A Brown Bag Special for Banned Books Week
Posted September 26, 2014 by kbryan
Even if you haven’t entered library school, you’ve probably noticed that us librarians like to get our geek on for different celebrations. Certain events in the library calendar are designed to unite library and informational professionals near and far, make us feel a little less alone in our geekiness, and get us thinking creatively about the larger purpose behind the event. If the ALA annual conference is like our Christmas, Hanukkah, or Festivus, then Banned Books Week is akin to a Fourth of July weekend, minus the raucous festivities. We mourn the inclusion of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Perks of Being a Wallflower on the ALA’s “Top Ten Challenged Books List.” And then we celebrate the qualities we cherish about these books, and the privilege of living in a country whose constitution protects our right to read freely. In the school library where I work, we’ve scoured our collection for the books the ALA says get people in a tizzy. We then covered those books with brown lunch bags…
Books I Can Afford
Posted September 25, 2014 by Hayley Botnen
Alright, friends, today I want to talk about the magic that is library book sales. Yes, you read that right. You can actually buy books from a place where you usually have to give the books back. Now, I feel sure that most people in the “book business” have adequate knowledge of used book stores (something that I’m still lacking in the Boston area–let me know if you have any suggestions please!!!), but for some reason, I feel like library book sales go largely under the radar. It doesn’t make much sense to me. If SLIS students are looking to work at libraries, we should be the most aware of the benefits libraries offer, but for some reason I’ve heard more people talking about Barnes & Nobles and Amazon than the glory of library book sales. Library book sales mean cheap books. Sure, they’re used. Occasionally, the condition isn’t great. But usually the Friends of the Library, the wonderful group of people who host this event, make sure books are in good condition–but good condition…
Taking Care of Business: Finding the Right Spot
Posted September 24, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
When it comes to homework, where we work can often determine if we work. Moving to a new city for a new job or academic program can mean setting your roots deep into some academic and professional goals – and sometimes that can mean finding the perfect place to sit down with your laptop and coffee, and get to work. Let’s be real – coursework can grow to become an influential part of our lives. As someone who needs to leave Netflix’s sphere of influence in order to put words on a page, I know that going somewhere new, even without the comforting embrace of a wifi connection, can make the difference when trying to wrangle all those assignments. After becoming a regular in Western Massachusetts hotspots during my time as an undergrad battling a sea of footnotes, moving to Cambridge with the start of my grad program meant scoping out places where I could extract myself from my cozy apartment to get things done. Now entering my third semester at SLIS, I’ll share my…
Librarians as Information Radicals
Posted September 23, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
Everyone knows the persistent stereotype of the shhhing librarians, enemies of noise and fun. As I noted a month ago, there’s even a shhhing librarian action figure. The reality, of course, is very different – as no doubt anyone who is attending or even seriously considering library school knows, and that’s not even the half of it. At least in some circles – circles in the know – librarians are painted as ninjas protecting the privacy rights of their patrons. And they’re not wrong. The ALA has supported patron privacy rights since 1939, affirming that confidentiality is crucial to freedom of inquiry in the Library Bill of Rights. It’s definitely true that if patrons believe that libraries share their information queries with any agency that asks, they won’t make the queries in the first place. Libraries often view privacy rights as basic human rights, and base their privacy policies on the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Of course, having the basic ideas in place is one thing, but actually acting on them when…
Hey You! Take a Break!
