What I’m Reading Lately
Posted April 5, 2018 by ShanTil Yell
I haven’t put together a proper book list in quite some time, and I figure this is one of the best places to post such a thing. I’ll tell you a little bit about some of the books I’ve read so far this year…I’m about halfway to my goal of 30, which is exciting…, what I’m in the middle of, and what’s waiting for me! Stalking God by Anjali Kumar- I just finished this one a couple of days ago, so it’s still pretty present with me. I came across Kumar in a TED talk she gave that about made my heart burst, and when I found out that she wrote about her experiences in greater detail in this book, I had to get my hands on it. Kumar’s journey, self-described as unorthodox, is full of ups and downs and fascinating turns as she hunts for big answers about the meaning of life and a spiritual home for her young daughter. I applaud her for her bravery and for sharing her beautiful insights about what…
School and Stress
Posted April 4, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
I’m in the final push of my first semester of grad school. I just checked Moodle for my online class and I only have four weeks left. FOUR WEEKS. This semester has been so amazing, but unfortunately it is currently the most stressful part of the semester with readings, essays, online forums, and final projects being due soon. Add real-life interference and Fall 2018 class registration being this week and that leads to stress. Here are some things that I am doing to combat stress that may be useful in your life: Make a list: Making a list of everything that needs to be done and checking things off of it as those things get done actually can be very soothing because you can really see what has and has not been done. Walk: My mom has always stressed the power of walking, and how much good it can do for you, and I never actually believed her until I went to college, and I got stressed while writing a paper. I went on a…
An Apprehensive Baseball Fan
Posted April 3, 2018 by Ashley Jackson
Baseball Season is upon on. Opening games were just last week! I was never one to really watch baseball on television (so long!), but I did enjoy watching the World Series last year (ASTROS!). I do enjoy going to games because everything’s more fun in person in my opinion. Plus, it’s a chance to drink beer and partake in the food I usually would not. Hello junk food! I learned a bit about the game by watching the World Series, which I mean, the most elementary fundamentals of the game. Enough to watch, cheer, understand, but still feed my always curious brain so I can ask ridiculous questions most baseball fans will roll their eyes at. I don’t care because it’s a learning opportunity. Right? I have a feeling that this year things will change for me as a baseball fan. The Red Sox are literally just around the corner from us here at Simmons, and it’s across the street from my work, so I am expecting to be inundated with all things Sox this…
Librarian Advice
Posted April 2, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
Spring break has come and gone (while we’re still waiting for actual spring to arrive) which means we’re entering the second half of the semester. It’s amazing to me how different this semester has been from my last. In the fall I had the same number of classes and the same number of credits, but 20 hours a week was barely enough time to complete all the assignments and I struggled to keep up with the reading (I was also doing my 60-hour archives internship). This semester, 20 hours a week feels fairly sufficient, and my current two classes require lighter reading and fewer written assignments. Last Saturday we had one of our Day-in-the-Life lunchtime programs that could have been called “Personalized Advice from a Career Librarian.” It was awesome. These lunchtime events are one of the best things about SLIS West. There’s free food and the opportunity to mingle with classmates and librarians from around the area. Saturday’s speaker was Barbara Friedman, current part-time director of Erving Library with nearly fifty years of library…
In Case of Free Time
Posted March 29, 2018 by ShanTil Yell
Due to some marvelous twist of fate, I indeed have some of this coveted free time mentioned in the title, even in the midst of three classes, two part-time jobs, and an internship. Phew. Did I mention that the twist of fate was marvelous? Of course, a fair amount of said free time is spent taking care of important things (i.e. homework & blessed, blessed sleep) along with the everyday banalities of life. But how else to fill in those special gaps of nothingness? Here’s how it looks for me: I still read for pleasure. Honestly, I’ve found it impossible to stop! I tote books around to read on my train or bus commute, and I’ve joined a couple of different book clubs in the area. I was a little shy to jump in at first, but they’ve helped me be motivated to read new things regularly, and I’m also getting to meet some great new people. FYI- the Meetup app is an awesome way to get plugged into groups like this! Speaking of great…
Travelling and Books
Posted March 28, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
As I mentioned in my last post, I am in California! It is currently a balmy 72 degrees outside, and I am enjoying the break from winter (although it has apparently warmed up in Massachusetts since I left). One of the (very few) benefits of a long six-hour flight from Boston to San Diego is that it gives you a long, uninterrupted period of time to read. As a future librarian, I obviously love to read and am a hardcore bibliophile, and I always am grateful for any opportunity to read. Unfortunately, my life has been pretty busy lately, so I haven’t had much time for leisure reading in the past few months, but as I said, the flight gave me some time to catch up. Here are some of the books that I read (or in one case re-read) on my flight, all of which I recommend to you: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle Admittedly this was a re-read, but I love this book to pieces, and I had not picked this…
New Student Orientation and Meeting People- Make Friends!
