Focus on EBSCO
Posted August 29, 2019 by Katie Carlson
On August 13th I was able to participate in a focus group for the new EBSCO mobile app! I really love workshopping, and this felt like that to the extreme. It was awesome to have a say in a product that I will get to reap the benefits from, as well as pass on to patrons, friends, and future researchers alike. This particular focus group was definitely saturated with library and information science students. I personally knew half of the group members, and recognized most of the others! Involvement in LIS definitely informed our reaction to the EBSCO mobile app. Most people in this section of the focus group entered with an understanding of EBSCO’s products and an interest in user experience (at least enough to sign up for the study). It was great to hear the opinions of other library science students, but I would have also loved more input from people outside the field. Does the average Bostonian conducting research care about how many times a paper has been cited in other academic…
Getting Ready For Fall 2019
Posted August 27, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
Wow! It is hard to believe there is only one more week until classes start! It’ll be nice to get back into study mode after having a month break. The last few things I need to do before classes start are buy my textbooks for class, buy some notebooks, and get ahead on readings due the first couple weeks. In the School Library Teacher Program (SLTP), students are able to take two electives. I have always loved writing for fun, and one of the reasons I chose Simmons was due to their exceptional Children’s Literature department. (not to mention their very reputable School Library Teacher Program within the Library and Information Science department). My one fun elective for this fall semester is Writing for Children I. Some of my other SLTP friends are taking electives such as Storytelling and Medieval Manuscripts. My one required class for the fall is Library Collections and Materials for Young Adults, where I will learn about how to create and manage a library collection for teens. I am excited…
It’s LIT!
Posted August 6, 2019 by Katie Carlson
The truth is, sometimes I think of myself as a ‘bad librarian’ for how few books I’ve read in the past year! It may even be less that I’m not living up to the librarian stereotypes, and more because I feel like I’m missing a piece of myself! In middle and high school (especially over the summer), I would read two or three books a week. College kind of killed my reading bug. I’d find it almost impossible to read for pleasure after 200-some pages of theory, so Netflix it was! I had high hopes that the ease of reading would fly back to me post-graduation, but that was not the case! One book. I read one book! ALL SUMMER! After Karin Slaughter’s thrilling but terrifying Pretty Girls (highly recommend), I was overcome with moving to Boston, making my first apartment home, and finding a tribe. Kicking off grad school meant more prescribed reading, three jobs, and more exhaustion. But even though summer is almost over, I decided I’d had enough. I work at a…
End of Summer Term, Plus Beach Reads!
Posted July 30, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s the last week of summer term! Yay! I am almost done with all my work. I submitted my final project for my Info Sources class, but I am still finishing my final paper for my Management class. It’s a grant proposal and I’m struggling with it. Grant writing is very different from academic writing. It needs to be very concise and to the point. I love to write and play around with words and sentence structure and having to pare down my language has been tough. I’m focusing on brevity but I’m also worried that I’m not explaining myself enough. I’m sure there’s a sweet spot between too little explanation and too much explanation, but I haven’t found it yet and I’m frustrated. It feels very sparse and cold somehow. Thankfully I have a solid base written out and I just need to make sure that I’m being addressing all the necessary points. But grant writing is something that I am probably going to be encountering in my library career, so it’s good to…
Summer Life
Posted July 29, 2019 by Peggy Hogan-Rao
It’s hard to believe that July is almost over! I’ve kept busy this summer with studying, even though I am not taking any summer classes. I took the reading MTEL Communication & Literacy Skills subtest in June, and I have the writing exam next week. The MTEL Communication & Literacy Skills is an exam SLT students need to pass before they can do their last two semesters of practicum experiences (student teaching). Luckily, I saved my eighth grade grammar textbook and brought it out to Boston! Princeton Review has been very helpful in my studying. I also listen to a podcast called Grammar Girl to review the basic grammar rules. When I am not studying, I’ve been applying to part time jobs in the fall. I’ve applied to a few at Boston Public Library, one at Cambridge Public Library, and a couple of library assistant positions in local school districts. With six library job applications submitted, it is waiting time. Waiting to hear back is definitely the hard part, but at least I can catch…
Summer is Flying By!
