Student Snippets A Window Into The Daily Life & Thoughts of SLIS Students

“And Time Goes Quicker…”

The title of this post is a line from one of my favorite Florence & the Machine songs, “What the Water Gave Me.” I thought it was a fitting line for the end of this semester, as I am extremely dumbfounded that I only have 3 semesters left (Spring, Summer, Fall). Now that normally seems like a long time, but I sincerely remember moving to Boston just yesterday and freaking out about starting life in a new city. Yet, here I am similarly having a meltdown about what I still have to accomplish: landing an internship for next summer, choosing a thesis topic and possibly traveling to research for it, passing all of my other classes in between, and somehow working full-time while trying to land volunteering gigs that will look awesome on my resume and expand my archival knowledge/experiences. How is this all possible you ask? I’m not sure, but listening to Florence & the Machine helps. I also recently bought some new records, so I plan to crack open my record player and…


Librarian Olympics and Other Fun

We all know that librarians are awesome at bookish endeavors, but time and again, my professors (and my experience) tell me that the ability to unjam a stapler is an extremely important librarian skill.  This is right up there with troubleshooting the fax machine, clearing the paper jam in the printer, learning the new phone system, and my most recent nightmare….using the new projector and sound system at the library’s movie night. The problem with all of these minor technical horrors is that one usually must deal with them on the spot, with patrons waiting.  Time is of the essence, and well, to be honest, I am spending all this money on a Master’s degree and I don’t enjoy being stumped by a fancy new remote control.  It’s embarrassing. What we need is Librarian Olympics!  Imagine a convention hall packed with hundreds of different types of copiers, fax machines, and e-readers and teams of librarians competing to troubleshoot the uncooperative machines in the shortest time…The training sessions alone would turn us all into brilliant mechanical…


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Surprise! I bet you weren’t expecting to hear more about my GSLIS course credits this semester, but this is it, I promise. In addition to my three classes this semester, I had an Independent Study doing an internship at a law firm library. The perks of my internship have been gaining practical experience, building my résumé, bolstering my arsenal of talking points for future interviews, and spending time on the job with a library professional. I spent twelve hours per week at the law firm doing a variety of tasks including research, collection upkeep, invoice organization, and basic cataloging. I did not have any designated internship-long projects, and was, for the most part, subject to whatever tasks cropped up on a given day. It was a great introduction to the life of a solo librarian in a special library environment. The internship culminated in writing an article about the benefits of having an internship. I had almost too much material to work with! With the help of the GSLIS professor who proctored my Independent Study,…


For a Snowy Day…

Well it’s starting to look a lot like winter. A blanket of snow, though very thin, was coating Simmons Campus yesterday. It was a day to stay inside and cuddle up with a coffee. Good thing I had a 25 page history paper to write or I might not have known what to do! But if you are ever in the same position and need some librarian things to read here are some of my favorite librarian blogs/tumblrs/twitter feeds! 1.       The Art of Google Books Regardless of where you stand on Google Books and their scanning project (and their horrible metadata), this tumblr is fun to look at. It includes pictures of some of the interesting things the employees come across in their scanning. Odd books, odd pictures, little written notes inside old books, stuff a library-history dual degree student drools over! 2.       Better Book Titles Ever judged a book by its cover? Or by its title? This website posts book covers with new humorous titles that better explain the book.  One of my favorite submissions is…


Stress Busters for the End of the Semester

I am a stress champion. Normally, I take a break from stress at Thanksgiving before the season of giving and stressing begins. This year, however, I took the reigns for Turkey day and fed 11 people with a 20 pound turkey. So, my stress levels are still pretty high and everything is coming to a close. I always tell my students not to stress: all will be well in the end, and if all is not well then it is not yet the end. A little bit of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that never hurt anyone. I tell them this but never heed my own advice. In an effort to do just that I am passing on study tips, stress busters, and words of love I have compiled for all those who are feeling the end of the semester crunch. TIPS: Teach what you’re studying. If you can teach it, you know it. Teach your dog, your brother or your roommate, or look in the mirror and teach yourself. Remember, no one can ask any more than…


