First Weeks
Posted September 30, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
The fall semester is starting to ramp up everyone! We’ve only had three class sessions of LIS 454: Digital Information Services and Providers so far but I feel like I’ve learned so much! We’ve been building on topics that we learned about in LIS 407: Information Sources and Services such as Boolean logic and nesting as well as learning new topics such as database structure and search techniques for specific databases. We’ve started working with ProQuest databases, ProQuest Dialog, and Factiva so far. I’m learning more about the particulars of how to search, and why it is best to search that way. I really enjoy searching so this class is definitely my cup of tea! Now that we’ve had a few class sessions, I can tell you that LIS 454 is very different than other classes that I’ve taken at SLIS before. Then again, I suppose that most classes students are taking this semester (as well as in Spring 2020 and Summer 2020) have been a bit different because of the pandemic. As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts, this was…
Fall 2020 and Welcome Week
Posted September 23, 2020 by William Crouch
It’s pretty crazy to think about how different the start to this fall semester is compared to last year. At this time last year, I was moving to Boston and now the whole world is somewhat frozen with the pandemic while Simmons is not having anything on campus this fall. But that hasn’t stopped us from trying to establish a community for our SLIS students as at the beginning of the month we had a series of digital welcome events for our new students. We had students talk with professors about the upcoming year, meeting with our Simmons librarians to help with research, a meeting for students to get to know each other and chat, and we even had a drawing for SLIS clothing at the end of the week. It was a lot of fun and if any incoming students are hesitant about attending these events the next time we have them, hopefully in person next fall, I would highly recommend going to help establish connections with professors and fellow students before your grad…
Books, Books, and More Books
Posted September 23, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
The semester is still young, but I’ve already read five books for my Young Adult Literature class! I definitely panicked when I saw this on the syllabus. The professor had sent out an email a few weeks before the semester began to let us know that we had to read three books for week 2, but since I signed up for the class late, I didn’t get the news until the first week of class. Thankfully, the books were quick reads, and I had more notice for the two books I had to read for week 3. While it requires a lot of reading, this class has been amazing so far. I signed up for it mainly because I love YA literature, but I also signed up because I wanted to read out of my comfort zone. I’m used to reading books of my choosing. I gravitate towards mysteries, fantasies, and other light reads. This isn’t a bad thing, but I think it’s important as a librarian to be familiar with all types of books. I wanted to get familiar with books and…
New School Year and New Job
Posted September 21, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
Hello, and welcome back to a new school year at SLIS. I have now been in this library science program for three years. I was originally planning to graduate with both my Masters of Library and Information Science this January with my certification to be a K-12 Library Media Teacher. As with lot of other things going on right now, that is not possible. I miss being on campus for classes, and so do the professors. My professor for my LIS 410 course on Library Services for Diverse Users did a live Zoom class with us last week, and we may have a couple more this semester. The “live” class sessions make it feel a little more like it is in-person. As of early September, I have moved to a new apartment and started a new job. With public schools, there are some pros and cons right now for new teachers. The big downside is I could not find a placement for student teaching this fall. I came to this decision with lots of support…
Ready to Go!
