NECode4Lib
Posted December 5, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
Howdy fellow interwebs browsers! This week I wanted to talk about the NECode4Lib event on 12/5. So, NECode4Lib was a fun and informative informal conference organized by librarians from around New England (with special attention to Johanna Radding, former SLIS West program manager, and Abby Baines, current SLIS West prof, who did a lot of the work!). It was held in the Red Barn at Hampshire which is beautiful, especially with sparkling snow on the ground outside. Talks included a range of topics. For a full list, visit here: https://wiki.code4lib.org/NECode4lib_2016. I think some of the slides will be going up soon too. Librarians are so great at collaborating and sharing information (duh on that last one I guess). I love that I’m in a profession now where there are often conferences like this one- and ones bigger and smaller than this. It’s such a great way to meet people and learn about what other folks are doing. I especially enjoyed a lightening talk on lightening talks by a couple folks at MIT because they talked about…
A Day in the Life
Posted December 2, 2016 by Elizabeth James
9:30 AM: Drive to the public library archives to look at some materials for my LIS 415 final project. Discuss with the librarian how they organize their online archives, and whether the initial proposals my group has suggested are acceptable. Talk about my progress on my LIS 407 final project, and discuss with her the audience and whether my analysis of local history sources is of an appropriate breadth and depth based on her experience with the user population. 10:45 AM: Acquire coffee and French pastries! 11:00 AM: Go into my actual job. A chocolate croissant gets me through the first hour. The remaining eight are survived through a combination of coffee and tea to fend off the cold office air. 3:00 PM: Lunch. Go back to the library because I forgot to grab my book that has been on hold since Monday. ??:?? PM: Sporadically edit and compile the group parts of the LIS 415 final project. Start creating slides for our presentation. 8:00 PM: Leave work to walk home, relish the fact that…
The Week Before Finals
Posted November 28, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
‘Tis the week before finals, and all through the landSLIS students are scurrying to finish up plans.Slides, lesson plans, websites galore!We finish up presentations that we hope the teach will adore. We tidy up projects and put citations in papersAs the weather turns ready for frost and scrapers. So forgive the silent blog, dear fans, as we put on our thinking caps;When really our brains are ready for long winter’s naps. You’ll hear from us again soon, with good tidings and cheer. For after 12/10 will be finished with half of this school year! We’ll take long breaks or graduate, and play and work, work, workTo make use of the break. You’ll see us in society again, and we won’t just lurk.We’ll have lives again – at least for a month. So bear with us, dear fans, as we finish up this crunch!
Applying Coursework in Libraries
Posted November 25, 2016 by Elizabeth James
Before starting my program, I made a commitment to try and use course assignments to assist local institutions in some way. I wanted my library school experience to be grounded in practice, rather than theory. Even though I am only in my first semester, I have been able to use my intro courses to create resources for my local public library, benefiting both the library and their patrons. This is in addition to creating distinct deliverables for my personal portfolio, and giving me experience in working with libraries as “clients” who expect a polished final product. So far, I have organized a group project to create a metadata standard for the small collection of digitized historical images help at my local library, created a pathfinder to assist local history researchers in researching their historic properties, and I’m already planning other potential projects with local universities that have archival institutions and connecting their resources with students through local history projects. Because I live in West Virginia, in an area that has a fairly low population of library and…
Stress Management
Posted November 24, 2016 by Tara Pealer
This semester’s taken a turn for the rough and stressful these past few weeks, and we’re looking Thanksgiving break in the face. Thankfully, my management professor has us each prevent in groups on a specific topic–this week, my partner and I were the ones presenting on Conflict Resolution and Stress Management. While we had a specific focus on how managers can help reduce stress in the workplace, I think that as we are running into the last couple weeks of school we can all use a fast refresher on how to manage stress. Take deep breaths Exercise, if you have time! Drink enough water! Get enough sleep! Make a plan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tDWAYIXm1k) so you don’t stress out chaotically. Talk it out. If you need someone to talk to, my friends and I have always had great luck walking into the student lounge and announcing our problems to whoever is in there. Librarians love to talk. Try coloring or popping bubble wrap to calm down. Watch some funny videos or find some other way to have a…
AAOTP (Acronyms All Over the Place)
