Subversive Librarians and Magic Spells
Posted March 5, 2016 by Amy Wilson
Last night, my Legal Information Services class went to Northeastern University’s law library, where both of my professors work. Northeastern’s wifi is really restrictive, so we had no access to the catalog and were totally reliant on print sources. We took a tour of the library (and had to remember where the books were located), then were let loose with a list of questions to answer. Finding information in legal print resources is very time consuming – the index is your best friend – but also satisfying, like a scavenger hunt… a scavenger hunt that I would not enjoy in the context of actual research. After that assignment, (are you ready for the Harry Potter reference?) I’ve realized how totally crazy it is that students at Hogwarts had to do this completely the old-fashioned way. No wonder it took Harry, Ron, and Hermione four months to find a reference to Nicholas Flamel in The Sorcerer’s Stone. WHY didn’t anyone in this magical world create a control-F spell? And my bigger issue – why didn’t JK Rowling create a cooler librarian?? Madame…
Playing the Hostess
Posted March 4, 2016 by Katie Caskey
I am so excited because it is finally March! This means that spring has sprung (kind of), Spring Break is just around the river bend, and my mom is coming to visit from Minnesota!!!!!!! This will be the first time since moving me out here two years ago that my mom has been to Boston, and now that I’m settled I finally get to introduce her to my life on the East Coast. But how does one even begin to narrow down the huge list of possible activities, restaurants, and sites Boston has to offer when their guest is only going to be here for two full days?! Well, it’s taken quite a bit of list making and revising, but I think I’ve finally decided. So, without further ado, here are my Top 5 Things to See in Boston. 1) Faneuil Hall This old state building turned shopping center is a great hub of activity to check out. There are usually street performers in the courtyard outside, and the building has that charming and…
Spring Break!
Posted March 3, 2016 by Tara Pealer
Today is the first day in two weeks that I haven’t woken up at or before 7 in the morning. Now, I know this is “normal adult behavior” but as a 22 year old grad student, it’s not something I appreciate or normally do. I’ve been getting up at this sort of ridiculous hour because these two weeks have been absolutely packed with stuff to do. For example, last week’s schedule: Monday: Class and work Tuesday: Class and work and class Wednesday: laundry, cleaning part of the apartment, and then work Thursday: Blogging and then spending most of the day at the MFA Friday: Learning the usability testing then watching most of Fuller House for a binge watching party Saturday: work Sunday: work Usually I have one day of the week where I can stay home and focus on school work, but up until today, which is my first day of spring break (grad school schedules are awesome for scheduling super long breaks), I have been absolutely booked. I have had a lot of fun…
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: an Annotation
Posted February 27, 2016 by Amy Wilson
As promised, this week I am posting my assignment from last week: my reference annotation from my 407 class. I don’t make it a habit to post assignments because I think it’s kind of unoriginal, but I think when you read about this reference source, you’ll understand why I am sharing. This book, The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, is fun to read and fun to write about. I’ve written a long and a short annotation below. Find out more about annotations at Purdue OWL. (the long version) This 755 page paperback volume from Harcourt Publishing is a travel guide for the imaginative reader. The original text, published in 1980, was followed by an expanded paperback run in 1987; this critically acclaimed third edition has been, according to the authors Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi, co-authored by their readers’ submissions. Illustrators Graham Greenfield, Eric Beddows, and James Cook have created 150 maps and 100 illustrations to accompany the 1000 plus text entries. The book includes an original foreword and an authors’ note for this edition. The authors explain…
Yay for Free Books!!!
