Do you buzz?
Posted November 10, 2012 by Maggie Davidov
Yes, do you buzz around like a bee? You see where I’m going with this? This week I represented the school I work for in the Wellesley Spelling Bee. With thirty lists of words to study I was engrossed and could talk about little else for the past few weeks. No joke, ask my friends and family who are glad it’s over. I learned words like butyraceous, jeroboam, tabetisol, and my personal favorite kakistocracy. I spent time with my colleagues/teammates from school as we chatted, studied, and laughed over the silliness of the words we were spelling. It was bliss for a true spelling bee nerd like me. You see, I was in the Peace Corps a few years ago. While I was there one of my biggest accomplishments was founding the National Spelling Bee of Macedonia with my friend Matt. We were both very passionate about making language learning engaging for students of every level. We knew that our students loved competition and this seemed the most logical way to make learning English fun.We put together…
Reader’s Advisory
Posted November 9, 2012 by Maya Bery
One of the hot topics in reference is reader’s advisory. It’s the reason many people engage in reference interactions with librarians, but it’s often hard to narrow in on exactly what a patron liked about a particular book. And for me at least, when a patron admits that they don’t enjoy reading or actively dislikes it, I feel a lot of pressure to deliver. I have long felt that there is a book out there for each person, it’s just a question of matching the two together. But doing that can be a complicated, frustrating, and sometimes disheartening experience. If I sound down, it’s because I’ve just handled two reader’s advisory interactions which went less well than I would have hoped. In the first case, I had a freshman who “hates reading” looking for a short, funny book, but not one that would make her feel dumb (so graphic novels were out), no vampires (“read my lips: N-O, NO!”), no romances, no chick-lit books, nothing I could suggest caught her interest. “You know who’s…
East Meets West
Posted November 8, 2012 by cdelnero
I bet many of you have seen this map before. It’s funny! And sort of true. But some of us out in the dragon-filled regions see Boston not so much as the center of the universe, but more as a big scary jungle. That’s why last week, LISSA West sponsored a field trip to the Simmons main campus in Boston. Our goal was to give GSLIS West students the opportunity to visit the Boston campus and become familiar with things like parking and the layout of the library. Our hope was to eliminate fear of the big city and encourage GSLIS West students to take courses at Simmons Boston. There were four of us total and we had a busy afternoon! We started with a tour of Beatley Library led by the wonderful Linda Watkins, Liaison Librarian and Kate McGrath, Dean’s Fellow for GSLIS West. We got to see how things work in the stacks and behind the scenes. We had the opportunity to meet Justin Snow in the archives who let us into the…
Who You Gonna Call?
Posted November 6, 2012 by Julie Steenson
I apologize for wimping out, but I am swamped with work this week, both school projects and extra hours at my job at my local library. Please forgive me and enjoy this great view of the New York Public Library Reading Room…ghosts and all!
