Awful Library Books at the BPL
Posted April 1, 2015 by Alexandra Bernson
Rogue librarianship. That’s what I discovered this past week and it was glorious. I recently had the good fortune to meet a librarian who is subject to scandal in the funniest way possible. While I won’t share the librarian’s name or identity, I did gain permission to tell you all about my new acquaintance’s mischievous antics. Some of you might be familiar with the blog “Awful Library Books.” In case you aren’t, the blog showcases found library materials that are out-of-date, offensive, or just plain weird, making it a great site for a daily giggle. Some recent featured titles include “The Breakthrough Fish Taxidermy Manual” and the curious “The Hospital Doctors, Nurses, and Mystery Workers.” The situation that I share with you began as preparation for this site: as a frequent submitter, the rogue used the Boston Public Library’s tagging feature available in their catalog to keep track of strange titles worthy of future “Awful Library Books.” Anonymously, the librarian added the tag “awful library book” to items that they wanted to scan and submit…
Innovation and Collaboration at Simmons’s Graduate Alumnae/Professional Day
Posted March 30, 2015 by Jill Silverberg
On Saturday, March 21st, I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Graduate Alumnae/Professional Day. The event, a collaborative effort between Simmons School of Social Work, School of Management, and School of Library and Information Science, featured workshops and and award ceremonies hosted by each school’s alumni association. Additionally, the event kicked off that morning with Bill Walczak, president of the Lewis Family Foundation and the Grad Circle Foundation, as the keynote speaker. Bill was one of a handful of founding members of an initiative that helped re-develop the Codman Square area of Boston beginning in the late 1970s. Through the efforts of Walczak and the other members of this initiative, they opened the Codman Square Health Center, a multi-service center which addressed health and other needs of the community. Since it has opened its doors, the health center has become a major factor in the regeneration of the community. During his speech, Walczak discussed the symptoms of poverty and how his work and the work of others since the 1970s have all been directed…
Graduate Student Symposium
Posted March 29, 2015 by Alison Mitchell
My takeaway from the 2015 Simmons College Graduate Student Symposium: I should go to more events on campus. Logistically, it’s easiest for me to come to campus only when I have class, so that’s pretty much what I do. Earlier this winter I submitted a paper to the Graduate Student Symposium, and was happy to be selected, even though I knew it would require a little schedule juggling on my part. So, this past Friday (not usually a school day for me!), I arranged for my kids to go home from school with friends (thank you, Alenka and Caroline!) and made my way over to Simmons for the afternoon, hoping that the logistical challenge would be worth it. It was so completely worth it. So. Completely. Worth. It. The symposium was well organized and the presentations were professional, interesting and relevant. I ran into several classmates I haven’t seen this semester due to opposite course schedules (hello, Celeste, Gretyl and Jahan!) and met SLIS students with whom I’ve never crossed paths. I was impressed with…
Online Classes and Group Projects
Posted March 28, 2015 by Samantha Quiñon
Many bloggers on this site, myself included, have written about how group projects and teamwork are the bedrock of many SLIS courses. But what if you are taking a class online? Does that change? Not at all. Online students do just as much group work as face-to-face students, except sometimes they have to get more creative to accomplish their goals and finish projects. This semester I am taking Metadata (LIS-445OL) online. A good friend of mine took it in person with the same professor in the fall. After the class got started, I showed him the syllabus and asked if he saw any major differences between the work for the face-to-face class and the work for the online one. He said the professor used different examples for some exercises, but that all the assignments and modules were the same, and I was happy to hear this. At the beginning of the semester, I worked with my group to compare our individual work against each other’s. This ensured we were all taking away the same lessons…
It’s official! I work in a library!