Posted July 25, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
Things have been crazy! Summer is just flying by! There are only seven weeks in my summer class (LIS 404: Principles of Management), and we are in Week 6, and there is so much left to do. During these last two weeks, we’re learning about Change Management, Grant Writing, Fiscal Responsibility, Budgeting, and Evaluation and Coordination of Library Functions! So many topics, so little time! There are still several assignments left to complete, readings to be done, and forums to participate in and it is crunch time. I’ve really enjoyed this class, especially because this class has more of a classroom feel to it. Even though this is an online course, this class utilizes “wikis” on Moodle where we have discussions that are more personal (like the one about the Jung Typology/Myers Briggs personality test that I mentioned in my last post), so we get to know our classmates. This past week (Week 5), one of our topics was Motivation and Drive, and we had a discussion on what our motivations were for pursuing our…
How a Hungry Floridian Feeds Herself without Publix
Posted July 23, 2019 by Maria Reilova
Now as someone born and raised in Florida, I have very strong opinions on which supermarket is the best. Publix is the greatest gift that Florida has given to the Southeast and I will always make whoever picks me up from the airport come with a chicken tender pub sub in one hand, and a Publix arnold palmer in the other. So as nearly a cult member to the religion that is Publix, moving up to New England and not having access to my pub subs and near endless BOGO deals was honestly quite worrisome. But don’t fret fellow Floridians, or any folks who care to read my crazed musings about grocery shopping, I have taken it upon myself to visit the nearest grocery stores to me and let y’all in on all my crazy thoughts and opinions. I’ll not go to in depth since this is one of those weird topics that I could talk about for hours, but honestly I feel like this is helpful information for fellow foodies moving to the Boston area from…
Adventures in Reference
Posted July 16, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
It’s week 5 and I still haven’t gotten the hang of how fast summer courses go by. Including this week, there are only three weeks left in the semester. *takes a few deep, calming breaths.* How did that happen? Basically, because all I’ve been focusing on is my schoolwork and how to get everything done on time without cramming. I’ve been keeping a very regular study schedule so that I don’t get behind. When I get home from work, I eat, then do school work, and on the weekends, I spend a lot of time finishing up projects. There really is no time to procrastinate or take a break, and the time has gone by in a blur. But, I am loving both of my classes and have learned a ton already. I’m particularly enjoying LIS 407, Information Sources and Services. It’s all about reference services–basically, teaching us how to search more efficiently and effectively. We’ve learned many searching strategies, including how to combine those techniques to broaden or narrow our results, and how to…
Baby’s First ALA
Posted July 15, 2019 by Katie Carlson
A few weeks ago I took part in a librarian rite of passage, and made my way down to Washington D.C. for the ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition. As a grad student on a tight budget (especially a full time grad student living in Boston), attending conferences can be expensive. That is why I was extra thankful that LISSA offers Professional Development Reimbursement at Simmons! More information on PDR funds can be found here, but essentially LISSA will reimburse students for up to $250 incurred by engaging in LIS-related professional development activities. My $250 went directly towards my ALA experience, including covering a good chunk of the gas I purchased making the 879 mile journey from Boston to Washington, D.C. and back. This ALA trip truly was brought to you by a giant cooler filled with sandwiches, a 15 hour long playlist, PDR funds, and lots of iced coffee! As you probably know by now, one of my jobs is working as a SLIS Admission Student Ambassador. This meant I also manned the Simmons booth…
The Dog Days of Summer
Posted July 11, 2019 by Sarah Callanan
It’s Week 4 of LIS 404! Oh, my goodness, this class has been keeping me on my toes! As I’ve said before, this class is a lot shorter than a regular semester class, but we’re doing the same amount of work, which is a little bit intense! There’s a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time, so each week there’s an abundance of readings to be completed, notes to go over, and lectures to watch. I know that theoretically it is same amount of work as a regular semester class just in an accelerated timeframe, but between this class and my summer class last year, I feel that there is a lot more reading in summer classes than there is during the semester. However, this could just be because of the timing- maybe I just don’t notice the amount of reading as much because it is more spaced out during the regular semester classes? These past two weeks have been more ‘participation’ weeks rather than ‘assignment’ weeks, with us participating more…