Confessions of a Library Card Holder
Posted October 22, 2021 by Abbey Metzler
Reader, I have a confession. I, a Simmons Library and Information Science master’s student, have lived in Boston for over half a year now without getting my Boston Public Library card. The shock! The horror. I can hear the admonishments now. But maybe you, like me, moved to a new city during this time of great lockdown and weren’t sure how libraries were available to us with their front doors firmly closed and sanitized. That is why I write to tell you of my own journey for the little plastic card and the membership it represents. I decided to remedy my lapse in patronship during one of my library science classes. No, I won’t tell which one. It’s my first semester here and I want to make a good, attentive first impression on Simmons’ venerable professors. In said unnamed class, I pulled up the BPL website and found the page for their eCard registration. The eCard is available for anyone who lives or works in Massachusetts, even if you are only here part of…
Welcome New Blogger – Abbey
Posted October 22, 2021 by Lindsey Clarke
My name is Abbey and I am a first semester student in the Simmons History & Archives Management dual degree program. I grew up in a small town on the Mississippi river. From there, I went away to school at Syracuse University in upstate New York. At Syracuse I studied English Textual Studies and History, and learned to love a long, brutal winter. I got my introduction to archive work while studying abroad in Poland. When in Eastern Europe, I ate many pierogies and fell in love with working with book history materials. The Prohibited Library in Prague, and its collection of censored samizdat papers, inspired me to continue my education with a master’s in Library Science. I had realized that if we did not prioritize looking after the material evidence of history, then who would? I spend my time reading good books and watching bad television. I like stories about haunted houses, running during the fall when the wind is a little too cold, and Taylor Swift. Boston has been my dream city for…
The Pandemic Effect
Posted October 15, 2021 by Bryanne McArdle
I’m sure this is a buzz word in some circle. Maybe it’s a phrase that’s used so much now it just counts as normal vernacular at this point. I’m not quite sure. Just like I’m not really sure how during a global pandemic I was able to apply, enroll, and succeed at a Library Science Program. It’s all kind of…a nebulous mystery. Just like the where on Earth this past year a more has gone?! But at the same time, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I enrolled to study ways to increase people’s accessibility to resources and information, just as everyone suddenly needed access to resources and information in an extremely turbulent time. When politics and divisions were highlighted, I got to see clearly where I had wanted to shine a spotlight focused on by others too. It was incredibility reaffirming in my choices. So, all in all, the pandemic effect has not been a bad thing for me. You just have to look at it differently, like looking at the pretty colors…
Sports in Boston. Sports in the Thesis.
Posted October 15, 2021 by William Crouch
As I bet most of you reading know, Boston is very much a sports city. With the Red Sox and Celtics both being historic teams in baseball and basketball respectively and the Patriots being the dominant force they have been for 20 years, Boston’s love of sports speaks for itself. One of the really cool things I got the chance to do recently was attend a fairly new sporting event in Boston, the Laver Cup. The Laver Cup is a pretty new tennis tournament that attracts the biggest stars to come play as Team Europe takes on Team World. Some of the biggest names in tennis like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic have all played the Laver Cup before. In 2019, the Laver Cup announced that Boston was to be the host site of the 2020 edition of the Laver Cup. I’m a pretty avid tennis fan myself. I played in undergrad for the Austin College ‘Roos and took the sport back up during the pandemic with my dad. When the opportunity came to get tickets for…
Welcome New Blogger – Bryanne
Posted October 13, 2021 by Lindsey Clarke
I’m Bryanne, and I’m an Information Science and Technology (IS&T) student at Simmons SLIS. My focus is on increasing the ability for library users and other information seekers to get access to the information they need, especially for under-served populations. Before studying at SLIS, I worked and volunteered in various museums in their collections and curation departments, as well as building and running an internship program for students from high school to college at one of these institutions. Along with this, I also worked in software documentation, and in working in these two fields, I found the lovely niche which landed me in the IS&T concentration. Other fun facts on me include: I was born and raised in Massachusetts; I earned my BA from Hobart and William Smith in 2016 after studying Cultural Anthropology and European Studies; I write short stories and poetry in my spare time; and I’m an avid gamer of both the computer and tabletop varieties.
The History Thesis or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Research.
