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…
Falling Down and Getting Up
Posted September 17, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Yesterday, I fell off a ladder. This wasn’t some deep metaphorical ladder, but rather the type that one climbs when one is shelving books.This wasn’t my first time falling off a ladder or step stool while trying to either shelve books or pull them down, and it probably won’t be the last time either. After all, couldn’t you argue that life is filled with moments like this; moments when you fall down and moments when you get back up. The other day while I was working at the Student Service Center’s desk on the 2nd floor of the Palace Road building, a new student came by looking for information about the archives program. They wanted to know what I thought of the program, was it a good place to be if they were still a bit unsure about where exactly they wanted to go with their degree? Was I enjoying the dual degree program or did I regret adding the second Masters? And finally, what can they do to make sure that whenever they graduate…
Careers for MLIS Grads
Posted September 16, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
Most people who attend a Master’s in Library and Information Science program want to work at a library or archive when they finish. The degree tends to be centered on those types of repositories, but there are also other research-oriented jobs that an M.S. can be excellent preparation for, especially in the current job market. Here are a few different career tracks that I’ve seen advertised in the Boston area recently: Prospect Research involves finding potential donors for non-profit organizations. It can involve a lot of internet and database research, determining not just who is likely to want to give to an organization but also what their donation capacity is. Because prospect researchers are employed by different types and sizes of organizations, the pay and actual job can vary widely. I’m going to be doing a prospect research internship this fall, so I’ll probably end up writing a couple of blog entries about what it’s actually like to do this type of work. Rights and Permissions Research involves doing internet research to identify and locate…
A Day in the Life
Posted September 15, 2014 by Alexandra Bernson
As a first semester MLIS student, I would be the first to tell you that I don’t have much experience with archival work. Aside from volunteering in public libraries and a brief stint as a shelver in college, my only real exposure to archives was researching the Theatre and Performing Arts special collection at my undergrad’s university archives. I had the opportunity to hold a Shakespeare First Folio and other amazing artifacts, and got a little spoiled when it came to the joys of archival discovery. When I volunteered to work several hours at the Brookline Historical Society for the REPS Day of Service 2014 this past Saturday, I didn’t know what to expect. Google Maps brought me to a little old house with a white picket fence, but thankfully the curators found me lurking in the backyard before I convinced myself that I was trespassing on a private residence. In a small room in the back of what I learned was the historic Edward Devotion House, I was assigned two boxes from a new…
The Balancing Act Begins!
Posted September 14, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
Well, my first full week of school is over, and my two biggest accomplishments were getting a student discount (10% at Tags!) and making my kids do my homework. Kidding. Kind of. Going back to school at age 41, with a husband and kids and part-time work, is, in some ways, just like going to school at any age. I puzzle over how long it will take me to get to school from our home in Somerville (almost an hour!), where to get my ID (the campus card office), what kind of notebooks to use, whether I needed a snack during a 3-hour class (yes!). There are some major differences, too. Before I leave for class, I make lunches for my kids and get them ready for school. I check my phone during breaks to make sure the school hasn’t called. I drag myself to book club one night, and we talk about our parents’ health problems (probably not what my 20-something classmates are discussing over dinner). I balance my freelance work and shifts at…
Dissecting Computers
Posted September 13, 2014 by Samantha Quiñon
I blog and I’m in library school, so sometimes people think I know a lot about computers. While I can understand why they would make this assumption, to be perfectly honest, technology really intimidates me. This goes back to a when I was in the second grade and my family got a new peripheral device and remote control for our cable television. There were so many colorful buttons! I started pushing away at them, trying to find the guide channel. As result, the TV froze and would not turn back on. It took two days to get someone from the cable company to reset everything, and by the time it was all over, I had a fear of touching expensive machines and always tried to get other people to handle technology for me. My first personal computer? My boyfriend set it up. My first iPod? My brother put all of my music on it and on every iPod I’ve owned since. When I moved away from home for the first time? My boyfriend at the…
Grad School Year Two: Bring it On!
Posted September 12, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
I’d like to start this blog post by first welcoming back my fellow returning grad students and by welcoming those starting their first year in SLIS! I have a good feeling that this semester is going to be a good one, and I wish the same to all of you. Since the last time I posted something here, I’ve made the move from Brighton to Roxbury Crossing. Not only am I now living with other students from SLIS and the Children’s Literature program, but I am also within fifteen minutes from school. Essentially, I will be at Simmons a lot this year, either at the library, at the Student Services Center desk, or in the tech lab. I even purchased an awesome blanket from the Simmons Bookstore to keep me warm while inside the Palace Road Building. Still deciding if bringing a blanket to class would be a bit too much. What do you think? Beyond the above, I’m sort of ashamed to admit this but, the reality that my second year of grad had…