Don’t Judge a Donated Book by Its Cover
Posted November 5, 2012 by Sarah Barton
I work at a small branch library, and I was surprised to learn that we are not supposed to take book donations. One or two books here and there is ok, but an “I’m moving tomorrow and here is my entire book collection” drop off is too much. It’s not that we don’t want them, but since the main library is better equipped to handle donations people are encouraged to bring their books there. I don’t necessarily agree with the policy, but after reading this I might be more inclined to enforce it. If I were going through donated books and came across a gun, I probably would have uttered a few choice words other than “Oh my.” A gun…in a book? The write-up doesn’t make it sound malicious, but still, a gun…in a book? Knowing nothing about guns, I would say that gun actually looks kind of cool – like something a cowboy would tote in a saloon. But that’s not the point. What is the real story? Why was that cool looking gun…
Tweeting NEA
Posted November 4, 2012 by lazylibrarian
Blake Spitz@bgspitz At the mothership in Boston @simmonsgslis for #NEAfall12. Excited for a full day! The event/conference of the week was the fall meeting of New England Archivists (NEA), hosted by none other than your very own Simmons College! Since I currently work in a library and not an archives I did not have the option of excusing myself for professional development and missed the workshops and banquet on Friday night. (Though I did go to Guy Fawkes Pub Night on Friday and drank Samuel Adams with Samuel Adams’ spirit in the Old State House!) But living in the dorms means that I rolled out of bed at 8 am and walked over to the academic campus where sessions started at 9. I tweeted the conference through my twitter handle (which until last night was simmonslazylibr now it’s puschartwarrior) so here is the day in tweets! Stacie Parillo@stacieparillo Every room I’ve been in seems really young. I wonder what the average age is of NEA attendees? #neafall12 Since Simmons hosted there was A LOT of Simmons grad students present,…
Ladies and Gentlemen, Hannah Gomez
Posted November 3, 2012 by Maggie Davidov
I met Hannah while dissecting the motherboard of a PC in LIS 488. I think we had the most fun of anyone in the class because we made up names for the parts we didn’t know. She is a dual degree Children’s Literature/Library Science student here at Simmons, so she’s a superhero in my mind. Enjoy meeting Hannah Gomez, with these incredibly serious interview questions that really get to the heart of who GSLIS students really are. 1) If you could be assume a role in a book who would you be? As I kid I was always jealous of Dinnie in Sharon Creech’s Bloomability because she got to go to international school, which seemed so much more exotic and intellectual and independent than plain old school. Now that K-12 school is behind me and that’s not an option, I can’t think of anyone in a book I really love whose life I’m not already living (hence my liking them). 2) What’s been the most exciting part about being in the dual degree program so…
“We’re Open to Serve You During Storm Recovery”
Posted November 2, 2012 by Maya Bery
Unless you live under the proverbial rock, you know that this week, the east coast was battered by Hurricane Sandy before the remnants of the storm moved inland to cause further havoc as far west as Wisconsin. It was a pretty remarkable sight seeing essentially every school in the state closed for the day on Monday, and on Tuesday, many districts still opted to stay shut, but it’s back to business here now. We got extremely lucky in that Boston was spared a lot of the damage that places further south of us, namely New York and New Jersey, have had. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with libraries. Well, earlier this summer, I wrote about how the libraries in Boston were opening as cooling centers on some of the hottest days of the year – a place where those without air conditioning could come, for free, and be safe and cool. In the winter, libraries often offer the reverse service – a warm place for those in need of protection…
Crossing the Finish Line
Posted November 1, 2012 by cdelnero
My last post was about yoga, and this one will be about running. But first, I need to provide a disclaimer: I don’t do fitness. I’m not claiming to be in shape or know anything about how to get there. I am someone who is completely new to the idea of physical challenge but I am finding that it can be just as rewarding as challenging myself intellectually and I want to share my experience. Last weekend, a close friend and I ran our first 5k. And by “ran” I mean jogged. And by “jogged” I really mean jogged 1 out of the 3.1 miles, and not consecutively. Regardless of this, the rush of adrenaline I felt when I crossed the finish line was incredible. There was a crowd of people cheering us on and waiting to congratulate us on finishing. We took our time but accomplished something great and didn’t even come in last place! I know it’s cliche to compare running a 5k to other non-physical accomplishments (like getting a masters degree in…
A Hurricane Can be Good for Library Business
Posted October 30, 2012 by Julie Steenson
In honor of Hurricane Sandy, my Monday class at Simmons was cancelled so I filled in at work at my local library for a colleague who has a long drive. All the local NH schools had also cancelled and to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be a busy day. What a surprise! With the winds still mild and the showers light in the morning in NH, we did a brisk business as everyone scurried in to stock up on books the way squirrels stock up on nuts. The last storm left us in the dark for ten days so we had to be ready. When Governor Lynch urged us all to go home and get off the roads by 3 pm, we reluctantly closed at 2:30 pm, just in time as the winds really started to howl. Power and phone were knocked out a couple of hours later and I am writing this on my laptop with my DSL modem hooked to the generator. It was a good day at the library. It…