Embracing Technology
Posted March 20, 2012 by dunhame
On the first day of my Introduction to Archives class, my professor made certain to emphasize the fact that, while the archival field certainly involves a great deal of work with old stuff, its also very much concerned with and immersed in the realm of new stuff, that is, technology. Archivists relationship with technology is twofold: they are tasked with preserving and making available information stored on machine-dependent materials (e.g., floppy disks, VHS tapes, the Internet) and with using technology to make their collections as accessible as possible (putting them online, making them searchable, etc.). I have not had the opportunity to do a great deal of work with digital preservation yet, but Im excited to take Archiving and Preserving Digital Media later on in the GSLIS program. I have, however, had the opportunity to learn about the other side of technology in archives in a course Im taking this semester called Archival Access and Use. One of the main purposes of this course is to teach students the archival description standards and practices currently…
Best. March. Ever.
Posted March 19, 2012 by Sarah Barton
During mid- to late-March you can find me parked in front of a television watching college basketball. I can unabashedly say that I have spent at least 24 of the past 96 hours either actively or passively watching college basketball, but that is about to change. Over the next few weeks, I will supplement my basketball watching with an array of library-related talks and panels. This could be the best March ever! It all starts this afternoon at Simmons with a talk called Developing Diverse Library Leadership in the 21st Century to be given by Molly Raphael, President of the American Libraries Association AND Simmons GSLIS alum. (If that doesnt go to show how far a Simmons GSLIS degree can take you, I dont know what will.) Then, as James posted a couple weeks ago, Wednesday is a kick-off meeting for the Friends of the Somerville Public Library, and I am definitely going to check that out. On Friday, I am going to MIT for a Panel Discussion on Libraries and Best Practices in Fair…
The Suburbs
Posted March 17, 2012 by Danielle Geller
One of the benefits of going to school in a city like Boston is that, aside from everything youll be doing in school, the city itself has plenty to offer. I completed my undergraduate school at a tiny university in central PennsylvaniaShippensburg University, to be exact. And even though I loved the school, the faculty, and my experience there, the best thing the town had to offer were fields of corn and cows. Sure, my friends and I frequently made trips to D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia to see shows, etc., but that usually meant at least a 1 1/2 to 2 hour commute one way. Boston is much more expensive than middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania (my roommates and I shared an apartment and only paid $125 a month each in PA), but its justifiable in the end. In a few weeks, PAX (a huge video game convention) will be coming to Boston. Ive already registered and am totally looking forward to it! Sometimes I do find myself missing green things and a little bit of nature, but…
Spring is here…sort of
Posted March 16, 2012 by Maya Bery
Forgive the tangent from more scholarly, library-centric posts, but I would be remiss in my duties as a blogger for the Admissions Office if I did not comment upon the weather in Boston. You see, before I moved to Boston, I knew that it got a lot of snow. This seemed self-evident – we are, after all, living in New England. What I didn’t know is that Boston is very much a “four seasons in a day” kind of place, though usually the changes are spread over the course of one day to the next. Take this past week, for example. Last weekend brought with it the time change, clocks going forward an hour, giving us extra daylight at the day’s end. This is a welcome change even if it does result in lost sleep because it means instead of getting dark at 5:30 (now – in the depths of winter, it’s pitch black by 5:00), it’s now dusk until somewhere around 6:30. The beginning of the week brought the most extraordinarily gorgeous weather, the…
Kentucky pack-horse librarians
Posted March 15, 2012 by fox32
Converted bakery trucks are fine, a restored International Harverster Metro would be neat, but how about Appalachian mountain riders as your bookmobile service? As a feature of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930’s that was the case. Thousands of people lived in the crooks and hollows of Kentucky’s mountains. Without newspapers, telephones, or radios, they were almost totally isolated from the outside world. Since there were not paved or even gravel roads, the only way in was by foot, horse, or mule. People followed creek beds and mountain paths to their tiny communities and homes in the hollows. Small one-room schoolhouses nestled in coves and mining camps were almost entirely removed from the outside world. These schools barely had enough textbooks for their students. Some had no books at all. In face of the daunting essential needs, food, clothing, medicine, employment, funding for libraries seemed a very low priority. Without enough money to feed their bodies, how in the world could money be found to “feed their minds?” asked First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt….
