Wellness Week
Posted December 14, 2021 by Johnna Purchase
This past week LISSA – the student library organization here at SLIS – organized a week of activities to help promote wellness in the run-up to finals. Designed to facilitate relaxation, these bite-sized events were thirty minute moments every evening at 7:30 so that students could break seamlessly without needing the added stress of carving out an entire evening to practice wellness! On Monday, pet-owners and pet-lovers alike gathered to introduce their pets to their SLIS colleagues. Chris, a Ph.D. student studying accessibility in public libraries and LISSA Community Liaison, hosted the event with her two dogs Boomba and Lacey and foster dog Tripp. On Tuesday, students engaged in meditative journaling to reflect on the past semester, set goals for the semester to come, and remind themselves of their “why” for being in the SLIS graduate program. Rosie, LISSA President, provided prompts on dreamy powerpoint slides that participants could journal directly onto while the old at heart wrote out their intentions on paper. Wednesday evening turned physical as Johnna, LISSA VP of Events, helped participants…
Approaching the End
Posted December 10, 2021 by William Crouch
It’s less than a week until I’m going to be finished with my time here at Simmons. Reflecting back on where I was when I first came to Simmons and where I am now, it’s almost like night and day. Obviously, the pandemic changed so much for everyone and has really set up a new world to go out into. When I started, I knew so little about archives and library science. I’ve gained enormous experience with metadata, encoding systems and structures, preservation tools, archival processes, and management styles while here at Simmons. There’s so much depth to the archival world and so much to learn even after 2 and a half years of studies that it is honestly astounding when I think about how little I knew back in May 2019. The learning opportunities and experiences that this program has afforded me and taught me have really changed how I approach pretty much everything going forward. It cannot be stressed enough but the faculty here are incredible and have a true vested interest in…
Why I Enjoy Finals
Posted December 9, 2021 by Bryanne McArdle
I’m probably one of the few people who really enjoys when the end of a semester approaches and all our final projects and papers are due. I understand why others don’t share this sentiment; all of the deadlines are certainly stressful. But there’s something about that chaos that creates this comradery across the students. I noticed this at Simmons when my classes were online last year, but now that I am on campus, there is no denying it. There is something I personally enjoy walking through the hallways and seeing everyone studying, helping each other, offering seats to people who need them so you can go over those notes before the exam, to just letting people nap when they need it. There’s just something so, I would say magical, but really, it’s that sense of community everyone gets and encourages each other to push through it to make it through to the other side. And that’s what I really enjoy, this sense of community that everyone gets around this time. All of the students, regardless…
Travelogue
Posted December 2, 2021 by Abbey Metzler
I am no stranger to travelling home from university for the holidays. Whether by plane, train, or automobile, I have taken many midsemester journeys home for Thanksgiving. Some of them are longer than the others. Driving over thirteen hours from New York to Illinois does not get easier after four years of experience. But, armed confidently with a full set of vaccines, it was finally time to fly home for the break after a missed year. Leaving Boston, I headed to Logan International after a full day at my admin job. Not my very finest and most awake travel decision, but when you wait until the last minute to book your tickets you are at the mercy of airline gods far above your understanding. In the pursuit of the least expensive tickets home, I ended up leaving on Monday. Ask anyone what the airports were going to be like this holiday travel week, and you would receive a message of apocalypse. Crowds and the associated chaos of the likes that haven’t been seen…
Making Sense of Misinformation in our Everyday Lives
Posted November 29, 2021 by Bryanne McArdle
With Thanksgiving coming, here, or past (whenever you the reader are oriented date-wise), I’m always thinking about how when I was in elementary school in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Thanksgiving was always about turkeys with multi-colored tails, or pastel colored-fake Native headdresses, or black construction paper Pilgrim hats. All of which are wrong on many levels. And when you’re attending a school of library and information science, emphasis on the information part, the level of wrong only becomes more clear, and uncomfortable. As a native New Englander who grew up with wild turkeys in my backyard, even as a child I could tell you they do not have tail feathers that are bright yellow, red, green, and blue. Real turkeys are terrifying miniature dinosaurs that will attack you for so much as looking at them wrong. So why did I take that lie as nothing, and not think that maybe all of it was wrong, or at least off? The true answer was I was a child, and as much as I would…
