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…
Explaining Archives to the Layperson
Posted January 9, 2018 by Megan Ondricek
I’ve recently returned to Connecticut from a wonderful Christmas vacation with my family in southwestern Virginia. We were there for about two and a half weeks and I was able to meet up with a lot of old friends and family connections. With this came the opportunity to explain what archives is to people outside of the library community. Most importantly, I wanted people to understand why I find archives so fascinating, and why I consider it such a relevant and necessary profession in our modern age. As you can imagine, this can be challenging. Archives isn’t the only profession that is largely misunderstood and difficult to explain to outsiders. Even my husband has a hard time explaining to people exactly what it is he does at his job. During my vacation, I feel like I came up with a strategy that was fairly successful. It would have been easy enough to just give the usual spiel about documenting society, preserving history, connecting people with information, etc. and move on. But I wanted to engage…
Winter Break
Posted December 30, 2017 by Josie Snow
A few weeks ago, before winter break began, I received an e-mail that filled me with trepidation. Enclosed with the message from the professor for my Realism class in the spring was a booklist. The professor suggested that students make sure they are familiar with the twenty books on the list, as they are touchstone books for the subject. Out of the twenty, I have only read three. I had thought I was pretty widely read, but this list revealed just how much I have neglected the realism genre, and made it clear that I had some catching up to do. As a result, I spent my break trying to make sure that I was able to discuss at least some of the books. I was surprised to find the books very engaging and compelling, and as I read them, I was relieved to find that I had read similar things, so I hadn’t completely neglected the genre, I just missed some of the historically significant texts. To my surprise, I was truly enjoying myself….
Finishing My First Semester
Posted December 19, 2017 by Josie Snow
Whew! I made it through my first semester of grad school! Let me tell you, grad school is HARD. I know, I know; grad school is supposed to be hard, but I’m not just talking about academics–which I was prepared for. Grad school is hard in a good way, it’s hard because I have been asked to examine all the things I thought I knew, and verify whether I can still find them true. It’s hard because I am learning new things every step of the way, even when I am not in school, and sometimes it feels like my brain can’t keep up. It’s hard because I’m surrounded by incredible people who have achieved great things and I look up to all of them, but fear I will never be in their league. So yes, grad school is hard; and there are times when I wonder if it was worth it to come, but most days it is hard in a way that also makes me glad I took the chance.
Libraries Are Awesome!
Posted December 7, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
We had quite the festive end to the semester last Saturday with fresh bagels and muffins in the classroom and SNOW!! I realize this is New England where snow is more a matter of course and a mundane winter inconvenience, but I am from Virginia and still firmly in the “snow is awesome” camp. It started around 11 am in South Hadley and I left immediately after class to start my two-hour drive back to CT, where it had started around 8 am. Golly it was a beautiful (albeit messy and slow) drive! I listened to Christmas music and thought about the holidays and relished in my new freedom from homework. This was one long semester, but thankfully the end was much easier than the beginning. With the biggest assignments out of the way I’ve had some time to reflect on what I’ve learned from both my classes. It may not surprise you to hear that in library school you will learn a lot about why libraries are so awesome. I am definitely coming away…
Scholarship Appreciation Time
Posted November 28, 2017 by Giuliana Gilbert-Igelsrud
I’m extremely thankful to have a merit scholarship from SLIS. Every semester (when I take at least 9 units) I receive $6,000 from Simmons; that’s $24,000 over four semesters, which is nothing to scoff at. As a scholarship recipient, I have been tasked to write a short thank you letter; I thought I might post it here. The cost of higher education has absolutely skyrocketed in recent years, and the only reason I have been able to afford Simmons (and with relatively low financial stress) is the SLIS Merit Scholarship. Simmons was one of two schools I applied to that offered me any financial aid, and by the time I received my acceptance letter, had become my top choice. I was thrilled to see that my academic efforts had paid off, literally! I cannot overstate how much I value the unique experience I’m having at Simmons. I’m from California, and I went to UC Berkeley for my Bachelor’s degree, so you can imagine how different it has been living here and attending Simmons. I never…
Ethics in the Library and the Archives
Posted November 20, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
I’ve been enjoying some very engaging readings and discussion in both of my classes the past few weeks, as our units on ethics happened to coincide. According to my professors, the ethics lesson is always everyone’s favorite, and I soon found out why. Believe it or not, the archives and library professions are veritable minefields of fascinating ethical quandaries! As we discussed these topics in class on Saturday, I realized that library ethics are essentially about protecting and enabling people’s right and freedom of choice. We believe that everyone has the right to choose what to read, what to think, what to do, and what to say. We might not agree with their choice, and other people in the library or the community might not agree with their choice, but it is not our place to restrict or pass judgement on that choice. It is important to remember that we cannot know what use a patron intends for a particular book, or what reaction they may have to any given piece of information. Of course,…
A Language of BEEPS
Posted November 17, 2017 by Josie Snow
One of the biggest things I have had to adjust to is the traffic, and the noise that comes with it, especially the horns honking. Each day as I walk to school there are horns blaring, tooting, and bleeping… at first it was all terribly overwhelming, I could not identify any real purpose to it, after all, what difference does it make if you make a lot of noise while you are stuck in traffic? You will still be stuck even if you honk your horn…but slowly I have begun to distinguish between the sounds, and I have noticed that there are patterns to how people honk their horns, and you can sometimes tell what they are trying to say by the noise their car makes: The long drawn out HO-O-O-O-O-O-NK= frustration, usually in the term of “SOMEBODY MOVE!!!! Or “HEY I’M DRIVING HERE!!!” or “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” An abrupt double HO-ONK-HO-ONK= ” STOP THAT (you idiot)” But a quick double-tap Beep-beep= “Hey there” when you see someone you know walking beside the road,…