Introducing Two New Members To Our Blogging Team!
Posted February 27, 2018 by Katie Olivo
Hello everyone! We’d like to introduce two new student bloggers, Sarah Callanan and ShanTil Yell. Please read a little about them below. You will see their first posts very soon! Welcome Sarah! My name is Sarah Callanan and I recently moved to Massachusetts from Raleigh, North Carolina. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a BA in Communication Studies with a minor in English. I have previously lived in Colorado and Michigan, so snow is not as much of a foreign concept to me as one might think. I started my MLIS degree in January 2018, and am pursuing the Archives Management concentration. My love of research, reading, and the fact that my living area was slowly but surely becoming a library is what prompted me to start my journey to getting this degree. I’m really enjoying getting to know the Boston area and all it has to offer. I’m so excited to be at Simmons and to be on this ride with all of you. Welcome ShanTil! Hi y’all, I’m ShanTil! If you couldn’t tell,…
Leadership in Libraries
Posted February 26, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
Nature is teasing me right now with some shockingly mild and beautiful weather for February, making everyone think that spring is coming. As such, I’ve been thinking about seeds. Not the kind that are already trying to sprout in my backyard, but rather, the kind that germinate in one’s mind to invoke new ideas and ways of thinking. This semester has planted the seeds of some new ideas in my mind – ideas that I never thought I’d have. Our professor for Academic Libraries is currently the Dean of Library Services at her institution, which is academic-speak for “the boss.” As such, she brings the very interesting perspective of library management and library administration – one that I have not gotten much of in my other courses at Simmons. What makes this doubly interesting for me is that my dad, who has spent his entire professional career as an English professor, has also recently found himself in a position of leadership and administration. Both my Academic Libraries professor and my dad have been thrust into…
Winter in Boston:
Posted February 23, 2018 by Josie Snow
Winter in Boston: The Autumnal colors left, and the chill air changed, carrying the scent of frosty leaves, and a crispness that makes it hard to stay outside. Here the wind sweeps in, and that combined with the wet cold makes the feeling of cold settle in your bones whenever you go outside. Everyone walks around in a bundle of coats, scarf, gloves–and yet, they are still very stylish. Fashion,it seems, still applies even when one must layer constantly. I also found the winter weather to be very mercurial, shifting constantly. One day it is rainy and cold, another day sunny and chilly, then rainy and warm, or perhaps snowy. The snow here comes in bursts and then doesn’t stay long, it turns to ice, or is washed away in the rain. I keep finding new things to marvel at as far as the weather is concerned.
Librarianship is Lifelong Learning
Posted February 14, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
I’ve always thought that a good librarian is essentially a jack-of-all-trades. It’s one of the things that drew me to this field. I couldn’t settle on one particular subject or discipline, so my reasoning was that I’d learn a little bit about all of them and become a librarian – an information specialist. I want to be an academic professional that dabbles in many subjects, while helping others to be successful in whatever endeavor they’ve chosen. The great thing about librarianship is that many of the skills we are learning have strong tie-ins to so many other fields. Tell me which academic discipline does not require finding and using quality information resources. Let’s talk about how many careers involve customer service, marketing, and outreach. Can you think of many occupations these days for which an understanding of IT terminology is not extremely valuable? At the root of it all is that I just love learning. I love researching and finding information. So far I have found the field of librarianship to be vast and diverse,…
Bookish Thoughts:
Posted February 13, 2018 by Josie Snow
This semester has introduced me to many books, here are some of the books I have enjoyed or found interesting so far: Books that taught me things I didn’t know before Danza: Amalia Hernandez and the Ballet Folklorico of Mexico by Duncan Tonatiuh The Noisy Paint box: The Colors and sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy by Richard Michelson Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerta Taro and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism by Marc Aronson Books that provoked an emotional response: Unleaving by Jill Paton Walsh Push by Sapphire Shizuko’s Daughter by Kyoko Mori House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Old favorites that I get to see in a new light: Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
Staying Sane (and Productive) in the New England Winter
Posted February 8, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
