes that I’ve had. There are going to be a few “live sessions” where everyone is online and interacting with each other at the same time, which I’m really looking forward to! While I’ve gotten to interact with my classmates during online classes before, it’s been mostly through forums, and we reply to each other at our leisure. With the live sessions (I assume) we will actually be able to see one another and participate like an…
The Last Week of Summer
Posted August 27, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
And just like that, our last golden week of summer is over. My, how golden it was. The kids and I spent our last full week before school starts enjoying some gorgeous weather and having all kinds of fun and leisure time. I could not have asked for a better summer send-off. We did all the things: nature center, aquarium, IMAX, libraries, parks, and playdates. I have LOVED being able to spend all this quality time with my two kids, unhurried, unburdened, and unscheduled. With my first child about to embark on his public school journey and the second starting preschool, it feels like we’re about to lose something that we can never get back. For all my reluctance to leave behind these lazy summer days, I am actually quite excited for the fall and the new challenges and opportunities it will bring. Remember that exciting news I hinted about in my last post? Well…the exciting news has officially been rescinded. I had been accepted for a reference and instruction internship at a nearby university,…
From Summer to Fall
Posted August 15, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
It. Is. Over. My summer class is done. The class (LIS 415: Information Organization) was interesting, invigorating, and utterly exhausting. I know I’ve said this before, but one of the reasons I really enjoyed the class was because even though it was an online class on an accelerated schedule, we had so many opportunities for discussion. Additionally, the new concepts I learned will be useful to me throughout my career. I learned so much about why and how we organize information. The class challenged me to think in new ways, and I am walking away with a valuable set of new skills which I will use in future classes and in my profession. However, I did struggle with the accelerated timeframe of the class. What really helped me was setting aside designated hours of each day to work on schoolwork. Admittedly, that didn’t always help, because I underestimated the amount of work in the beginning (it’s double the work of the normal semester because it’s done in half the time), so there were a lot…
Summer Class Wrap
Posted August 13, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
Welp, my summer class (Records Management) is a wrap. What a whirlwind! What a race! What an adventure! In typical life fashion, just about everything went wrong with my carefully laid plans the last week of class. Kids got sick (so no summer school ☹). Hubby extra busy at work. Cue mad scrambling. I never intend for the end-of-semester time to be a hot mess, and I always try to be well prepared. But somehow it just seems to happen anyway. Did you know that I (or my kids) have gotten sick the last week of class EVERY semester I’ve been at Simmons? It’s true. I’m keeping track. Anyway, enough complaining. I have exactly one month now to pick up the pieces and get my affairs in order before fall semester starts. I have a lot going on this fall and some very exciting news to share…………which I’m saving for my next blog post! Haha! I wanted to use this post to talk about my summer class and the online format in general. So: Records…