ALA Conference: Chicago Summer 2013
Posted July 25, 2013 by Emily Boyd
My fantastic summer of adventures has come to a close. I am home in Vermont settling back into a routine of working full-time for the National Park Service and part-time as a waitress at the local (only) restaurant in town. I have been home for two weeks already and my brain is still buzzing from my experiences in Chicago attending the American Library Association’s Annual Conference. So many librarians in one place! I had a fabulous time traveling with new friends from GSLIS and catching up with old friends from undergrad during spare moments away from the conference. Highlights from my trip include: Opening remarks from Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt Attending a panel of graphic novel authors and artists who discussed the growing popularity of the graphic novel format Trying my first ever Chicago style hot dog Engaging in a heated discussion about the role of prison libraries at the Intellectual Freedom Roundtable Listening to nominees for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction praise the role of libraries as important…
The Royal Job Watch
Posted July 22, 2013 by Sarah Barton
A few weeks ago, my friend sent me this link and suggested that I apply. Royal Librarian – the job title gives me goose bumps. Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, meet Sarah Barton, librarian of Cambridge. This is definitely my best shot at becoming royalty, yet I would have absolutely no shot. By the Queen’s standards, I am hardly an “exceptional scholar and bibliophile,” and my only knowledge of British history is that Kate and William were married on April 29, 2011. Plus, my strong affinity for Kate would probably not look great on my résumé. “Other interests: Kate Middleton.” Awkward… Ok, so this job might be a bit out of my league. If nothing else, however, it goes to show that some library jobs are just plain awesome. A library degree plus a strong knowledge of and interest in a specific topic or discipline seems like a one-way ticket to a killer career. Unfortunately, there can only be one Royal Librarian, and I assume that most other “just plain awesome” library jobs are equally…
I locked myself out of my bathroom…and other tall tales.
Posted July 20, 2013 by Maggie Davidov
So when I say “tall” I mean true. I am sitting in my apartment, cautiously drinking water owing to the fact that I may not be able to relieve myself as I have somehow locked the bathroom from the outside. This all comes at the end of my seven day recovery period. Recovery from what you might ask? Oh, just the removal of the superfluous organ we call the gallbladder. But didn’t you have a ticket to Chicago for the ALA conference? Did you get to go? Why yes! And no I did not get to go to Chicago. The stars and my gastro intestinal system have chosen to align to combust this summer barring me from travel. And so, this is the time I chose to reflect on my life. In this summer of heat and nothing but time to muse in my pain reliever haze I reflect on my time at GSLIS. As I look back over my year of posting on this blog I realize I came into this program with a…
Live Twitter Chats #GSLISchat
Posted July 19, 2013 by Katie Olivo
Hi readers! The Admission Office is excited to announce upcoming live Twitter chat dates. These Twitter chats will basically be live Q&A sessions using the hashtag #GSLISchat. If you’re a prospective student, or even an incoming student, and you’ve got questions about the program or application process, etc., please get on Twitter and ask us your questions! We are holding three live chats in August: 8/1 at 10:00am, 8/12 at 4:30pm, and 8/27 at 12:30pm. For more information see our event schedule: http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/admission/events/. You can simply tweet your questions and include the hashtag #GSLISchat, or you could also join the discussion on Twubs: http://twubs.com/GSLISchat. I’ll post some of the questions on here after the event, just in case you missed it! If you have any questions about these chats, please email me at [email protected]. I hope you’ll join us on Twitter! Thanks for reading! Katie
A Blizzard, Zombies and a Book Sale: Kingston Part 2
Posted July 18, 2013 by Julie Steenson
I attend a fact-to-face class each Saturday and more often than not, I find myself sharing the latest news from fictitious Kingston. (In case you missed it, read here about this unique online learning opportunity that is part of my Management class. Alternate Reality and Library School) So what have we been up to in Kingston? First there was the Blizzard in June! Yes, the temporal instability leads to some crazy weather, and as much as a blizzard sounds good right now in all this heat, such unexpected disasters require good disaster planning by the town’s LIS organizations to weather the storm. All of our libraries prepared amazing disaster plans for the blizzard, but then also for other unforeseen events like hurricanes, fires, floods, and even a prison riot. And then there was Fourth of July! Of course, our organizations all needed floats in the parade. My organization, The Kingston Correctional Facility Library prepared a float of librarians wearing prison garb, promoting the freedom to read. The Franklin Public Library, another organization in town, created…