Posted March 23, 2015 by Alexandra Bernson
Okay, well, I’m technically a library clerk, and a part-time one at that. But still, it’s a start! I started my first shift at the Boston Architectural College tonight and I am extremely excited to sit in their high stools behind the reference desk and do a whole lot of homework on the catalog computers! To be serious though, this is my first real job in a library since I was a shelver during my freshman year in undergrad. Throughout the night, everything felt so familiar and yet so incredibly different. For example, I worked at the humanities library at my college, which was absolutely massive and contained the bulk of their print resources. Here, most of the stacks start with NA, and the periodicals seemingly take up half of the library’s collection. But even with the limited amount of call number prefixes, there is so much to explore. We have closed stacks and reserve titles that hold so much promise. During my break I scanned the closed stacks and saw titles on theatre architecture,…
The Myth of Spring Break
Posted March 21, 2015 by Samantha Quiñon
Only after experiencing this week, the first week back at SLIS after Spring Break, can I now fully express why Spring Break is a myth. As an adult in graduate school, I was not expecting beaches and cocktails with umbrellas in them, but I was looking forward to some sort of respite. Here’s why that didn’t happen: Boston broke the record for most snow in a winter that week. And then the weather was great long enough for me to wear non-construction worker boots for all of a day for the first time in months before I had to ditch the cute shoes. All of my friends were either out of town or took a five-day short course on corporate library management, so I couldn’t really socialize with anyone. I still had to go to work and my internship. I had a paper due over the break for one class and another group assignment due two days after. Everyone acted like I should have been very rested and refreshed this week, when the only difference…
What We’re Reading
Posted March 20, 2015 by Alison Mitchell
Last week, my husband, Andrew, our daughters Katherine (8) and Sophie (6) and I took a short trip. Between the four of us, we took the following reading material: Seven magazine back issues: The New Yorker (Andrew and me), High-Five (Sophie), Cricket (Katherine) and American Libraries (me). The previous Sunday’s New York Times (I only read Sunday Styles, but I think Andrew read most of the rest of the paper). Honeydew by Edith Pearlman. Edith is a good friend of my mother-in-law, and also an amazing writer. Her books have been nominated for (and won) many prizes, and her newest collection of short stories is outstanding. I recommend it highly. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. I’ve heard lots about this book, but never felt I needed it, since my kids have always been pretty good talkers and listeners. However, a few recent episodes made me think I should check it out (literally, from the library), and I have to say, it’s…
Making the Most of Boston
Posted March 19, 2015 by Hayley Botnen
Before moving out here, I was too stressed out by the moving process to even think about many things to do in Boston. When I got here, I was dedicated to my classes and getting back home at a somewhat reasonable hour since I was used to an 8 minute commute and had to transition to an hour commute. However, with two friends moving out here, and my growing irritation at cool things happening without my knowledge, I’ve tried to be more adventurous over the last few weeks. I tried to go to a signing for Marie Rutkowski, author of the amazing Winner’s Trilogy, but alas her plane was cancelled. I did go to the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. For being in relatively small buildings (think a traditionally sized college campus building), they both had extensive collections. I particularly appreciated the glass flowers in the HMNH and the first level of exhibits in the Peabody. I hope that the Peabody receives funding to remodel their other…
Gearing up for the 2015 Simmons Leadership Conference
Posted March 16, 2015 by Jill Silverberg
Last night, I joined a large group of current and past Simmons students at the Seaport Boston Hotel and the World Trade Center to train for the 36th annual Simmons Leadership Conference. For those of you who were at Simmons last year, you might recall this event as the one that Hillary Clinton spoke at last spring. While I could not time find in my schedule to go last year, this time around, I was determined to get involved. Ranked as one of the principle women’s leadership conferences, the Simmons Leadership Conference attracts over 3000 middle and senior level women from companies and organizations across the country and around the globe. Inspired but the mission of Simmons founder, John Simmons, the creators seek to continue his work to enable women to acquire independent livelihoods. The list of past speakers who have been previously featured is quite impressive: Madeline Albright, Maya Angelou, Benazir Bhutto, Diane Keaton, and many more. This year, Sally Fields has the honor of being the final keynote speaker of the day. Seriously, how could I…
First Fridays
Posted March 15, 2015 by Samantha Quiñon
My friends and I have a sort of tradition, though I don’t know if that’s really the proper word. Maybe it’s habit or ritual or pattern. Anyway, I’m talking about how we always congregate monthly at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) for its “First Fridays” event, which happens on the evening of –you guessed it– the first Friday of every month. We do this for many reasons. First of all, the MFA is beautiful, and it’s a completely different experience seeing it lit up at night. It’s also only about two blocks from the main campus, so the location is convenient. Additionally, we all get in for free with our Simmons student IDs. (This is also true at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is literally right next door.) Just to reiterate: We have an amazing museum nearby open late with plenty to explore and free admission. If those aren’t enough reasons to go, the event also sells drinks for a reasonable price (rare in Boston) and has a tasty assortment of light snacks….