Finishing My School Library Teacher Degree

If I am not mistaken, this blog entry represents my penultimate contribution to the Simmons GSLIS admissions blog.  For I, dear reader, am exactly one week away from finishing my library school career after 2.5 years.  I am excited about that, but it’s also bittersweet, but that is not the focus of this post.  This post is about how I finished my high school practicum yesterday.  Yes, 150 hours, a 22-page practicum log, six lesson plans with reflections, 12 artifacts of different types, and a lot of paper later, I am done.  It’s a tremendous sense of accomplishment seeing this giant binder come together with its pretty colored dividers, the cover page, the table of contents.  I’ve taught lessons galore on how to find non-fiction books and generate keywords to run effective searches in the OPAC and in the Gale databases.  I’ve learned to use iPads and researched a dozen apps that have really, really cool implications for students with special needs.  I created a rocking pathfinder for students researching Romney and Obama’s positions on…


Rejection

About two weeks ago, I got notification of the *perfect* job. It was a full-time information-literacy librarian position at a small, private college close to home. In my mind, I fit all of the qualifications. The pay wasn’t great, but as someone without much library experience, I thought it would be the best opportunity to get my foot in the door. As soon as I saw the posting, I got to work on updating my resume and writing a cover letter. I applied and heard back very quickly. I was initiated into the first round of the interview process and you would have thought I was a 13-year-old with Bieber fever, I was that excited. The first step was to write a proposal about how I would spearhead an initiative to integrate information literacy across all levels of the curriculum. I was super-confident. I wrote up my proposal and had it proof-read by my peers, my boss, by anyone who would read it. They all gave me great tips and told me it was excellent….


Let’s Take This Outside (the Classroom)

Two of my three courses this semester have required that I interview a library professional. Those interviews, plus my internship (more on that next week) have provided me with practical knowledge that simply cannot come from a classroom setting. The two classes for which I had to do interviews are “Principles of Management” and “Knowledge Management,” both of which are very theoretical and situation-specific. Talking to people in the field has been a great supplement of my overall understanding of the concepts that have been discussed in class. A write-up is required after both interviews, but frankly, I have found myself less concerned about the grades that I get on the papers than how I might be able to apply what I have learned in a professional setting. Talking to real life library professionals has been an interesting, thought provoking, and relevant addition to the time spent in class. I’m not suggesting that you invent a non-existent class or assignment in order to have an excuse to talk to someone who works in a library….


East meets West – Part III – The Follow-up

I would like to follow up on Chelsea’s two blog posts about some of the differences between the Main Boston campus and West campus in South Hadley. For a general feel, I will start by referring you back to my earlier post, “The Tale of Two Campuses,” but I will try to be more specific in this post. Class Size – Chelsea is right here.  I don’t know the names of half of the people in my Boston class but all my West campus classes have been small, leading to a very bonded group of people. At West, we bake brownies for class and seek out opportunities to work together via discussion boards, email, etc. during the week. The small class size does make a more “family” atmosphere. Demographics –In general, we tend to be older on West campus and in my experience, there are also more men at GSLIS -West.  There are many more career changers on West, and that leads to the bonding over fitting in classwork and group projects around family and…


Working for the Weekend

In high school and occasionally during college summers, I worked on Saturdays. It wasn’t ideal, and I’m sure my bustling social life suffered irreparable damage, but somehow I survived. Since then, most of my Saturdays have been unadulterated Sarah time. A typical Saturday involves waking up (not sleeping in, as I have lost the capacity for that), going for a run, sitting on the couch, and going out for dinner and drinks. In short, Saturdays are great. Now imagine my horror when I found out that the branch library where I work, which until two weeks ago was closed on weekends, would now be open on Saturdays, and that I will sometimes have to work on Saturdays. I was out of town the first weekend the library was open, but this past Saturday I had no excuse. I went to work. And it wasn’t all that bad. I must confess that I was only scheduled for two hours, so there was still ample time for running and sitting and going to dinner. And it was…