Walkin’ in a winter wonderland
Posted February 2, 2011 by turcios
I commute to school and work on the T and/or the bus. This means some walking and standing around waiting for a bus or T in the elements, while carrying around my daily essentials: coffee, water, food, reading materials for school and for fun, and sometimes my gym clothes. And as my fellow bloggers have all mentioned, we’ve been getting crazy amounts of snow lately. If you plan on commuting too, you might want to think about investing in a few things to get you through the snowy, slushy wonderland. 1) You’re gonna need a good, waterproof backpack. Not a shoulder bag. Shoulder bags are fine when the weather’s warmer or when there isn’t any slush, snow, or ice on the ground, but on a snowy day it just becomes something else that might throw you off balance. A good backpack with lots of compartments, including those side mesh pockets for easy access to your water bottle or coffee mug, has worked really well for me. 2) Good waterproof boots with textured soles. Uggs are…
A great big balancing act
Posted February 1, 2011 by labrecql
In the Fall 2010 semester, my student loans allowed me to pay for the mandatory health insurance not only for me, but for my husband and 17-month-old son as well. Thats a pretty big chunk of change, but the insurance covers a calendar year, and I was able to take two classes with the money left over. Since I dont have that expense in the Spring 2011 semester, Ive taken on a third class, and boy, does my plate feel full! Ive got Picture Book and Childrens Lit and Media Collections back to back on Mondays thats six straight hours and Management on Wednesdays. For me, the LIS courses come naturally, because theyre about doing, and they train me to accomplish something practical, but the CHL classes are much more challenging in that I must force my brain into academic/analytic mode. Im more comfortable there than I was last semester (CHL 401 whipped me into shape pretty well), but I still find it hard to get those gears turning. I feel so…
Posted January 31, 2011 by homerj
It is my last semester and I am seriously kicking myself in the rear for not applying for more school because I really do not want to be a grown up. (Yes, I realize the fact that I am 24 and therefore an adult but as long as I am in school I can be in denial.) Now that the semester is underway, I need to start seriously applying for jobs. So I thought I would share some solid websites/listservs and job hunting venues with you. ALA JobList: http://joblist.ala.org/ This is the American Library Association job site and contains up-to-date job openings. My favorite part of this website is the face that I like them on facebook. The facebook page posts dozens of different links, blogs and articles all around the topic of finding a job. I have read some seriously helpful information from this website and facebook. For Massachusetts the Library Board of Commissioners maintains a job listing database here: http://mblc.state.ma.us/jobs/index.php. This is helpful for professional and pre-professional roles. (It is always a good…
This Southern girl is out of her element
Posted January 26, 2011 by holdenjr
I just got back from winter vacation last week, and while I am so happy to be in beautiful Boston again the weather is testing my courage and endurance. When I left for the (what I hoped would be) warm, sunny climes of Athens, GA over a month ago it had not yet snowed here. The roads and sidewalks were still dry and ice-free and I could still prance around without fear of slipping. The city was all decked out in lights and it hadnt gotten very cold yet. I was in great spirits and I got home expecting a nice, warm, green Georgia Christmas. Instead, my hometown got three inches of snow on December 25 (three inches is a BIG deal down there!), only the second time in Athenss recorded history that it had snowed on Christmas (the first time was in 1993). It was Atlantas first white Christmas since 1882 when Chester Arthur was president. We were all very excited to see the snow we built snowmen, threw snowballs at each other,…
Children’s Literacy Foundation
Posted January 25, 2011 by fox32
The Childrens Literacy Foundation (CLiF) serves more than 350 communities across every region of Vermont and New Hampshire with the goal of nurturing a love of reading and writing in children. They focus on children from birth to age 12, especially rural and at-risk children. Further reading. I have written about book donation programs on my personal blog before but CLiF also does in-class author readings and workshops and more. Just to be clear, I have no connection to these guys, but this aligns with many of my interests. CLiF’s programs are supported entirely by donations from individuals, companies, foundations, and social organizations… Great, so what?? Well, for anyone who has a connection to an elementary school or library in New Hampshire or Vermont, tell your librarian or a local teacher about these two 2011 grants provided by CLiF; Author/Illustrator Visits or Writer-in-Residence Grants New Hampshire and Vermont elementary schools looking for a free author visit to their school should check out these two simple grant applications. Have an author visit your school and give…
Life after GSLIS, aka “Finding a Job”
Posted January 25, 2011 by Colleen Mahoney
Hi everyone! Remember me? Your long-lost GSLIS blogger from last year? And you thought you were rid of me (ha!) I’ve been meaning to write this post for quite awhile, but in the midst of finishing my thesis for the history side of my archives/history dual degree, finding a job, getting a job, and moving for that job, it just hasn’t happened until now. And I think it’s about something pretty important–what happens after you finish your degree from Simmons GSLIS? For me, finding a job was a lot easier than I expected it to be. We all know that the economy is not the greatest right now, and things like libraries, archives, and museums have been especially hard hit. I found that the key to finding a job was research, research, research. I spent about an hour every day just looking for new job postings. My favorite places to look: GSLIS Jobs & Opportunities – A job listing site run by Simmons GSLIS. This one has a lot of preprofessional and volunteer jobs, as…
It’s colder than the Arctic Circle – but not for long.
