Harvard Internship Part 2
Posted March 29, 2017 by Katie Olivo
Another guest blog by current student, Sarah Nafis. Sarah is in her second year of the dual Archives/History (MS/MA) program. Since moving to Boston, she’s exploring the city one restaurant at a time and has learned to embrace the quirks of public transportation. My internship at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI) is still going well. Now that the craziness of getting the new exhibit up and running has passed, we’ve been able to spend more time on the collection. The physical records aren’t in great condition; however, we were lucky enough to find a digital copy of the entire collection. The collection was scanned in the late 1990s and having the digital records will help make the collection more accessible to researchers once we finish all of the processing. I’m more interested in digital preservation and part of my job is working to preserve the digital files. As a result, I haven’t done as much work on the physical preservation of the collection. But it’s been really interesting seeing how the collection…
I Am No Charles Schulz
Posted March 27, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
I’m kind of out of words lately. ACRL last week was super fun and awesome, and I highly recommend taking advantage of conferences as much as you can. It’s great way to know what other folks are doing across the library land and to get motivation and practical advice for your own role and community. But, I am kind of not functioning at high octane levels right now mind-wise. ACRL and the travel to and from while trying to keep up with my 2 classes (which are awesome but the most work intensive courses I’ve had my whole grad school time) and settle into my new position at work has left me a little out of articulation energy and wherewithal. So, here’s a bad comic I made today to illustrate my current feelings about dealing with Dublin Core- a specific metadata schema- for my digital libraries project with class. PS: don’t mistake this post for me grumbling about being stressed/overwhelmed or even about me not loving Dublin Core. I am a bit overwhelmed with school…
Why You Should Go to Library School (or more specifically, SLIS West)
Posted March 23, 2017 by Megan Ondricek
A post from our new student blogger, Megan Ondricek. Since you are here, reader, I can probably safely assume that you are already in grad school or seriously considering it. Maybe you don’t need convincing. But if you’re like me when I was researching my options, you might be having some questions like, “Is library school/SLIS West for me?” “Will it further my dreams and ambitions?” “Am I going to like it?” Here are some of the happy discoveries I’ve made so far that have confirmed that coming to SLIS West was the right thing for me to do: SLIS West is small! The program generally enrolls around 80 students. Your classes will be small, your discussions will be intimate, and you will get to know most of your classmates and make friends quickly. The setting is quaint and beautiful. Don’t get me started on how much I love the Mount Holyoke campus and surrounding environs. This really needs its own blog post. Students here come from all ages and stages of life, and bring…
Introducing a New Blogger!
Posted March 21, 2017 by Katie Olivo
Hello everyone! We’d like to introduce one of our new student bloggers, Megan Ondricek. Please read her bio below: My name is Megan Ondricek and I live in Norwalk, Connecticut with my husband and two children, a four-year old boy and two-year old girl. I’m currently in my first semester of grad school, driving two hours to attend class on Saturdays at SLIS West and so far, I haven’t met anyone else who travels farther! My current profession is stay-at-home mom, and past jobs have included library assistant, administrative assistant, and a Smithsonian museum intern. I’ve lived in Connecticut for about three years now, having lived in southwestern Virginia for the previous fifteen years. I am a small-town girl, outdoor enthusiast, cat-lover, Francophile, art admirer who at one point wanted nothing more than to become a park ranger. Fun fact: I met my husband on the library shuttle eight years ago, and so I guess libraries were always destined to make bold brushstrokes on the canvas of my life. I love school always and forever…
Post Spring Break-a-thon
Posted March 13, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
So long Spring Break, and thanks for all the fish! Spring Break was fun. You know: non-stop parties, sunbathing, margaritas, that kind of thing. JUST KIDDING! hahaha. buwahhahahahah! (I could go on but will spare you). I’m in grad school and per my situation in life that was not my personal spring break experience. It was nice, though, to have a break from classes so that I could catch up on homework and reading for class (so exciting, right?!) and because I just increased my working hours. Why the increase in hours? Well… I got a professional librarian job! Wohoo! I’m now the Bicentennial Metadata Librarian at Amherst College and thoroughly stoked about it. I get to create metadata and metadata guidelines for digitized collections that are going to be made available in ACDC (rock on! No, actually it stands for Amherst College Digital Repository). I’ll especially be working on digital collections that highlight the history of Amherst College and its alumni and students for the upcoming Bicentennial of the college in 2021. So that’s…
