A Fine Balance
Posted October 8, 2015 by Tara Pealer
If you’re a junior or senior in undergrad, it is likely that by now you have friends in grad school. Your grad school friends seem like they have their lives together. They know what they are doing, and what they want to do, and how to get there. (This is a lie.) And it may seem, to you, as it did to me, that there are two types of grad school students. Type A, we’ll call them, is the type who is always studying. You haven’t seen them in months. You haven’t even seen them on Facebook in a while. They are doing well, you know, because they have always done well, but their entire life is now centered on completing their studies. You admire their dedication and passion, and have no clue how they manage to keep it up. Type B, on the other hand, seems to always be doing “The Things You Wish You Were Doing.” They’re the ones with pictures of fancy food they made on Instagram. They went to that supercool…
Health Comes First
Posted October 7, 2015 by Jill Silverberg
Does anyone else remember the days when they would pretend to be sick to get out of classes? I certainly do. Back during my high school days, I would sometimes wish I would get sick just so I wouldn’t have to get up at 6:20am and endure about eight hours of mind-numbing and soul breaking school. During those days, I would have to be strategic; pretend to be sick too much and the parents would certainly catch on. I doubt I missed a total of ten days throughout my entire high school career and certainly at least three or four of those times I probably truly needed to miss school, but I’ll be honest, those days when I could stay home and relax were always worth the risk of getting caught faking it. Ironically, high school would be the last time I ever truly enjoyed getting sick. In my first semester as a freshman, I caught the Swine Flu, H1N1, and missed an entire week of school. Not only that, but my parents had to drive four…
Confession
Posted October 6, 2015 by Alison Mitchell
Here’s a confession. Sometimes I forget I’m in school. This morning, a friend asked me how school was going, and I launched into a story about a conversation I had with my older daughter’s teacher. My friend listened politely, then said “I mean your school.” Right. I’m in school. It’s kind of hard to believe I could forget about it, since my assignments and deadlines are always on my mind. But right now school seems a little more abstract than it has other semesters. Part of it is that I’m not physically on campus as much as I have been in the past. I’m taking one online course and one evening course, so I’m only there Thursday nights. Part of it is that my kids need a little more attention this fall, both physically (I drive the two of them to more gymnastics practices than I thought humanly possible) and emotionally (one is feeling the stress of a harder grade and more classroom work this year, and the other just likes to tell me every….
Building Foundations
Posted October 3, 2015 by Amy Wilson
We are a few weeks into the semester, so it seems like a good time to reflect. Making it Work This is probably a good time to talk about my workload and plans for time management. I have chosen to take two classes each semester, and attend during each of the spring, fall, and summer terms. That should allow me to finish the required 36 credits (two 3-credit courses per semester) in two years (six semesters). I’m pacing myself this way because I also work 37.5 hours a week (9 to 5:30) at a law firm in downtown Boston, in the records management department. This semester, I am taking classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-8:50pm, and my boss has agreed to let me leave at 5pm on those days so that I can make it to Simmons on time. As the semester goes on, I will learn how to balance my homework and spread it out through the week. My professors also have listed the entire semester’s readings on their syllabuses, in case I want…
Exploring Fantasy Worlds in Your Own Backyard!