Posted September 24, 2021 by William Crouch
Well after 2 years in the archives and history program, the culmination of all my history work is finally here: The History Thesis. The Master’s Thesis is an original piece of research that is intended to utilize the skills you have developed in both the history and archives programs. You are expected to primarily utilize and build off of archival material in developing your work and contribute to the field that you are doing your research in. Now after getting the formalities out of the way, let’s talk a little more about my topic. While it is expected to develop over the course of the next few months, currently I have been researching Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe’s roles as social activists and newly professional athletes. With the pandemic leaving many things in a somewhat gray area in regards to accessibility, it has been difficult to determine what archives are allowing visitors and which ones are not. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a push to digitize many archival holdings to prevent…
Three Weeks In…Reflections on the First Semester
Posted September 21, 2021 by Johnna Purchase
We’re three weeks into the semester over here at Simmons! At times it feels as if I’ve been doing this forever (I’ve already completed my first group project!) and other times it feels as if I still don’t quite have a regular routine established (how should I use my after-class afternoons this week…?). I remind myself that it’s early in the semester still, and, as such, I – and my fellow first-years – are still figuring out what our individual “grad school rhythms” will be. During these weeks I keep returning to thinking about natural adjustments and the way my courses fit into my “master plan” for the three years of my program. Since this is my first semester of grad school, I have had to adjust to many different aspects of schooling – living in Boston, learning a new commute, being the student instead of the teacher, making new friends from scratch, finding groups and activities to participate in, and balancing work and study schedules. Amidst this change, I have most had to…
Planning Your Move: Spreadsheets, Time Machines, and Lime Skittles
Posted September 12, 2021 by Johnna Purchase
With only three weeks until term begins and the annual “great lease renewal” of Boston September 1st, if you have yet to plan how you are moving yourself and belongings to your new apartment, the time has come. I moved to the city cross-country from Texas in early August and so, with 1,839 miles and nearly thirty hours in a Kia Niro hybrid worth of experience, here are a few suggestions I have about how to prepare for your move if you, like me, need to cover a long distance: Utilize Google Sheets. There are many variables when planning a move so instead of relying on your potentially-running-on-overdrive-thanks-to-all-the-change brain to remember everything, start keeping track in Google Sheets. You can use formulas to tally costs, project budgets, make checklists, and organize it on separate tabs. It’s also a great opportunity to brush up on your Excel/GSuite skills. If you need more help, check out the resources provided from Simmons in the Technology Competencies Guidelines which was emailed out to students in mid-June. Choose your mode…
The Final Countdown and the Return
Posted September 9, 2021 by William Crouch
Hi everyone. It’s been a while since my last post. A lot has happened since then. I’ve begun my final semester in the program and started my final master’s thesis as the culmination of my history degree. After brainstorming and trying to plan on what to write about, I’ve settled on the topic of tennis. Specifically, once tennis turned professional in 1968, how did this change allow activists like Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King to succeed as athletes and even more so as leaders for social change when previous marginalized groups did not have the same degree of success in an inherently elitist sport. But I’ll write more on that later. The other courses I’ll be taking as the finale to my archives degree will be LIS 437 Legal Information and Sources and LIS 442 Establishing Archives and Manuscripts. The Legal Information sources class is going to be really interesting and already pretty timely with how much the law is changing. The need for librarians who understand how to navigate these complex sources is…
My Last Semester at Simmons!
Posted September 7, 2021 by Sarah Callanan
Hey everyone! We wrapped up LIS 447: Collection Maintenance a few weeks ago and ended the course with enclosures! In the last few weeks of the course, I made a pamphlet binder, a wrapper for a book, a two-piece lidded box, and mounted paper objects with both photo corners and tissue T-hinges. Honestly, Collection Maintenance was one of my favorite classes at Simmons, which is kind of surprising because I am not really the most crafty person and this was a very hands-on class. Every week I managed to surprise myself with what I was able to accomplish and with how much I had learned and how much I had grown from previous weeks. One of the reasons why I wanted to take LIS 447 is because I want to get the most experience that I can out of my Simmons education and this class was so different than anything else I’ve done before at SLIS. I think that collection maintenance is a fascinating subject and that it is a really useful and practical…