SLIS in the World
Posted November 24, 2021 by Johnna Purchase
Welcome to our new feature, SLIS in the World, where we will be interviewing alums to see where in the world they are now, what they’re doing with their library degree, and what they loved the most about their time at Simmons. When people think of job opportunities post-graduation, they tend to think of roles like “middle school librarian” or “reference librarian.” Cybersecurity research tends not to be anywhere on the list of imagined roles, but for our inaugural alum, that’s exactly what her work at Forester involves! We’re happy to welcome to the blog Isabelle Raposo, a DYO (“Design Your Own”) concentrator who, after following her various passions through this flexible concentration, now describes herself as a “Swiss Army Knife” librarian ready to tackle all sorts of information needs after graduating in 2021. Read on to learn more about Isabelle’s work experience, favorite courses, and best study hack! The DYO track at Simmons allows students a lot of flexibility in how they shape their studies. How did you approach completing the DYO concentration? I…
To Saturday Mornings
Posted November 22, 2021 by Erin Finn
To Saturday mornings… Waking up bright and early, stopping for that necessary cup of coffee Driving to class as the sun makes the world just a bit brighter. ~~~ To Saturday mornings… Discussing the sleuthing questions that stumped us that week, Sharing thought processes and delving into animated discussion, Engaged and excited to learn. ~~~ To Saturday mornings… A nice mix between listening and talking, Cogs of my brain turning faster, absorbing what my classmates share. A small group of seven makes class discussion especially fun. ~~~ To Saturday mornings… You’ve become a weekly joy, something to look forward to. As the semester slowly grinds to a stop, I will miss you as we part for a bit. ~~~ To Saturday mornings… The semester is not quite concluded, There’s still some time left.
It’s Registration Day!
Posted November 15, 2021 by Erin Finn
It’s hard to comprehend just how fast this Fall semester has flown by. I know we aren’t done just yet, but the discussions in my classes are slowly starting to involve final projects and the inevitable last day of the semester. While it’s exciting to be considering classes for next semester, I am going to miss my current schedule that I have become quite used to. Maybe it’s the first semester nostalgia already kicking in before I have completed it…who knows? The exciting thing about a conclusion to the semester is that I get to consider what classes I would like to take next semester, which has always been one of my favorite things to sit down and plan. Even in my undergraduate schooling, I would always get excited when the next semester catalog was released, and I could peruse the offerings to see what might interest me. One of the things that makes this experience especially fun at SLIS is that my program is mostly made up of elective courses, so I really get…
Ode to the SLIS Lounge
Posted November 12, 2021 by Bryanne McArdle
Opine for gossip The long knowing microwave beeps The sound that fills the space before a bite or sip ~~~ Discussions of theoretical leaps Of job postings that best fit our skills The latest weekly crisis crawls in, seeping ~~~ It all shows the academic hills that we climb everyday Trying to understand our own desires within what the world wills ~~~ But this is the point of spaces like this, the way for us to connect, whether physical or digital we find to connect and stay ~~~ It’s multifunctional And never illogical
A Three-Part Guide to Daylight Savings
Posted November 9, 2021 by Abbey Metzler
On Monday evening, or really what I would call at most late afternoon, I sat at my desk in my office building watching the sun go down. Spring forward and fall back, daylight saving time has come to an end here in the United States. I know that I am somewhat alone in loving winter. Five lake-effect snow laden years living in Central New York will do that to a girl. But, even I felt the spike of dread at watching the sky darken at an early 4:30pm. I know that a lot of Simmons students aren’t from New England, myself included. Winter here is not the same dusting of snow that shuts down major Southern cities. Before we also start to resign ourselves to hibernation until Spring, I thought I would share my plan to make our long, cold nights a little less daunting. Maybe these three tips will make you winter people yet. We are always looking for converts! Step 1: Read. I know. I know. We are all here in the…