Myths about SLIS and Library School
Posted October 11, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
Myth: I’m going to have a tough time getting a job when I graduate. Truth: You aren’t going to graduate from SLIS and become director of the New York Public Library, but you are going to graduate and find employment. If you are willing to re-locate outside of Boston, you definitely won’t have problems finding a job. If you continue to live in Boston or have a specialty (like art or law librarianship), you will still get a job, but you might either have to wait for a few months or work in something that isn’t your preferred specialty, until you can find exactly what you want. When people outside of the field joke that no one needs librarians anymore with Google and the Internet, they fail to account for the resurgence in library hiring since the recession and for non-traditional librarian jobs. As I’ve mentioned in my prior posts, SLIS’s Simmons Jobline is constantly being updated with new positions in all of the information sciences at every level (student, pre-professional, and professional). Also, many…
Printing, Pronto!
Posted October 10, 2014 by kbryan
We’ve all been that person. You know, the one who completes an assignment minutes before it’s due, not giving a second thought to printing until the very last minute. I was that person Wednesday night. I spent the last hour-and-a-half before class riding the T and furiously typing the first draft of my lesson plan due for LIS 426 that night. When I arrived at Simmons at 5:30, I’d more or less finished the assignment, but only had a half hour to get that Google Drive document into paper form. Naturally, I went to Beatley Library to accomplish this task. I see plenty of 11th hour printing woes in my job. Helping someone print their document is equal parts instruction in how to navigate the nuances of printing protocol, and therapy (“Don’t worry! You can do this! You will get this printed in time for your class that begins in three minutes!”). In an ideal world, we would allow ourselves ample time to complete an assignment and print. But the way our lives are structured…
Thoughts about Perception
Posted October 9, 2014 by Hayley Botnen
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about perception and subjectivity. Those are both ideas that we come across a lot in the fields of Library Science and Children’s Literature. As librarians, we’re supposed to set our own feelings aside and rely on what the patron is telling us. For example, if someone is asking for a “scary book,” we should get more of a sense of what they’re looking for by asking what they’ve read recently that’s like what they want or other factors they’re looking for like a certain kind of protagonist. Reader’s Advisory is, I think, a lot about putting personal preference aside. I’m not a huge fan of Stephen King (much to my father’s disappointment), but if someone was looking for a book that was scary and set in a cemetery with an adult male protagonist, I might suggest Pet Sematary. When looking at books from the perspective of my Children’s Literature courses, I can use my own perception of the book. Reading a book is ultimately a subjective experience. No matter…
It’s Pumpkin Time!
Posted October 8, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
A long time ago, in a state not too far away, my elementary school arranged a special surprise for its fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes. It was October 2001, and to lift the spirits of the students still reeling from 9/11, the school board somehow managed to secure one pumpkin for each student (this was not a particularly large elementary school) and brought in someone to teach us how to ‘carve’ Jack O’Lanterns. Over the course of three days, each class was given an hour, a small pumpkin, and some paint while a master pumpkin carver showed everyone how to carve a spooktacular Jack O’Lantern. Pictures were taken, jokes were made, and a pumpkin contest was held to decide which student painted the best pumpkin. Although the annual Christmas Classroom Door contest was usually regarded as the best school-wide event, that year, nothing could compare to my elementary school’s pumpkin fest. And I missed the whole thing. Indeed, that year, my normally decent immune system betrayed me and on the day that my fifth…
Fall Festivals
Posted October 7, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
New England is known for being a bit quirky in its weather, and one of the things that really gave me pause about moving to Boston from Vancouver was the cold and snowy winters. To be fair, Boston is relatively cold and there usually are some spectacular snowstorms, but it’s not quite on the level of the Prairies or American Mid-West in either of those categories. (Which is a good thing! I know there are people who love the cold and think skiboarding and shoesnowing are great fun, but luckily you can usually spot them coming a mile away and steer clear of them before their delusions can get you.) The thing that outweighed the cold and pushed me to come here anyway was the promise of amazing autumns. We don’t really get autumn on the West coast – not like here, with the vibrant foliage and pumpkin patches and fall festivals popping up everywhere. Autumn in Vancouver means dropping temperatures, more rain and fierce wind storms, none of which are as fun or…
John Singer Sargent is my jam, but so are weekend SLIS events!
