Diversion from LIS
Posted March 14, 2011 by homerj
While I am not a childrens or young adult literature person, I am obsessed with the Hunger Games trilogy. They are getting closer to casting Katniss for the live action movies (I am very okay with the current top choice of Jennifer Lawrence see Winters Bone) but I thought I would describe the time these novels consumed my life, because it was during finals week. I read the first book because it was one of the summer reading assignments for the middle school in the town I work for. Our library purchased around twenty copies and our Childrens Librarian was very excited about this book. I could not take the book out during the summer because there were so many children who needed it for credit. So, September came and I was consumed with school work, and reading another leisure book. By the time I got around to checking out the Hunger Games it was already finals . I picked up the first book 2 days before a paper was due. I intended to…
Workin’ 9 to 5…and taking a courseload of all core classes?
Posted February 28, 2011 by turcios
We are well into the semester, almost at Spring Break even, and classes are in full swing. So far, my second semester has been quite different from the first in that this time around Ive had to balance the demands of a new full-time pre-professional library job in addition to my GSLIS course-load. I am absolutely excited about the opportunity to gain some valuable experience while Im in pursuing my degree, but this also means that Ive had to really take a step back and re-think my approach to school. I initially signed up for two courses for the Spring semester, just to keep the momentum going from the Fall. A few days into my job, though, I had to face that maybe taking two courses while I was still learning the ropes might be a bit more challenging than I thought. Especially since those two courses happen to be two core classes that I was told could be quite a mental workout to take together: 407 (Reference) and 415 (Information Organization). When I registered,…
A year ago Susan Glover went on WEEI. Great stuff.
Posted February 22, 2011 by fox32
1 year ago almost to the day, the Acting Keeper of Prints, Rare Books, Manuscripts and Archives from the Boston Public Library (Susan Glover) called in to WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan to explain what she does. Quick context; this came up after the release by the Boston Herald of the salaries for all state employees; which led to a discussion (if you listen to WEEI you might use that term loosely) of “why do taxpayers pay for the Boston Public Library”, i.e. “what is so great about libraries, why should MY hard earned tax dollars go to a library. WHY!! So kids can play World of Warcraft? Old books suck!” etc… For all the hackle raising this might produce, Callahan reveals a crucial point; if people are asking these kinds of questions, then someone at the library is not doing their job. If the popular belief is that google and wikipedia can reveal the answer to everything then libraries are not doing their job (if just joining, then due to intellectual property rights alone, the…
Last semester… OH NO!
Posted February 16, 2011 by homerj
The semester is in full swing and I thought I would write about some of the classes I am taking. I have already finished my requirements and now I get to pick some electives! This is my last semester here at GSLIS (and I am devastated) and I am taking three (3) classes to close out my Masters of Science in Library and Information Science. Class 1: Medical Libraries I am very much interested in Special Libraries (my career goals involve government libraries). Medical Libraries sounded immensely interesting and was recommended to me by a number of GSLIS Alums. We are a few weeks into the class and I love it. Everything about Medical Libraries is interesting. We just took a field trip (yes this building is on the same street as the Palace Road building but still it was a grad school field trip!) to the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Library. There we spoke to the director of the library and its head of reference services. It was interesting to…
Ripped from the Metro… Libraries Are Invisible
Posted February 7, 2011 by fox32
Had not thought of this point recently raised by Marilyn Johnson (author of This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All) but worth noting, and potentially tough to reverse. Libraries are invisible to people in power. Politicians [and corporate bodies generally i would say -ed.] have their own research staffs and IT support and newspaper subscriptions; they dont see how dependent the rest of us are on that shared information. –Marilyn Johnson Endnote: I always come back to a quote from my tutor Alan Smith, worth repeating; “Show me a town that denies funding to a library, and I’ll show you a librarian who stays in the office. Show me a town that funds its library, and I’ll show you a librarian who takes donuts down to the fire department. Who goes down to the city hall and goes into offices asking if they need anything. You have to be proactive. It might come as a shock to some of you, but a large part of the success of that library…
GSLIS Mixer and Trivia
Posted February 7, 2011 by homerj
On Friday LISSA (Library and Information Science Student Association) had a GSLIS Mixer and Trivia night at the Bell in Hand Tavern here in Boston. LISSA is a student group you are automatically entered in once you start here at Simmons GSLIS and they plan different types of events, everything from Guest Speakers to Trivia nights. Let’s just state that my group had the best name of the night. I had some pretty funny names (being somewhat of a trivia connoisseur) but we decided to go with “This is how we Dewey it” (which I thought was weak to my other suggestion: “Junk in the truncation” [which is hysterical I might add]) but majority rules and we went with Dewey. Clearly we won the name contest. Then the trivia began. What do you ask a bunch of Library Science students you ask? Oh just some facts about Libraries/Librarians. The first round asked pop culture related questions. One such example is the quote: “Look, I… I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a…
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,…