Posted October 2, 2015 by Katie Caskey
I have to give a shout-out to my Science Fiction and Fantasy professor for introducing me to this week’s blog topic! Last week our class was given the assignment to go and experience the map exhibition currently on display at the Boston Public Library. If you’re like me, you may be skeptical of this venture, wondering just how interesting could it be to go look at a bunch of maps in a quiet room somewhere in the depths of the library. Wait, hang with me, because I haven’t told you the best part yet…the maps are all from fictional lands of children’s literature!!! Running now through October 25, the “Literary Landscapes” collection is on display in the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the main branch of the BPL (the one in Copley Square). Featuring both 2D and 3D maps (take that in…3D MAPS!), the exhibit introduces visitors to the extensive and detailed imaginary worlds created by some of our favorite authors. When you first step into the map room, you are greeted with a…
The Weeding Monster
Posted October 1, 2015 by Tara Pealer
I am good at weeding. I’d go as far to say that I like weeding. Weeding, to me, is a relaxing way to organize, understand, and address the usage of not only a library’s book collection, but my own as well. I look at the book to see if it’s been read, if I would want to read it, if I would read it again, if I really want to keep it, and, finally, if there’s a place I can give it to improve the chance of it being used. Books that don’t make the ‘cut’, and are removed from my shelf, get donated to book sales, or, if it’s a textbook in good or new condition, with relevant material, donated to the academic library I used to work at. I also give children’s books to my five year old niece and other books to my friends if they want them. Cue, now, the looks I got from my LIS 401 classmates when I say this. How could I? Why would I? To that I…
Banned Books Week
Posted September 30, 2015 by Jill Silverberg
After recently looking over ALA’s ‘Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books’ from the past two decades (1990-1999 & 2000-2009), I realized that I have read quite a few so-called banned/challenged books in rather short lifetime. Some of the books on these two lists were notable for due to their reputations as being banned or challenged: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume; Blackboy by Richard Wright; American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Others came off as bit of a shock: In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak; Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling; and Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. Yes, even Captain Underpants has been challenged for its content. While it is certainly true that there is a stark difference between a book being ‘challenged’ [an attempt to remove or restrict materials] and ‘banned’ [to completely remove materials], either act is a case of enforced censorship. Although ALA acknowledges that books that are challenged are usually done so with best intentions in mind, whenever I hear about a book that has been challenged -often within the context of…
Family Reading
Posted September 29, 2015 by Alison Mitchell
As a mom, and as a librarian, I’ve never underestimated the importance of family reading. We read all the time! But twice recently I experienced the importance of reading out loud to kids. This summer, my husband grabbed a bunch of chapter books from a “free” box on the street. One was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which I remembered fondly from my own childhood. I gave it to my 9-year-old, who is an advanced, eager reader. For whatever reason, she couldn’t get into it, and she was super upset. I said I’d read it with her, which turned into me reading it out loud to both kids, which was great. What a super book, with all sorts of vocabulary and concepts to discuss. I’m taking Children’s Collections this semester, and had to read 37 picture books for one class meeting. Sure, I could have sat down at the library where I work and read them all in an hour, but instead I checked them out, brought them home and read them…
Thank you, Boston! – Boston Calling September 2015
Posted September 28, 2015 by Alexandra Bernson
Between a full-time job, a part-time job, and graduate school, I don’t have much time for vacations. So this weekend at Boston Calling, a music festival at Government Center, I decided it was time for a little three-day holiday. Throwing my budget out the window (gulp!), I prepared to enjoy myself as much as could while surrounded by young amorous undergraduates in the first throes of their first semester romances. I’m not much of a music festival person. My brother loves them: Bonnaroo is his mecca and it seems like he’s always planning another trip and collecting more amazing experiences as he dances to any and all types of music and musicians. Despite his many efforts, I’ve never attended any of those massive, multi-day fests full of music, drinking, and other miscellaneous vices. I love music but I’m a fuddy duddy: I like to enjoy it at home or in small venues rather than while being jostled to and fro by sweaty, drunk, painted people. But I couldn’t resist Boston Calling: it was right in…
Orientation Day
Posted September 26, 2015 by Amy Wilson
Taking the train from Lechmere to Simmons A few weeks ago, I took the day off work to go to Simmons’ campus for the SLIS Orientation. It was a really exciting day, and I came away questioning all my choices (in the best way) and wondering how I will ever learn all those acronyms. Luckily, at the end of the day I had an hour bus ride to New Hampshire to mull things over. Orientation Lesson One: I arrived at Orientation early, because (1) it’s what Hermione would do, and (2) I needed to stop by the Registrar. I still have undergraduate loans, so I have been trying to get those all set before I begin paying interest on my un-subsidized graduate loans (un-subsidized means that interest accrues while I am in school). My undergraduate loans are subsidized and Perkins (both Federal), so you’d think it would be simple, but the loan websites are not very clear on how to defer payments – many forms and little instruction. Until Leslie Knope becomes President, this is…