Posted January 24, 2011 by Christine Leland
Yes, really…Jason’s post last week was not that far off-base in terms of weather in Boston this winter. This morning Boston.com reported that the temperature in the city at 8:00AM (-2 degrees Fahrenheit) was colder than at the same time in Murmansk, Russia, the northernmost city in the Arctic Circle (6 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s chilly no matter which city you happened to be in at the time! That said, Boston is not ALWAYS this cold, nor does it (thankfully) stay this cold for long. As of this time tomorrow we’ll be enjoying temps in the mid-thirties, a welcome change. Weather like this tests your patience but mostly it gives you a good story to tell in the future – and I’m sure everyone has heard rumors about hearty New Englanders (“I trudged 8 miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways…”). While I certainly never had to walk 8 miles to school, I’ve lived here all my life and temperatures like this come along only rarely. In the meantime, I’m surviving by watching for…
Alright Mother Nature, ENOUGH
Posted January 21, 2011 by homerj
I cannot help looking out the window and watch the snow accumulate. This is the third snow storm in 2 weeks. This is bananas. On the Simmons Academic campus, there is a way to get to most buildings without walking outside. Lefavour Hall and Main Campus Building are connected on the bottom floor which makes for easy navigation. (Especially easy because the hallway is to the left of the bookstore) Getting to the School of Management and to the Palace Road Building (where GSLIS is located,) require a little more experience. Well, reader of this blog – let me tell you how to do avoid the weather for as long as possible. The Main Campus Building, School of Management and Palace Road building all have entrances to the parking garage. So, you just walk down to a garage entrance, walk through the garage, and back up into whatever building you choose. Now, this sounds like lazy, hermit-like shenanigans, but I can tell you, it is actually more work, and I dont do hats. So when…
Incase You Missed It: S. 3984
Posted January 21, 2011 by fox32
S. 3984, the Museum and Library Services Act, was created to authorize funding at current levels for library and museum services around the country through 2016. Further reading. In addition, this bill authorizes funding for the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program which provides education assistance grants for those pursuing careers as librarians, and it expands the definition of museums eligible for funding to include those with digital collections. The Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services will also now be required to develop and implement a policy for ensuring that the availability of museum, library and information services adequately meets the needs of the American people. In case you missed it, you will be pleased to know that S. 3984 passed the House in the closing days of the 111th Congress and was signed into law on December 22, 2010 by Barack Obama.
BPL Canvas Bag
Posted January 19, 2011 by fox32
Jeff Carvalho at Selectism crushes it… he found this canvas book bag (literally a bag for transporting books) that could do double duty as a weekender bag. BPL style. Reblogging below; More than 100 years ago, the workers of the Boston Public Library figured out that the best way to ferry books between the branches was in this deep, heavy-duty bag, one in each hand to balance the load. Each is capable of holding 27 pounds. Buy it for $38. If you want more info, read here about how the bags have double canvas bottoms as a requirement, and about the inscription stencilled inside…