Posted October 6, 2014 by Alexandra Bernson
As an online student working full time in the Greater Boston area, it is very difficult to participate in the multitude of SLIS social gatherings. Whether it is a lecture, a coffee meet-up, or happy hour, these events always seem to take place right in the middle of the standard work day. I understand that the majority of students at Simmons are full-time but I wish that there were more events during the weekends or week nights (I’m sure there is a trivia night somewhere in Fenway!) that might accommodate us 9-to-5-ers. Last week, as I pessimistically scanned the events “This week @ SLIS!” courtesy of LISSA, I noticed an advertisement for a free guided tour at the Art of the Americas collection of the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) on Sunday, October 5th. The event’s description made me frantic: “ONLY 3 TICKETS LEFT!” I almost dropped my phone as I dove for my computer, opened up Eventbrite, and claimed my ticket. I spent the entire week in anticipation, and not only because I absolutely…
Real World – The Library
Posted October 5, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
When I decided to apply to SLIS, I wanted to make sure that I actually liked working in a library. I was about to turn my family’s life upside down, leaving fairly calm and flexible freelance work that allowed me to always pick the kids up at school, for classes, assignments and, ultimately, set hours working in a library. What if I hated it? I applied for several positions and, since July, I’ve been working as a clerk in the Children’s Department at the Goodnow Library in Sudbury, MA. I absolutely, completely love it, and am thrilled to be in school putting this career change into motion. After only a few weeks of classes, I’m making so many connections between what we learn in school and what I do in the library. Pulling books for Interlibrary Loan? It’s all based on what we’re learning in 415! Answering questions from very different types of patrons? We talked about that in 401! The librarians at Goodnow are great resources, too, full of advice about course selection and…
Schedule Update
Posted October 4, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
My schedule changed this week and became much more busy thanks to two new jobs of sorts. The first is an internship at Emerson College, and the second is a volunteer position at Boston Arts Academy/Fenway High School. The internship is required for my Archival Methods and Services (LIS 438) class. For eight hours a week (on Monday in my case) through the first or second week of December, students in this class must attend an internship at a local repository where they learn about the basics of archives. The internship lets me and my classmates see what archivists do on a daily basis by allowing us to both observe and complete nitty-gritty, time-consuming (and highly edifying) tasks that are perfect for students. Doing these jobs will provide us with skills to complete a final project at the internship, which will comprise a significant portion of our grade. My internship, in Emerson’s digital archives at the Iwasaki Library, has me processing a small digital collection of alumni weekend photographs and creating a finding aid for…
A Little Help Never Hurt Anybody
Posted October 2, 2014 by Hayley Botnen
It’s easy to assume–especially if you’ve already completed an undergraduate program–that you know all there is to know about writing. Or maybe I should just say that I thought I knew enough about writing to get by in a graduate program since I got my undergraduate degree in English. I could probably decorate the walls of my apartment with all the papers I wrote as an undergraduate. Not to mention the fact that I write for myself on the side. Who needs help writing a measly three page paper? Well, I do. Actually, I think we all might. For my first two papers in graduate school, both professors commented on my lack of “cohesiveness”. Maybe it’s the two years I took off, or maybe it’s the fact that I write two blogs, or maybe it’s that I feel like my brain flows just fine thank you very much, but I struggled with that comment. I put so much thought into those papers! I put so much work into those papers! I didn’t want to get…
Hello Fall!
Posted October 1, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Although it only feels like it was just yesterday that summer was upon us (AKA this past weekend), the changing of the leaves and the cooler temperatures are sending a signal to all of us Bostonians that Autumn is here. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how September went by so quickly! Am I the only one who is shocked by how quickly the month of September went by? I swear, just a few weeks ago I was moving into my new apartment. Now, the leaves are not only changing, but falling off the trees and I’m bundled up in my Northface!!!! But I digress. Despite my apparent shock and slight hint of denial, I actually love October. Next to December, this is my favorite month. Why? Well, other then the obvious reason of Halloween, October means pumpkin season! And cold nights with a big cup of hot cocoa. And let’s not forget massive leaf piles! Essentially, all the things I loved as a kid and still continue to love today….