Warm Weather and the End of the Semester
Posted April 15, 2023 by Rebecca Devereaux
The warm weather has returned, and the end of the semester is upon us! It has been awhile since I posted to the blog, and I have a lot to share. This semester I’ve been completing aninternship at Harvard’s School for Public Health in their Center for the History of Medicine(CHOM). I have interviewed several of the people who work in CHOM. One of my biggesttakeaways is that when you are receiving a donation it is important to make the donor feel heardand valued. The archivist should not be in a rush, because often many emotions are tied up intodonations. This is another way to understand the archives as a relational space. I have also beenable to help with the accessioning of Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith’s papers. There is something sospecial about walking through another person’s career.At the end of March, I traveled back to Washington and attended the Washington LibraryAssociation annual conference. This year it was held in my hometown. I also had the joy ofattending with my mother who is a teacher librarian. It…
Spring is Here!
Posted April 12, 2023 by Ivy Noonan
Am I the only one who got a huge mood boost once it got warmer out? While I am working tomorrow and Friday I will be outside enjoying the weather as much as I can during my lunch breaks. With the warmer weather begins the slow crawl to the finish line of the semester. I know I’ll be spending this next month working on the final drafts of my masters thesis. We’re still on track to graduate! Given that I’m almost done with the project here are a few tips that I think would help students who are just beginning this process. It’s a daunting project but definitely one that will teach you a lot of skills on time management and researching in the end. You can do it!
AWE-some
Posted April 7, 2023 by Lauren Redding
Ever since our class discussion about it last semester in Professor Rachel Williams’ LIS 450 “Public Libraries,” I have been thinking a lot about vocational awe. As preparation for the discussion, we read an article by Fobazi Ettarh “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves.” My class had a stimulating discussion about vocational awe and burnout and our own experiences in libraries as well as other former careers and jobs. Vocational awe is generally defined as the feeling that people can have for their own job, where they refer to it as a “calling” or a “vocation” or that the work that we do is “inherently good and sacred.” Helping professions like teachers, librarians, social workers, and nurses are particularly susceptible to this kind of thinking. We seemed to agree in my class that a little attitude like this, a feeling that the work we do is important and helps people, could be helpful to get out of bed in the morning some days. But the general thought is that a lot of…
MSLA Conference Happenings
Posted April 5, 2023 by Magenta Jasinski
I recently attended the MSLA (Massachusetts School Library Association) conference at UMass Amherst, one of my favorite college campuses in the state. This event was MUCH smaller than the last conference I wrote about, the Young Adult Library Services (YALSA) conference. It was held on a Sunday and Monday with an optional social on Saturday night. Between the two days, I think there were about 300 people who attended. I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of participants over wings and beer at the Saturday social at Hangar Pub which made me feel much more comfortable over the next two days of the conference. We had a tight group of Boston librarians that sat with each other at breakfasts and conference sessions. I loved having such a supportive group, and I aspire to be many of them; I am currently a library assistant and MLIS student, and all of them were full-time school librarians. Making those connections was so valuable, and connecting with librarians from Western Massachusetts (WeMA, as one of my friends calls…
Longer Days and Warmer Weather
Posted March 22, 2023 by Ivy Noonan
While I wasn’t super thrilled at losing an hour of sleep last weekend. I can definitely say I’m very happy the weather has gotten warmer and it’s not dark at 4:30! This has been really helping my overall mood and study motivation as we creep closer and closer to the end of the semester. Have you sat outside and done homework on campus before? I definitely recommend it. The trees in front of the 1 Palace Rd. building provide lots of shade and a cool breeze. The outdoor patio on the 5th floor of the Management building also provides stunning views and warm sunny rays while you take a break. One of my favorite spots to study is near the trees that look like they’re wearing sweaters between the Main College Building and the library. I’m glad they’ve been cozy all winter long! What’s your favorite study spot on campus? Or even off campus. I love studying in my office but I’m always partial to a nice coffee shop to work. I’d also always recommend…
Useability Testing – A Mid-Project Reflection
Posted March 17, 2023 by Lauren Redding