Posted March 27, 2018 by Ashley Jackson
If you get the chance to attend Simmons, try and go to the new student orientation. It’s a great opportunity not only to see the campus and introduce yourself but to meet fellow students who are new to the program as well. This has been a lifesaver for me, mainly because I moved up here not knowing anyone. There were only four of us at the Spring orientation, and we all ended up being in the same classes. I feel that this has made us into a little pack this semester where we help each other in a variety of ways. One way, being new students and new to Boston, we can chat about challenges we encounter living in Boston. Most of these conversations have to do with the MBTA system and apartment searching. I’m currently grilling my friends from the ‘burbs about what they like, don’t like, and how the commute is, because, in case you didn’t know, Boston is a wee bit expensive guys. Look for roommates if possible! The other super important…
Conference Thoughts
Posted March 26, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
So, let’s talk about conferences. I knew that librarians had conferences before I came to library school. While I worked at an academic library in Virginia, I went to two of them. One was for the state library association, and the other was some kind of interlibrary-loan specific conference. Somehow this did not prepare me for how many library/archives conferences there would be happening in New England. As library students, we get plenty of emails about them and hear a lot about why we should be attending them. Students are even encouraged to submit papers and be presenters. Conferences are a great opportunity but they are difficult to attend. Most of them are a good distance from your home, necessitate overnight stay, require missing class or work (and in my case, lots of babysitting), and charge registration fees. Simmons and sponsoring organizations make a good effort to mediate these demands by offering professional development reimbursements, travel awards, and scholarships for students. These efforts are nice but they also require some time and work on the…
My Simmons Journey
Posted March 22, 2018 by ShanTil Yell
It’s officially spring time, but you wouldn’t guess it if you were to peer outside the window right about now. There are heaps of snow on the ground–remnants of our fourth nor’easter this month–and the sky is grey and overcast. I’m curled up at home and sipping on a mug of spiced tea, and today I’d like to share a little bit about how I got to Simmons in the first place and where I’m tentatively heading next. And by next I mean figuring out what classes I’m taking in the fall semester. Nothing too long-term at this point! I’ll be honest. I applied here on a whim. I was at a juncture in my life where I needed to make some kind of radical change, and I thought to myself, “Why not dig up that childhood dream of yours to be a librarian and see if you can make that happen?” I was giddy at the idea, and then my rational brain chimed in to tell me that while that was cute, I had…
Online Classes
Posted March 21, 2018 by Sarah Callanan
Simmons SLIS has a variety of ways you can take classes. They offer classes on the ground at the Boston campus, SLIS West (South Hadley, MA), and the Eric Carle Museum (Amherst, MA), blended classes with some sessions on the ground and some online, and fully online classes. The flexibility in class scheduling is something that is unique to Simmons and was one of the factors that helped me select Simmons as the place to get my graduate degree. As I mentioned in my first blog post, I am going the online route this semester. One of the great things about taking online classes is that you can do it from anywhere. Well, anywhere that has a Wi-Fi connection that is. One of the reasons why I decided to go to school online was because I am new to Massachusetts and I wasn’t sure if I could get from my home, which is about 20 miles outside of Boston, to classes in Boston in the snow. The way the past few weeks have gone, with…