Local Bookstore of the Week
Posted November 17, 2014 by Alexandra Bernson
Like the good librarian stereotype that I am, I left my two cats to visit David’sTEA (probably while wearing a cardigan) last Saturday when I stumbled upon Commonwealth Books in downtown Boston. Right off the Freedom Trail, between the Old State House and the Old South Meeting house, this seemingly little bookshop is not little at all! I had no idea that this bookstore existed until I noticed their covert sign pointing down the narrow alley to the shop’s front door. When I first moved to Boston, I had searched for local bookstores and hadn’t seen this particular shop listed in Google Maps or in the many “Best Bookstores in Boston” lists online. This bookstore might just be another great Boston secret. At first glance, Commonwealth Books appears to be just another used book store a la Brattle Book Shop (another great shop near the Boston Common, if you’re looking). But take a few more steps inside their wooden store front and you’ll notice an amazing selection of antiquarian items, including rows of old prints,…
Since I started library school…
Posted November 16, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
I’ve noticed that since I started library school, people have been posting an increasing number of library-related things on my Facebook page. People just like libraries, I guess. When I was a lawyer, no one posted legal jokes on my Facebook page (actually, Facebook didn’t exist when I went to law school). Still, librarians are way more popular than lawyers, even with the whole librarian “shhhh” reputation. Anyway, here’s a sampling of things friends have posted for me. 12 Children’s Books with Non-Princess Female Protagonists This type of list is big in the circles I run in, and now that I’m in library school, many of my friends think I’ve automatically read all of them. I haven’t, and I’m always thrilled to learn of another book that fits in this category. The Librarians TV Show I don’t actually know much about this — a TV show about superhero librarians? Sounds good to me! It premiers on December 7 — I’ll set the DVR now. What Do You Do, Dear? My librarian crush. I wrote…
The Home Stretch
Posted November 15, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
Classes end the first or second week of December (depending on whether or not the class started in the first or second week of September). This generally means that SLIS students are working on a final project for every class right about now. This isn’t like undergrad. There is no big final examination. It’s intense. For one class I have to build a working website with five HTML pages and use CSS manipulation, which I’m sure is no big deal for some people, but it’s a huge deal for me. For another class (Reference), I have to work with a group of four other people to create a 40-minute tutorial for a medical database called PubMed. I’m gearing up by watching video guides that PubMed currently has posted on its website. The shortest one is an hour, and it covers just one aspect of the site. It’s going to be interesting to see how we condense all of this information into a manageable, cogent presentation. I also have a literature review due for my archives…
Interviews
Posted November 11, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
I’ve had a few job interviews in the last couple of weeks, and I have another big one coming up soon (so cross your fingers for me, if you would), so it seems like I’ve been interview prepping for months now. I’ve probably had a hundred or so interviews in my life, so I’ve got the general idea of them down pat, but every one is different, so there’s always (for me) something to be nervous about. (Being so nervous in important interviews is definitely something I do, to the point where my mind goes blank. It’s an issue.) The main thing to remember is this: no one likes interviews. Not the interviewee, who is usually at least somewhat stressed and under pressure, and not the interviewer, who isn’t under the same pressure but is still in the awkward position of having to ask questions of someone who is. My worst interview ever was with a library in Massachusetts that quizzed me on Library of Congress call numbers and then made me to a skills…
Sweatpants and lovin’ it
Posted November 10, 2014 by Alexandra Bernson
I made it through high school without drinking coffee. Despite all of my friends running to Starbucks after school (but before theatre rehearsal), I only developed an addiction to the little packets of honey. I thought I was being sneaky, but soon the employees began to notice my pocketing the honey packets and soon I was no longer welcome in the downtown Annapolis Starbucks location. My refusal to drink coffee only lasted until sophomore year of college, when I was forced to pull an all-nighter and my roommate convinced me to have a cup. She soon regretted giving me the caffeine, and I ended up bouncing around the room all night, somehow managed to finish my paper, and then passed out hard around 5:30AM. I was thinking about that first cup of coffee when I purchased my first pair of sweatpants. I know, I know, I don’t know how I’ve managed to live a full 24 years without outright owning a pair of sweatpants – I think it was because I didn’t want to disappoint…