Posted September 22, 2014 by Alexandra Bernson
Even though we are barely a month into the semester, I’m starting to get a little overwhelmed. This post might be a bit premature for some of you reading this blog, but as an online student working full time and living on my own, it is very easy for me to feel inundated with everything that I have to do. For us online students, there isn’t a standard structure to our academic schedule – no set class times, no free afternoons, no opportunity to go to the 2PM free coffee hour on campus (seriously though – there never seems to be any student events in Boston that take place after 5PM!). I am still adjusting to building time for my schoolwork into my schedule, and so far I’m getting everything done on time. But then I remember that it is barely the end of September, and soon my mountains of reading and required discussion forum posts will be supplemented with 10-page research papers and group projects. I can’t help but log into Moodle and utter,…
Boston, you’re my home
Posted September 21, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
I’ve lived in Boston my whole life, and sometimes I take the city’s cultural attractions and goings-on for granted. (That could be because I have kids, and their idea of culture is the Grossology exhibit at the Science Museum.) Meeting my classmates, many of whom have moved to Boston just for this program, reminds me to slow down to appreciate all the area has to offer, even as I wonder when I will finish my reading and class assignments! So, last week I went to a lecture with a friend, and today I visited Drumlin Farm with my brother and one of my daughters. Super fun, and I still had time to finish the TOR! It’s important to balance school and fun. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite things to do in the greater Boston area. Whether you’re visiting Simmons, have just moved here for SLIS, or, like me, have lived here for many years, you’re bound to enjoy at least one of these adventures. The Greenway: The Big Dig,…
Field Study at BPL
Posted September 20, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
I have to do a field study for my Archival Methods and Services (LIS 438) class, which entails visiting a local repository, using it to answer a research question, and then writing a 3-5 page paper about the experience. In the past I’ve mostly used small, community archives, so for a change of pace, I chose to visit the large and impressive print department of Boston Public Library’s Special Collections. The entrance to BPL Before I could visit, I had to come up with a research question. Since I didn’t know what collections the department housed, I went online to its website (BPL Special Collections) to get an overview of what it had. Even though only a tiny part of the vast Special Collections has been digitized, BPL still does an exemplary job of listing what it has available for researchers and the general public. But with so much selection, it was a little overwhelming! I ended up picking the Adlow papers, a collection of late 18th and early 19th century documents that belonged to…
Two Hundred Miles, A T Ride, and A Couple of Llamas
Posted September 19, 2014 by kbryan
My days begin and end with llamas. “Huh, what?” you ask. “I thought this was a blog about all the joys and challenges of being a SLIS student in Boston! What’s this llama nonsense?!? I want my money back!” Let me explain. Rest assured: This is definitely a SLIS “student experience” blog, and I’m very much a SLIS student. But as a SLIS West-er who takes the majority of her classes at Mt. Holyoke, most of my days are spent far from One Palace Road — 99.9 miles, if Google Maps’ accuracy can be trusted. The place I call home isn’t a Back Bay brownstone, or a walkup apartment in Brookline or the Longwood area. It’s an old white farmhouse with green shutters in a Western Massachusetts hill town. The Connecticut River is a stone’s throw away. And there’s a llama farm next door. Having llamas as my closest neighbors isn’t something I reflect on often. I’ve pet them a couple times. At least once a day, usually in the morning when I’m headed to…
The (Not-So) Secret (Rose) Garden
Posted September 18, 2014 by Hayley Botnen
Everyone! I have found The Secret Garden! Okay, it’s not actually the one in the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but it’s almost as great. Because not only is it somewhere I’ve never been before, (spoiler alert: there are a lot of those places) it’s also a beautiful and well-maintained rose garden. In the Back Bay Fens Park (for those of you who aren’t native Bostonians–including myself– the actual park portion of the park is called thus, the Fenway Park is the baseball field…I think.), there is a secluded beautiful rose garden called the James P. Kelleher Rose Garden. I was told about this beautiful spot by someone I met briefly earlier in the day. I was so thankful to her. It really felt like stepping into one of my favorite childhood gardens. Seriously look at it. (photo credit to Christine Riggle (accessed via flickr) — I was not thoughtful enough to take anything besides SnapChats when I was there) Admittedly since I went on Tuesday, and it’s September, it wasn’t quite as vibrant as…
Catching on Coding
Posted September 17, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
We at Simmons have been known to run the spectrum of professions and interests within the information sciences. Whether stemming from personal passion or outside necessity, developing your own sense technological literacy and pushing it to the limits is a huge part of your academic career and an even bigger part of your larger ambitions as an information professional. As we set our sights on post-graduation opportunity, we should start thinking about how we can become not only tech users, but tech creators. Growing up, coding was synonymous to me with being the forum regular with the coolest post signature – boasting countless animated sparkle fonts, flaming clip art, and the lime green courier font of 1337 h4x0rs of yore. Today, coding means something much bigger – and learning to code became the tether between the tech I use on a daily basis, and me understanding the tech I use on daily basis. Let’s be real for a second – looking at a code document for the first time can look like an insurmountable wall…