Preserving Morris Dancing
Posted July 16, 2013 by lazylibrarian
For the last two months I have been enmeshed in a collection about Morris Dancing. Until two months ago, I did not know such a thing existed. So imagine my great surprise Friday night when I ran into multiple Morris Dancer groups performing on the Common in conjunction with Shakespeare on the Common! I wasn’t even supposed to be there at that time but had absentmindedly gotten off at the wrong T stop and ran into the very people my collection documented! As I stood watching, a woman came up to me and said, “Has anyone told you what this is yet?” She seemed used to having to explain it to passersby. “It’s Morris Dancing!” I said excitedly and she looked at me as if I were the one jumping in the common with bells tied to my shins. Yes! I do know what it is! This led me to a wonderful opportunity to not only talk with her about Morris Dancing and how she came to be involved with it but also about how…
Learning Outside the Classroom
Posted July 13, 2013 by Carolyn Lucas
This summer has been hot, rainy, and is going by fast. And did I mention busy? Yeah, it’s been busy. This summer, as I’ve mentioned in a few previous blog posts, I’m doing a records management internship for Biogen Idec, a biopharmaceutical company located in Kendall Square in Cambridge. And I can already say, just because I’m not taking official classes this summer does not mean the learning has stopped… I find myself every now and again marveling at how I ended up here. When I initially applied to library school, I never thought I would have the opportunity to work in a place like Biogen. It’s one of the aspects that we don’t cover too much on the archives track -archives includes records management, and records management isn’t just for city planning or traditional libraries. Corporations (especially since the Enron debacle) have been tightening the leash on records management. And in this case, more regulations just so happens to equal more jobs. Two of my lovely new co-workers are actually Simmons alumni, which not…
The Fairbanks House
Posted July 10, 2013 by Katie Olivo
This summer, in addition to working a full-time job, I’m working as an intern at the Fairbanks House on Fridays and Saturdays. I’m not taking this internship for credit – I decided not to take any classes this summer as I meant to devote more time to beginning my thesis, but I wanted to make sure my archival skills stayed fresh and if I could land an internship, it would look great on my resume. Well, not only will this experience look great on my resume, but it is quickly turning into something I look forward to each week. I worried that working longer hours Monday through Thursday and then going to an internship on Friday and Saturday would leave me worn out and wishing for more free summer days. This is definitely not the case. Going to the Fairbanks House does not feel like work – I’m having fun, and I’m finding that perhaps working at a historic house is more along the lines of what I want to do with my career. Why?…
Library Lesson Learned IV
Posted July 8, 2013 by Sarah Barton
As much as I am looking forward to having the perfect library job, I am not quite so naïve to think that such a thing will fall into my lap, especially on my first attempt. In fact, I would argue that no job is perfect – there is always something that renders even one’s ideal job just short of utopian. For my current part-time public library job, teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) classes is that something. Now, before the ESL police come knocking down my door, let me clarify a few things: 1) I fully understand that ESL is a crucial program for an urban library population, 2) I have seen firsthand how much the ESL students appreciate the classes, 3) I think it is fantastic that many ESL programs (including the one at my library) are taught by volunteers, and 4) As a strong candidate for an Introvert of the Year award, talking/teaching for two consecutive hours is not really my thing. It’s not you, ESL; it’s me. I dread ESL like…
Sage Advice
Posted July 4, 2013 by Julie Steenson
I wish I could join my peers in talking about trips to Europe or ALA in Chicago, but alas, my summer is being spent working and taking two classes. The rain has washed away many of my herb plantings, but at least the cabbage and onion plants seem happy…as do the weeds. All the warnings that two summer classes would make for an intense experience were true! In my first semester (Jan 2012), I took Technology for Information Professionals (LIS 488) which was initially intimidating and ultimately empowering for a middle-aged career changer like myself. I was a regular user of computers at home, but new advances and I were strangers. In that class, my professor gave us some good advice that I recently shared and used in another class. He encouraged us to use every presentation as an opportunity to try out a new technology. This past weekend, I had to give a presentation in one of my summer classes, User Instruction (LIS 408). I shared this advice with my class as an introduction…