Time Flies. And Stands Still.
Posted March 30, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
It’s been another weird week, but I think I’m getting used to this new normal. Some days have seemed endless, but others have flown by. I’ve established a pretty good new routine and set a schedule for my job and my schoolwork. I don’t usually schedule out my days, but it’s been the most effective way for me to remember everything that I need to do. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get caught up in all the negatives and uncertainty and get nothing done as a result. What I didn’t realize in the frenzy of the past three weeks is that there’s less than a month left in the semester! I have two big projects to finish before then. The first project that I have to finish is my group project for metadata. It’s due next week, and we have already gotten a good start on it. That’s the last big thing for that class, other than a few small assignments which I consider “easier” only because I get to do them myself and don’t…
Libraries, Twitter, and Me!
Posted March 25, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
It’s week two of life during coronavirus, and I’m still struggling to focus on my schoolwork. I’ve been using my phone calendar to set reminders for things I need to do, because I keep getting distracted. I’m stuck in an endless cycle of hand washing, freaking out about the news, going to work, doing schoolwork, and stress eating ice cream. That being said, I haven’t needed any reminders for one particular project for my collections development class: our Twitter assignment. The initial assignment called for us to tweet pictures of interesting things at the library, like themed displays, or links to events at the library. Sadly, I had only been tweeting for three days before all the libraries started cancelling events and eventually closed entirely. But there has still been a lot to tweet about! Because so many people are stuck at home and need things to do, they are turning to their libraries for help. Libraries in turn are doing everything they can to help, and this is where Twitter comes in. Libraries can…
Conference-ing 101
Posted March 24, 2020 by Adaliz Cruz
Hi all, I hope you are well, safe, and healthy. Due to the present circumstances, I am currently working and studying from home as most of you are as well. This means that two of my upcoming professional development (aka conferences) events are cancelled. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty bummed. I love going to conferences. Why? Well, the high of attending of course. You must be thinking, what in the world is a conference high? A conference high is what I call the tired, but exhilarated and pumped feeling during and after attending a conference. While I have not polled every single conference attendee, most people I talk to say that they have a sense of renewing one’s love of the field after attending a conference. While at a conference you get to meet/catch up with the colleagues you met thanks to my last post who live far away from you. If you are part of an affinity group, especially from marginalized communities, conferences provide the perfect setting for an impromptu support meeting…
Everything Changed
Posted March 20, 2020 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
I almost cried on Monday the 9th when I found out that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was cancelled. My week did not get better from there. Of course, I watch the news and saw that a Corona virus was proving to be deadly in cruise ships, China, and Italy. I had student teaching last week. Tuesday was a normal day in the library, checking out books and doing read alouds with the K-2 grades. Wednesday was also pretty normal. There were no updates from the school and I went about my day as usual. Thursday came along and everything changed. I wore latex gloves when handling books, which definitely felt weird. I spent my day disinfecting books, laptops, tables, and everything in the library. Kids could not sit on the cushions for the reading nook. For a few minutes in the morning, the librarian was afraid the principal would tell her it was too dangerous to check out books. At the end of the school day on Thursday, one of the other teachers told…
The World Has Changed
Posted March 18, 2020 by Sarah Callanan
I’m writing this blog post on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!) and the world has certainly changed since my last post. Things could completely change between me writing this and this getting posted–who knows?! COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, and it is still going strong. Schools have closed, restaurants and bars have closed to the public and are doing take out and delivery only, and many universities, including Simmons , have transitioned to online learning for the rest of the semester. Many people are now working remotely, and social distancing is now the new norm. If you are social distancing, under quarantine, working remotely, transitioning to online classes, or just simply need to take a break and relax for a few minutes, here are some of the things that I’ve been reading and watching lately as an escape. Some are new favorites, some are old standbys, but they bring a smile to my face, and I hope maybe one of them will help you! READ: See what’s available in an eBook…