For the past week, I’ve been in the thick of a practicum project based around useability testing for our school library website. The school library teacher practicum requires us to complete two “minor” non-teaching projects, one in the “administrative” side of things and one in the “technology” realm. Useability testing is “a research and development method that involves end users who provide feedback on the web site design.” In essence, I’ve spent this week sitting next to student volunteers, watching them navigate our website and talk through the decisions they are making and the thoughts that are going through their head. This weekend I’m going to start transcribing, comparing, and analysing my notes and the students’ rates of success on the given tasks. My mentor librarians and I have so many questions about how the website works in practice: Are the students comfortable using it? Were they taught how to use it effectively? Do they remember being taught how to use it? Have they practiced those skills since? If something in the website is hard…
Fighting the Mid-Semester Blues with a Little Green
Posted March 15, 2023 by Klaire Chandler
This Friday is St. Patrick’s Day, a big holiday here in Boston. I’ve lived my whole life in New England, so it’s always been an interesting day for me, but this year I have met a few out-of-town friends through Simmons who are excited about their first St. Patty’s. On the one hand, I’ve got archival subject headings to identify and a Civil War literature review to write, but on the other, I’ve got corn beef hash and brown bread to eat. School’s important and staying on top of assignments and readings is essential. However, I just want to encourage my fellow SLIS students to remember to enjoy the now. I know that sounds a little silly, but we only have so long here at Simmons and many of us will leave this school and this city within a few years. Beyond that, I think it’s good to take a step back and plan some time for yourself. This time of year a lot of us fall into a sort of slump. I’ve seen a…
Welcome Emma!
Posted March 14, 2023 by Lindsey Clarke
We are adding another blogger to the mix. Everyone say hello to Emma! Hello friends! My name is Emma Hayden and I started my second semester as a dualHistory and Library & Information Science student at Simmons in January. I attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where I got a degree in History with a minor in Religious Studies. I just moved to the Boston area in the fall from Southern California with my cat Phoebe. Phoebe (alsoknown as Pheebs) loves going on walks around Boston in her backpack! I have taken her withme on many adventures but I think our favorite spot so far is Fenway Park or the Boston PublicGarden. In my spare time I enjoy reading romance books, crocheting, and line dancing!I am new to the SLIS program, however I have really enjoyed the classes I have taken so farand am looking forward to my classes this semester. Last semester I got my first taste of basiccoding and markup languages in LIS 488: Technology for Information Professionals, which wasa lot more fun…
Summer Dreamin’ to Bust the Mid-Term Monotony
Posted March 10, 2023 by Rebecca Devereaux
I have reached the monotonous section of the semester. School is chugging away, meaning there are papers to write, books to read, lib guides to build, and I am looking for the time needed to cook something more nutritious than top ramen or a quesadilla. If anybody told you the life of a graduate student is glamourous, they were seriously delusional. The graduate students I know tend to drink more coffee than is good for them, they struggle with anxiety, and all of them can’t wait to be doing the work that this degree will allow them to do. In library school many of the assignments serve as models. While it is necessary for a professor to have a standardized assignment to give out, it can personally be frustrating knowing that my work, as of yet, will not make a direct impact on a library or archive. The work I do is stuck in theoretical land. I am looking forward to truly doing the work, directly shaping collections and helping patrons. To expedite the process…
Two Student Teaching Practica
Posted March 3, 2023 by Lauren Redding
The grande finale of the School Library Teacher concentration is the two school practicums we complete in our final year of the program. Since our certification is for K-12, school library teachers complete two semesters of student teaching practicums: one in an elementary school and one in a middle or high school. With 150 hour requirements each, I spent about three days a week in each of my schools through the course of the semester. The time passes in a flash with teaching, co-teaching, observing, managing the collection, mini-projects, getting to know the students and teachers, and sitting in on as many technology and administrative decision conversations as possible. This semester my practicum placement is Boston Latin School, a 7th-12th grade public exam school right next door to Simmons’ Boston Campus. In a school with over 2400 students, the library is a huge, gorgeous facility with space for over a hundred study hall students in addition to a full classroom. Even with two full-time librarians, there is still lots of work for me to do!…