Guest Blog About Internships
Posted March 8, 2017 by Katie Olivo
We have a special guest blog post this week by current SLIS student, Sarah Nafis. Sarah is in her second year of the dual Archives/History (MS/MA) program. Since moving to Boston, she’s exploring the city one restaurant at a time and has learned to embrace the quirks of public transportation. Exploring Internship Opportunities It’s hard to believe that it’s spring break and the semester is already halfway over. Summer will be here before you know it. This year instead of taking summer classes, I decided look for a summer internship. One of the great parts of being at SLIS is the exposure to practical, hands-on skills and experiences inside and outside the classroom. Since starting at SLIS, I’ve already had two internships. My first internship at the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts was part of the Introduction to Archives course (LIS 438). LIS 438 is one of the first courses archives students take and a 60 hour internship is built into the class. Simmons has a wide network of internship sites and students are typically matched…
Ode To Metadata
Posted March 1, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
We’ve reached that time in the semester that I refer to as the grind. It’s not overwhelming, it’s not all time-consuming, but it is a grind. Read, write, exercise (cataloging exercises, not the sweatin’ to the oldies kind), repeat. And so, I need a grind break. Therefore, this blog post will be a poem- a bad poem. Ode to metadata We learn all about you,data about data,and then we learn quickly-that that don’t come near to explaining ya’ You’re the label on the can of soup.The title of a book,the stuff we need to know to find thatfor which we look. You help us keep stuff separate;and so, we can lump things together.Because of you, I run a search,and find all the books written about leather. You’re the love notes to ourselves,and to future library fellers.So that we know how to take careof the treasures in our cellars. Without youI would not know who took this pic,or if it’s of a magic wandor just a wayward stick. So here’s to you metadatabecause I never met…
Other Librarianing Fun
Posted February 20, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
Well hello there, blog watchers! It’s been a whirlwind of a time for me the last couple of weeks. I’m thankful to have a few big presentations inside and outside of classroom out of the way so I can catch up on some reading (for class- of course, but also for Discworld- of course). Yesterday was sunny and reached up into the high 40s where I am in MA, so I’m feeling pretty good this fine President’s Day. I thought it would be fun to devote this blog post to some things you may not get a lot of in depth experience with in LIS school, but you will get to experience in the wide world of libarianing (with variation of course depending on your specific position). This post was inspired by my SLIS West buddy Jenney when she told our friend “way to embrace the glue and glitter!” after he shared some recent projects he’d done. Readers’ Advisory – okay, you do get time spent on this in school- especially depending on the classes,…
The Interview Process
Posted February 10, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo
I’m in my last semester at SLIS West, and that means it’s time to start applying for professional jobs! Woohoo! Especially because I’m primarily interested in working in an academic library, I’ve got to be applying for things pre-graduation whenever possible. Sometimes the academic library hiring process can take a little while, and I’m hoping to have a professional level job immediately after graduation if not before it. Of course, this all depends on jobs available and all that jazz. I have been lucky enough to get a few interview opportunities for professional jobs this semester, and the hiring/application process for academic librarian jobs is quite different compared to what I experienced as a nurse or as a library student. Sometimes it involves 2 interviews- one with just a search committee, and then if you’re invited back, a longer interview day with more library staff. Sometimes it’s just one interview. Often, for the longer interview day, you’re also required to present on a topic assigned by the search committee. So, yes, I know that having…
Hands-On Archival Experience
Posted February 10, 2017 by Elizabeth James
As an online student, I almost felt a twinge of jealousy when I saw that school would be cancelled in Boston on Thursday due to the imminent snow storm. But then I remembered that means I don’t have to deal with the snow. Or the ice. Especially the ice–with an armful of books, I’m a walking disaster, and it’s a rare moment that I am without an armful of books. Instead, I decided to gear up for internship season–with deadlines looming, I feel as though I am constantly sending emails to professors arranging for references when I’m not reading course material. Now that my Introduction to Archives course has begun, I have also been spending a significant amount of time at my internship location. I currently work at a non-archives job while attending school, so it has felt unbelievably amazing to get my hands on archival materials again. These materials belong to a public library whose archive contains a significant amount of local history materials. I am currently processing the personal papers of one local…