What It Means to be Blended
Posted March 7, 2012 by Julie Steenson
Blended and Online classes offer amazing opportunities to learn from practicing professionals who genuinely want to share their knowledge and experience with the next generation of library professionals. What could be better than learning from real world librarians! Being my first semester, I had no idea what a Blended class actually entailed. I knew there would be some face-to-face meetings and other meetings online, but I wasnt sure what that actually meant in practice. Face-to-face is what it implies a class meeting on campus in the traditional sense. My blended class combines face-to-face meetings on Simmons West (Mount Holyoke) campus with synchronous online sessions. Synchronous means that we all log in at class time either from home in our PJs or some of us choose to log in together in an empty classroom or in the GSLIS West office. While PJs are appealing, I enjoy the group gathering as it has allowed for some excellent peer interaction and good company with my morning coffee.
The Big Move (Part 2)
Posted March 6, 2012 by dunhame
To continue my account of my move to Boston, Im here this week with the second installment of The Big Move. I left off last week setting myself up for quite a task, which is to tell my stories and offer some tips regarding finding a place to live in Boston and using public transportation. In the interest of not overwhelming you with a term-paper length piece, Im going to back off from that and stick to discussing housing only and saving the wondrous MBTA for another week. One of the most intimidating elements of my planning phase leading up to moving to Boston was trying to find a place to live. I was living in Missouri at this time, and I didnt have the means or the time to schedule a trip to Boston to look at apartments in person. In fact, I didnt travel to Boston at all until it was time to move. This means I was 100% reliant upon this good ol Web of ours in my apartment hunt. I began,…
My Vow to Browse
Posted March 6, 2012 by Sarah Barton
When I visit a library with the sole intent of choosing my next book, I tend to become borderline robotic. In fact, last week I embarked on Mission: Obtain this months Book Club selection. I looked up the call number online, went to the library, grabbed the book, and left. I was in the library for no more than two minutes. If a million dollars was sitting on the shelf below my book, Justin Bieber was manning the reference desk, or the periodicals were on fire, I didnt notice. I was on a mission. Must.Get.Book. (Spoken in robot voice). That high-speed library mission got me thinking about the last time I entered a library without a specific book in mind. I decided it was probably sometime in fifth grade. These days I usually know, or at least have an idea of, what I want, and look at nothing else. Must.Get.Book. In a library full of infinite browsing possibilities, my robot-like obstinacy keeps me focused exclusively on what (I think) I want, which can be both…
The Joys of Public Libraries
Posted March 4, 2012 by Maya Bery
For someone who grew up going to the public library on a near weekly basis and then spent two years overseas in a library wilderness, moving to Boston has been nothing short of a heavenly experience. As a Boston resident, I am entitled to borrow books from any of the branches within the Boston Public Library system (extensive in its own right), and I am allowed reciprocal privileges through the Minuteman network as well. What this means is that I basically have any library between here and New Hampshire at my disposal, through the wonders of the OPAC and interlibrary loan. In addition to the countless hours of personal pleasure the BPL and Minuteman libraries have afforded me, they have also played a central role in my GSLIS academic career.
The Geisel Library Building
Posted March 1, 2012 by fox32
This brutal beauty of reinforced concrete and glass is a library for UC San Diego designed in 1970 by architect William Pereira. The library was originally called the “Central Library” until a renovation was completed and it was renamed the Geisel Library Building on December 1, 1995 in honor of Audrey and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for the generous contributions they have made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy. UC San Diegos Mandeville Special Collections Library is the main repository for the papers of Dr. Seuss. The Dr. Seuss Collection, contains more than 8,500 items documenting the full range of Geisels work.
Library of the Future
Posted February 29, 2012 by Julie Steenson
Just as we all come from different backgrounds, we all come from different libraries! I have had the opportunity to experience very modern libraries and simpler, old-fashioned ones. Just two years ago, I worked in a rural school district that still had a card catalog and stamped the due date on the library book cards, a nostalgic throwback to my childhood! At the other extreme, I recently came across a YouTube video of the Monroe County Public Library, in Bloomington, Indiana, which was awarded the Trailblazer through Technology Award in 2011. In its goal to provide abundant access and technological literacy to the community, this library is a model for all of us!
The Big Move (Part 1)
Posted February 28, 2012 by dunhame
I want to take some time this week to tell the story of my move to Boston and hopefully offer some advice to anyone who is thinking about attending Simmons College but is a little worried about arranging to come here from somewhere outside of the New England area. There are definitely special difficulties associated with a situation like this and many questions come up for people who want to move here but dont know a lot about Boston. Hopefully this post will address some of your concerns! I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and went to undergrad in the same state, and up until this year, I had never had any big move kind of experience. After I decided to attend Simmons, I was faced with a great deal of uncertainty. When should I move? How should I move? Where should I live? How will I find housing? How should I get around when I get there? Im going to structure the rest of this post by quickly explaining how I addressed these…
Slaying the Lack(-of-relevant-experience) Ness Monster
Posted February 27, 2012 by Sarah Barton
Soon after graduating college, I was fortunately offered a job at a small publishing company. Less than four months later, I was unfortunately laid off, thus prompting a five-month bout with unemployment during which I glumly spent my weeks applying to dozens of jobs while trying to rid my brain of the Avenue Q classic “What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?” Finally, as a last resort, I valeted cars for a month before a college friend got me a job doing administrative work at a local hospital. This is not meant to be a “woe is me” tale; rather, an indicator of how difficult it can be to get a job (especially in a tough economy) without relevant experience. Case in point: My work experience between the ages of 16 and 21 involved the following: preparing vegetables for a woman named Cricket to put in her homemade sushi and spring rolls, manning the register at a grocery store, and driving around town buying items to put on a boat for a non-profit…
The Processing Plan
Posted February 25, 2012 by Danielle Geller
Open access and fair use and two issues concerning archives and archival materials is an issue that has recurred in my work and research time and again. Ideally, I believe that information should be freely available for students, researchers, and the average citizen to access and use, but the reality is often much different. Barrierswhether in terms of economics, time, or organizationrear their ugly heads from all angles. This week, Ive been working on processing plans for two separate collections (one for a class and one for an internship), and access has been at the back of my mind for each project. Archivists are the gatekeepers, not just in the sense that we are safeguarding materials, but that we are also responsible for guiding people to materials relevant to their need. In laying out the foundations for a finding aid, our ultimate search tool, how do I ensure that I am doing my job effectively?
StoryCorps animated shorts, or “are you taking oral history?”
Posted February 23, 2012 by fox32
Had not checked in on StoryCorps for a while… but since 2011 they have started animating some of the oral histories. Great idea. The circle is completed by featuring Studs Terkel, a godfather of the academic oral history tradition (at least in the US) who was one of the inspirations for StoryCorps in the first place. I am not an offcianado on Studs Terkel by any means, but this bio from his site sums up part of his life work; On “The Studs Terkel Program,” which was heard on Chicago’s fine arts radio station WFMT from 1952 to 1997, Terkel interviewed Chicagoans and national and international figures who helped shape the past century. The program included guests who were politicians, writers, activists, labor organizers, performing artists, and architects among others.