Posted November 21, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
I was in healthcare, then I was specifically a nurse working for a state government, and now I’m a librarian. Oh, acronyms & nomenclature. I guess they abound in every profession, but between government, medicine, librarianship, and texting/social media lingo- I feel very acronymical in life. I thought I’d share some good ones for new students to know here: SLIS: School of Library & Information Science (So, we used to be GSLIS- graduate school of library & information science, and you’ll hear that still being used a lot. We’ve been SLIS, though, ever since I started. Some people say it as S LIS, some as SLIS. We’ll see what happens in the long run I suppose). LIS: Library & Information Science AARC: Academic & Administrative Resource Center (that connection thing online where you can see your classes, register, access Simmons email, and what not). MHC: Mount Holyoke College (We use this as SLIS West students a lot since our classes are on MHC’s campus) LITS: Library & Technology Services (Mount Holyoke’s Library- again good for SLIS West students to know). …
An Event-filled Semester
Posted November 17, 2016 by Tara Pealer
If I’m not wrong, then this semester has been stressful and crazy for everyone I’ve talked to, and I’m definitely trapped in that cycle so I’ve been a little MIA for this blog. I’m definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving break! However, the student leaders and associations have been hard at work creating and promoting events to cut the tension of the semester. Most recently, we’ve had large potluck thanksgiving event, with just about fifty people in attendance, followed by an “Illuminated Manuscript Crawl” hosted by SCOSAA and Panopticon. Besides being well attended, these events were amazingly fun and great ways for students to connect with each other. Panopticon has had a lot of great events, including hosting a SLIS art show, with at least a dozen submissions. They even had a wonderful opening on Veteran’s day which was packed. LISSA partnered with them to host a Drink and Draw to cut the tension of the semester at the end of October and the art created at that even was brought to the Art Show. PLG…
Out with the Old, in with the New
Posted November 14, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
In January I left my last nursing job so that I could better pursue a position in the wonderful world of librarianship. When I did so, my partner and I sat down and talked about how to make that decision work economically. He’s in grad school getting his doctorate in science, so he gets paid through that. It’s a pretty fixed amount, and not something that would keep us easily afloat for long without me working as well. Especially since I went to Nurse Practitioner grad school for a year, and I’m still paying off those loans, plus now I’m gathering more debt from LIS school, and we bought a house last year. We’ve both spent years saving up for all of this, but still. So, we sat down and thought of the lowest priorities for spending and how and where to cut corners. We ate a lot of rice and beans until I starting get more jobs, and we cut our cell phone plans. Now- we still had cell phones because we’d paid those…
Advising — Should I Take An Internship Course
Posted November 10, 2016 by Elizabeth James
One thing I was extremely surprised to note when I started my program online at Simmons was just how approachable the professors were–they responded quickly to any of my requests to speak with them, and were very open to talking on the phone with me about any questions I might have. Recently, I was required to turn in my tentative planning statement for my program of study, but I wanted to talk with adviser to make sure that the schedule I was picking was feasible given the planned courses for the next year and a half, and would be a viable match for my future career interests. She happily set up a time to talk later in the week, and I had a really productive conversation with her about required courses, and whether an internship would be beneficial to me. Because I have a lot of library experience, it never occurred to me that an internship for course credit was not something I should do while I am in school. I already volunteer at several library and…
Pleasant Suprises
Posted November 7, 2016 by Amanda Pizzollo
Whew! Busy week with a couple penultimate assignments and a presentation in my classes, plus attempts to get back in shape and return to meditating daily. It seems as though my new year resolution phase has kicked in a bit early. Or maybe I’m just excited for cookie season. So, I thought this week I might share a bit some of my pleasant surprises from my role as a metadata intern. When I started library school, I honestly didn’t really have an intention of becoming an information organizer to the extent of a metadata creator or cataloger. I found I really like my 415 class though (information organization), and suddenly I was considering resource description as a potential career. A piece of me thought I was just getting excited about something new to me, not really finding a new career path. So, I looked in other directions course and internship-wise for a while. Yet, the allure of info org has been too strong my friends — and it has remained a consistent presence for me…