This is the New England winter in a nutshell, courtesy of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day: We’re approaching that part of the season when it really does feel like winter is all you will ever know. The New England winter is soooo long. You can expect everyone to start talking about and anticipating spring around mid-March, but the spring-like weather won’t actually show up until May. It is not uncommon to have snow in April. So if you’re thinking of moving here from a warmer location: you’ve been warned. That being said, there are a lot of healthy ways to cope with the winter and you certainly do not have to love the cold to love New England. Here are a few of the tips and tricks that I have found effective for chasing away those winter blues: 1. Embrace the beauty and necessity of winter. Every year I have to prepare myself mentally for the winter ahead. Accept the fact that it’s going to be very long and very cold. Now look for the…
Educational Experience
Posted February 8, 2018 by Josie Snow
The semester has only just begun, and already, I can tell that this is going to be a semester that makes me think. So how do I know that I will be really thinking deeply this semester? Well, in my Narrative non-fiction class we got into a discussion about biographies, and how they sometimes present a person as an inspirational ideal which raised some new questions for me: How do we pick the people we want to hold up as heroes? How true can an account ever be? What makes a person extraordinary? What if the heroes we hold up in biographies are not actually the great people we believe them to be? Do the actions they are famous for cancel out the actions they are not famous for? Should we be more realistic in presenting them? Are we creating role models, or modeling life in these portrayals? Then I went to my class, Contemporary Realistic Fiction for Young Adults (Realism) and, before the first class even began, more questions floated up: How do I…
Technology Courses: My “Happy Surprise”
Posted February 5, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
In my last post I promised that I’d write more about my technology classes at Simmons. Like many students, I entered LIS 488, the technology core class, with some trepidation. After all, the technology components of library work had scared me away from the LIS degree for some time. I knew I wanted to obtain an education that would help me get a job somewhere in the library/archives/museum field, and I knew I wanted my degree to be flexible, adaptable. Museum studies seemed too specific and limiting, and I was afraid Library & Information Science would involve too much science and technology. That was me before I took LIS 488. Now as someone who has finally gotten her feet wet in the world of IT, I find myself embracing a very different mindset. First of all, technology is just another skill, another subject that can be learned. Learning to code is a lot like learning a new language. You don’t have to possess any particular personality or disposition to understand technology. You don’t even have…
Reflection:
Posted February 2, 2018 by Josie Snow
A few weeks ago, I flew home to visit Colorado. I watched as the land beneath the plane transformed, slowly developing cracks and wrinkles that formed themselves to canyons and hills. I watched breathlessly as those hills grew larger, until they became mountains. The instant I saw them, a phrase, half remembered from a high school Spanish report flits across my mind–Yo soy una chica de los montañas–I am a girl of the mountains. In that moment, I am sure, the mountains are the landscape of my soul. How can one resist the scenery, or the wonderful people that live in the mountains? Then, when I flew back into Boston, I looked out of the window to see rivers glinting in the light of the setting sun, their ice-covered surfaces glowing, and trees bordering the edges of neighborhoods and cities, framing the scene. The lights in the trees greeting all the people who happen to walk by. Again, my breath caught…Boston is its own kind of beautiful, and it is weaving its way into my…
Year 2: Ready, Set, Go!
Posted January 25, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
The start of this semester marks the beginning of my second year at Simmons. It feels like I’ve come full circle. Last January, I was one of the brand new students at the back-to-school lunch, declaring nervously that I’d just taken my very first class, feeling simultaneously triumphant and terrified. This Saturday I was a returning student at the back-to-school lunch, conversing easily with colleagues as we chatted about break and new classes. I had the funniest feeling talking to the new students, realizing that I was in their exact spot exactly one year ago, seeing the same fresh nervousness and excitement that I had felt reflected in their eyes. The past year has been an extremely fulfilling and challenging one for me. I’ve done so many things for the first time (like blogging!) and encountered so many new ideas. I’ve uncovered some hidden talents of my own (who knew I’d love coding so much?) and expanded the bounds of my comfort zone by tackling difficult assignments. I’ve taken 5 classes for 15 credits, which…