Changes Ahead
Posted March 17, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
To say the last week has been crazy would be an understatement. Coronavirus has already changed a lot of our lives, and I’m sure by the time this is published, things will have changed even more. It’s definitely scary. The good thing is that Simmons has had an amazing response to the coronavirus, sending regular emails detailing exactly what is going on and what will happen. Simmons is doing a great job of looking after its students and making sure they are properly taken care of, and I am grateful to each and every one of the people who have helped ease us through this transition. Thank you for all your work! I’m an online student and my classes have resumed as usual following our spring break. I’m actually happy to have schoolwork because it gives me something to do other than worry about what’s going on with coronavirus, although I admit my focus is not at its best right now. Unfortunately, the on-campus students are bearing the brunt of the changes, with their in-person…
Spring Break 2K20
Posted March 10, 2020 by William Crouch
The CoronaVirus has certainly thrown everybody for a whirlwind recently. It’s been difficult to keep track of what is and isn’t closed for the time being. Simmons, thankfully, was on spring break from March 9 to March 13 while most students went on vacation. For me, I had the great opportunity to take a week long intensive class at Simmons called “Moving Image Archives”. It ended up being my favorite class of the semester, so far. As stated in one of my previous blogs, I hope to work for the Walt Disney Archives one day and one of the parts of that archive is moving images. They have rare films like promotional ads from Walt that have helped reveal what his last taped appearance was. So taking this class not only helped me gain skills that will be very helpful in my journey as an archivist, but also made me seriously consider becoming a moving image archivist in the future. The first day was normal and we got to handle old home movies and use…
ICA: We All Shout Hooray!
Posted March 4, 2020 by Katie Carlson
A few weeks ago, I was able to snag a spot to attend the LOVE IS CALLING exhibit at the ICA with Panopticon (Simmons’ resident art libraries interest org) for FREE. It was one of the coolest installations I’ve seen in a while! LOVE IS CALLING is an installation by Yayoi Kusama that premiered in Japan in 2013. Kusama is a 90(!!!!) year old artist who has been active since the 60s. She is most known for her sculptures, massive installations, and blunt red bob. Polka dots are a common thread that run through Kusama’s sculptural work, and for good reason: Kusama was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive neurosis in the 70s, and states that the dots are a visual representation of hallucinations she has experienced since the age of 10. Kusama calls these clusters of polka dots “infinity nests,” while the full room installations are referred to as “infinity rooms.” LOVE IS CALLING (seen left) is a prime example of one of Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms, which use mirrors to make rooms (and polka dots)…
Super Statistics
Posted March 3, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
Did you know that the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners keeps detailed statistics on every single public library in the state? Or that the MBLC collects and analyzes all of these statistics and makes them available online in spreadsheet format? I found this out while I was completing an assignment for Collections Development. The assignment was to evaluate our library’s collection using standard evaluation methods, like list checking, peer comparison, user surveys, and statistics analysis. I chose to do a peer evaluation of my library and used the MBLC statistics to compare it to two neighboring libraries. It was really interesting to see how each library spends money and how their collection makeup differed. But it was also overwhelming because there are so many statistics. It bears repeating: there are so many statistics. Want to know how many study rooms a library has? Or the most recent year your library was renovated? Check out the Main Facilities spreadsheet. How about total materials expenditures and per capita rate of spending? Check out the Financial Data spreadsheet. …
Networking 101
Posted March 2, 2020 by Adaliz Cruz
I used to hate networking. I’m very much an introvert and even though I’ve worked on it and have gotten to know my introversion better I still sometimes struggle too. However, networking has allowed me to not be as intimidated as I once was by what I felt were “fancy people in the field”. Furthermore, it has landed me grants, scholarships, job interviews, and most importantly colleagues from around the world. I go to a lot of conferences and I do quite a lot of online networking too mostly through email lists, Facebook support groups, and just reaching out to people I would like to be in contact with. Sometimes I even cold email people! As a result I know my fair share of people in the field. OnceI forgot about someone I had connected with and they walked up to me excited to “finally meet the music librarian from Simmons”. I’m sure my face was worth a million! Because of this, I constantly get asked on how I do it and how I’ve put…