Posted February 26, 2016 by Katie Caskey
I will be the first one to admit that grad school is tough! There are papers to write, internships to complete, and that’s to say nothing of the one or two (or three) part-time jobs one has to work just to afford food and heat! But, you all know that already, so I’m not going to scare you/bore you with the woes of grad school. Instead, I want to take this time to highlight my absolute FAVORITE perk I’ve encountered in my time as a children’s lit. grad student at Simmons…FREE BOOKS!!!!!! Every year the children’s literature department holds their free book giveaway for all the students in the program. Many of the professors in the program are also book reviewers, so our department is sent many review and advance copies of newly-published or about-to-be-published books. As the year goes on the collection grows, filling the shelves in the book nook until there just isn’t room for anymore. It is then we all receive the much-anticipated invitation to come live out a book-lover’s dream. Each…
Nothing Much
Posted February 25, 2016 by Tara Pealer
I haven’t done anything blog worthy this week. My friend and I took her cat to a free vet clinic for a check-up, I went to school and work, and I paid all of my bills. Yesterday I did laundry. No one wants to hear, read, or talk about those things. I don’t even feel like writing about them. The end of the week looks exciting, though. My friends and I will be spending Friday binge watching all of Fuller House and probably not getting completely drunk. I’ll probably be going to the MFA to see the new acquisition of Frida Kahlo. I might do some cleaning to make my apartment presentable. I probably won’t buy more than two cups of the Smoked Butterscotch Latte (soy milk, no whip) from Starbucks. This is all in the future, however. Which, honestly, leaves me with absolutely nothing to talk about. There was a lunch event with a professor who talked about ways in which the LIS field has limited its discourse through language choice, teaching method, and…
Cookbooks
Posted February 21, 2016 by Jill Silverberg
Looking out the window from my desk at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science, I can’t help but think about how, exactly one year ago, the city of Boston was drowning under piles of snow. While I am a big fan of snow and snow days, I have to admit that I am rather relieved that this year, the weather has decided to play nicely. Considering that I have a thesis to write, research to do, an internship to complete, and heat bills to pay, I am quite content with having 50+ degree days in February. And how exactly is that thesis coming along? Well I can tell you that it is coming along. This evening I will be submitting my outline to my advisor which I have to admit, is equal parts exciting and terrifying. I treat my outlines like architectural blueprints. Having outlined the overall structure of my paper enables me to focus on each section at a time. Since an average thesis runs about 60-80 pages, having something like an outline is definitely…
Making a Statement
Posted February 20, 2016 by Amy Wilson
This month, I have prioritized getting scholarship applications out for next year. I had deadlines of March 1 for the American Library Association and April 1 for the Association of American Law Libraries. I decided to do it all at once because I know that I am only going to get busier from here. Below, I am posting an abridged version of the essay that I submitted to AALL. That essay was allowed to be longer because they also wanted to know about my financial status. The version that I submitted to the ALA was limited to less than 300 words. Editing it down was great practice for an assignment that I had this week in my reference course. We had to create an “annotation” for a print reference source; I chose “The Dictionary of Imaginary Places” and had a lot of fun writing it (stay tuned next week for that)! Anyway, here is my personal statement: When I was an undergraduate, the most influential classroom of my education was a small, sunny office near the reference section of…
Sick Day: A Photo Journal
Posted February 19, 2016 by Katie Caskey
Yesterday I woke up and immediately knew my time had come. Yes, I had finally caught the dreaded 24-hour flu bug. I so rarely get sick, it came as a bit of a surprise, but regardless of how I felt about it there was no denying…I was sick! I’ll spare you the details of what “sick” meant in my case, but I will tell you that getting up off the couch to take a shower at one point almost killed me. So, I hunkered down and made the best of a nasty day. Usually when I feel like this, I love to be a home with my mom, snuggling on the couch and eating her miracle-working scrambled eggs. But since my mom is all the way back in Minnesota, I had to fend for myself this time. Here is my magic formula for self-healing as a graduate student… A big comfy couch, preferably with cozy blankets and pillows A laptop computer to fend off boredom And what good is a laptop without your favorite binge-worthy…
I went to Harry Potter world
Posted February 18, 2016 by Tara Pealer
Okay, I didn’t really. I went to Harry Potter’s World at Beatley Library. A little bit closer to home and a lot less expensive. Libraries are a great place for free events. What is Harry Potter’s World at Beatley Library, you might be asking? Well, Harry Potter’s World is a travelling event put on at libraries across the nation by the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine. It combines elements of the world of Harry Potter, from Fantastic Beasts to Herbology, with a real world perspective of the history of science concerning those elements. It compares Harry’s experience with something like Immortality with the historical search and medical science behind the same topic. Yesterday the exhibit opened with an event involving the Sorting Hat, Wand Making, S.P.E.W (Society for Promotion of Elfish Welfare) and, of course, Dumbledore. I was sorted, thankfully, into Hufflepuff, and collected free items from the event, including a Hufflepuff pin, a Hogwarts pin, a S.P.E.W pin, and a fake tattoo of the spell ‘Riddikulus!’ The wand making station followed…