Librarian Rock Star
Posted November 9, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
This afternoon, at work, I had the most awesome success. As soon as my shift was over, I called my husband and told him about it. He was only mildly impressed. When I picked up my kids at my mother-in-law’s, I told her, and she was also somewhat neutral. Later, I called my mother, who, after a too-long pause, said “oh, that’s great!” What was so great, you ask? I helped a patron find exactly what she wanted, with very little information to go on. I felt like a librarian rock star. Apparently my nearest and dearest weren’t quite as excited about my massive success, but I am still riding high. Here’s what happened. I was the only person working in the Children’s Department, nearing the end of my shift. A 7-year-old girl came to the desk (I know she was seven, because she told me), and said she wanted to read the same book her friend was reading. (Her friend wasn’t actually at the library.) That’s all I had to go on. And I…
A Bit More Fit
Posted November 8, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
This week I activated my Fitbit Zip, which is like a souped up pedometer that tracks steps, distance, and calories burned. I’m trying to walk 10,000 steps a day, but it’s been more like 8,000, if I’m being honest–which I am. And it’s not like I can lie, because many of my friends have Fitbit too. There is a social feature where we can see how many steps other people in our network have taken, so I’m accountable to other people, not just myself. Everyone’s total number of steps is automatically calculated for the week, and we try to see who can take the most. This has lead to a lot good-natured goading. It’s great motivation, because I’m pretty competitive, and we’re all eager to walk off all the junk food we’ve eaten now that we’re in the second (more intense) half of the Fall term. So for now 8,000 steps a day is acceptable. After all, it’s only my first week, and school, studying, and archives work are usually sedentary activities. Still, it’s pretty…
Looking to the Future
Posted November 6, 2014 by Hayley Botnen
I’m going to be honest. I have no idea what I want to do when I graduate. And around this time when we’re registering for classes and everyone is talking about their future plans, I feel so scared. I love YA books, and I love libraries. It seemed like a pretty obvious step to do the dual program. But when people try to ask me if I’m going to be a librarian or go into publishing–well, I have no idea. I think I would love to do either. Or both. I feel like the older I get the more I should know what I want to do with my life. I should be settling down, finding a long-term job and a significant other and a house. (Maybe I just think these things because my sister has already achieved most of these, and my parents keep pushing me to do the same.) But I don’t know what I want from my future. I would love to be a teen librarian. But. I don’t love a lot…
Boston Winter Survival Guide
Posted November 5, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
This past Sunday morning, my roommate ran into the living room of our apartment, opened the window and stuck her head outside of it. “It’s snowing out there!” she proclaimed in disbelief. I stood up and joined her at the window and took a look at all the white, fluffy stuff that was coming down. “Well, considering other years, snow in November isn’t such a shocking thing around here. However, this is only the beginning.” For those out there who do not know me, I love snow. One of the reasons I ended up going to an undergraduate university in Massachusetts was because I was guaranteed to have at least more than one snow day. But, my love for snow extends far beyond just the possibility of not having school. I love walking through it, playing in it, taking pictures of it, watching snow collect outside while sitting inside with a warm cup of hot cider. Essentially, if it is a snow based activity (other than shoveling it), chances are high that I’ve participated in it….
Bookfest!
Posted November 4, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
Edgar Allen Poe is famous for spewing vitriol about Boston and the literary habits of its inhabitants, pretty much from the moment he left Boston to the day of his death. (The thing that makes it funny, of course, is that today the only Bostonian monument to Poe is a plaque on the side of a Boloco two blocks from his long-demolished childhood home. They are, grudgingly, going to install a statue of him eventually. Lesson: do not crap on a city, because it will always outlive you and have the last laugh.) It’s true that Boston isn’t a literary city on par with New York or San Francisco, but it’s not a book wasteland, either. I mean, we have to have something to do in the winter when the internet’s out. So: the Boston Book Festival, or BookFest, is a huge one day celebration of all things bookish. It takes place in Copley Square and is, get this, entirely free. You have to have tickets to some of the more popular author readings or…