Posted September 16, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
Classes started last week. I’m excited to get back into a normal routine again, especially since the world is still so uncertain. I might not be able to count on much right now, but I know I can count on my schoolwork and deadlines to give me a bit of normalcy, and I’m grateful for that. My classes run from Tuesday-Monday and Thursday-Wednesday, and I’ve started to plan out the days I work on each class. I like to create my own routine and get a little bit of work done every day so that I am not cramming everything in on the due date. This semester I’m taking LIS 458, Database Management, and LIS 483, Library Collections and Materials for Young Adults. I had intended to take LIS 532R, Reader’s Advisory, but it ended up being a synchronous online class—meaning each session was at a specific time—and unfortunately, the time didn’t work out with my schedule. While I’m disappointed about that, I am very happy with the classes that I chose. I can tell already that Database Management is going to…
New Semester, New Class
Posted September 14, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
Summer break is over, and the Fall 2020 semester has officially started! I didn’t do too much during the break—the pandemic sort of limits your summer break activities. I did a lot of baking, and I saw my sister for the first time since the pandemic started! We had a socially distanced picnic. I really enjoyed the time off from school, but I’m happy to be back in the saddle again! As I mentioned in my last post, I am taking LIS 454: Digital Information Services and Providers this semester, and we had our first class session this week! This is an exciting new experience for me as the class is being taught live over Zoom, and I’ve never taken a class taught in this particular format. I’ve said in several of my past blog posts that I’ve wanted to take an in-person class for a while, and this class was originally scheduled to be in-person in Boston—it was just adapted to an online synchronous live format because of COVID-19. While I have had a few live sessions in some of my…
Summer of Covid
Posted September 9, 2020 by William Crouch
Hey everyone. I thought I might share a little bit of what I have been doing aside from classes during this strange summer. I’ve moved back to Texas to wait out this pandemic which has been insanely different than what Massachusetts has experienced. Obviously, Texas experienced a massive spike in cases around the end of June and throughout July. Thankfully, I’ve been able to isolate myself for the most part to hopefully limit my exposure. One of the benefits from being in Texas this summer is that I’ve been able to start playing tennis again. I played tennis in undergrad for my school, Austin College, but for a number of factors, I wasn’t able to continue playing when I moved to Boston. To try and get some fresh air and exercise, my dad and I have been playing almost every night which has been really beneficial for my mental and physical health. Due to how tennis is played, it’s really easy to maintain social distancing, so if anybody is looking for a way to get…
Eight Classes Down, Four to Go!
Posted August 14, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
We are done with the summer term everyone! I finished LIS 475 right at the beginning of August, so I’ve had a little bit of time without having to worry about schoolwork, and I don’t start my next class until the beginning of September. Eight classes down, four to go! I can’t believe that I am two-thirds of the way done with my time at SLIS! The fall semester is right around the corner, and because SLIS announced that classes are going to be online for the fall because of COVID-19, it opened up so many options in terms of classes. In “normal times” I have to consider a lot of factors when I register, and it usually results in me taking online classes. I’ve always wanted to take some of the classes that are only taught on campus but the timing and circumstances haven’t been right. For fall, having everything shift online has opened a lot of doors for me. I’m currently registered for LIS 454: Digital Information Services and Providers. I’m really excited…
Final Summer Thoughts
Posted August 13, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I finished all my work for Collections Management last week. I can’t believe the summer semester is over already. It went by so fast. I loved this class and would recommend it to all SLIS students, especially those who like hands on activities. It was a great introduction to book repair and definitely made me curious to learn more. It will be very nice to have a few weeks off, but I’m looking forward to my classes in the fall. Since SLIS announced that all of its classes for the fall would be online, all the in-person classes that I normally would not have been able to take were suddenly available to me. I had to rethink my classes a bit, and I ended up signing up for a new class, LIS 532R, Reader’s Advisory. I wanted to take this class as soon as I saw it in the course descriptions, but I wasn’t able to because it was at the Mount Holyoke campus. But now I get to take it, and I am excited. …
Close to the Finish Line!
Posted July 30, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
We are getting close to the end of the semester everyone! We are in Week 7 and the summer term ends in just a few days! As you can imagine, I am feeling the pressure! Even though my class is ending in a few days, there is still so much left to do! As I’ve said in previous posts, summer classes are condensed courses—you are learning two weeks of material during a one-week period, so you are taking in a lot of information. LIS 475: Organizational and Information Ethics has been a very interesting class. The early weeks were less focused on library and information-related content, and were more focused on introducing us to the concept of what ethics is and ethical frameworks. We didn’t really start talking about information ethics or anything super-related to libraries until later in the course. We’ve covered so many topics in this class already, such as Ethical Frameworks, Ethics and Organizational Culture and Management, Ethical Decision Making and Legal Compliance, Information Ethics, Privacy and Access, Digital Equity, Intellectual Freedom,…