An Archives Kid behind the Circ Desk?: Gaining Meaningful Experience at the Social Law Library
Posted March 14, 2012 by dunhame
Today marks six months that Ive been a Patron Services Assistant at the Social Law Library. I have to say, Im still surprised at the fact that my venture to Boston led me behind the circulation desk of a law library; as an archives concentrator with no prior interest in law or law librarianship, it seems like quite the anomaly! As unexpected as it is, Im quite grateful for the opportunities and experiences I have had at Social Law. When I was making plans to move to Boston and attend Simmons, I was hesitant at the prospect of working and going to school at the same time. Many of the graduate school workshops I attended as an undergrad emphasized that, for a graduate student, school is your job, and warned that working during grad school would be too overwhelming. Im glad I realized that this advice was usually geared toward students pursuing academic degrees rather than professional ones. In the library science field, gaining experience in and outside of the classroom is incredibly important. Not…
Spring Break and the Older Student
Posted March 13, 2012 by Julie Steenson
No bikinis for this forty-something .trust me, this is a good thing! For me, spring break was an opportunity to catch up on housework and have the time to go to NY to visit my adult daughter. I had told myself that I would get ahead on schoolwork, and while I did do some, there was no getting ahead. After six intense weeks, my brain needed to ease up, and my non-school life needed some of my attention. If you read my first post, you saw that I had some misgivings about returning to school as a full-time student. I would like to revisit those initial thoughts now, halfway through the semester. It has been so invigorating to be in school. While I sometimes feel like I am drowning in a sea of acronyms, I am learning so much. When I started the program full-time, I had quit my job, figuring that school, home, family, a long commute, and volunteer work would keep me busy enough. That was a good plan! When my volunteer work evolved…
The Grand Canyon of Libraries
Posted March 12, 2012 by Sarah Barton
Last week was Spring Break, and instead of crashing crazy parties in Cancun I traveled through northern Arizona and southern Utah. Having never been anywhere in the Southwest, I had no idea what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised by the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Zion National Park, and the red rocks of Sedona. Now that I am at GSLIS, my travels prompt me to think about the libraries that support the places I visit. This may sound silly, but I really do love when I see a library in an unfamiliar town. Or, even if I don’t see the library, it is interesting to check out its website afterward. After spending two days in Springdale, Utah (population 457; a small, touristy town right outside of Zion National Park), I was not surprised to find that its library staff consists of three people and that without a library card, internet access costs $1 for 60 minutes. After two days in Sedona, Arizona (population 10,031; an artsy, touristy, and outdoorsy city), I was not surprised to…
Two Weeks In
Posted March 11, 2012 by Maya Bery
The crowning experience of the SLT program is the two practica, which are carried out at the elementary and high school levels (though starting this fall, middle school will be an option as well). In addition to a mountain of paperwork and a log that could possibly qualify as a lethal weapon due to its sheer weight, part of what we are meant to do is learn the ins and outs of being a librarian. This includes not only shadowing our cooperating practitioner, but writing our own lessons, collaborating with teachers, planning activities, creating displays, doing our three minor projects, and, of course, teaching. Yesterday marked the end of my second full week (though this week was a little off-kilter), so I thought it might be interesting to give you all an idea of what happens at a practicum at the beginning stages. In the past two weeks, I have: Introduced myself to the students and found out about what countries some of them have lived in Written and taught the first lesson of my…
Get out there -easy if in Somerville
Posted March 8, 2012 by fox32
Unless you are working full-time and taking 3 classes while commuting from Maine, I bet a lot of the readers are also volunteering in some kind of library-related function. “Friends of the Library” groups are great for this, and as a connected, energetic, knowledgable library student you are perfectly placed to led your enthusiasm to your local public library. Even if public librarianship is not your aim I would encourage it. You don’t need to sit on the board (though nice little line item on the resume…) but just being an upright and breathing volunteer can be useful. If you live in Somerville (or Cambridge or Medford) let me mention that the Friends of the Somerville Public Library are looking for extra volunteers and having a kick-off meeting on March 21st; why not attend? See the Facebook link. If you don’t care for FaceSpace, there is an EventBrite link as well; friendsofthesomervillelibrary.eventbrite. For those GSLIS students with little to no library experience this seems like an absolute no-brainer. Hope to see you then.