Explore
Posted October 16, 2014 by Hayley Botnen
This week has been fantastic for adventuring. October is drawing to a middle, but the weather is still lovely, and with having Monday off from school, I felt like this was a mini-break in the middle of a busy semester. So, of course, I did a little bit of exploring. This last Saturday, I went to Maine with my roommate. We wanted to see a few lighthouses, so we figured we’d take the scenic 1A highway up to Portland. According to GoogleMaps, Portland is usually just under 2 hours away by interstate. We figured it’d take us an extra half-hour to forty-five minutes. Ummmm. No. Being from Montana, we were still going by Montana highways, which while you will hit more towns by taking the highway, you do still have plenty of stretches going 65 mph. It tooks us four hours to get to Portland. It was a lovely drive, but we didn’t have much time to check out Portland while we were there. In fact, we pretty much walked up their Arts District street,…
#LibrariansReadComics
Posted October 13, 2014 by Alexandra Bernson
Ever since I picked up my first comic book, the possibility of one day visiting Comic Con was the goal. Middle School Alex would probably be rather disappointed in her current day counterpart with regard to my nerd cred: I didn’t keep up with anime, graphic novels, and superhero trivia and knowledge and I do not yet own an authentic Storm costume (though I did put together a pretty great replica using yellow duct tape and black exercise clothes). Several of my purist friends have complained that Comic Con is no longer only about comics, that “Hollywood took over” and “the con” has been spoiled. I can understand how these insertions could disappoint hardcore comics fans, but I was happy to learn that ALA is one of those sneaky non-comics booths that is now participating. The relationship between libraries and comics is an ever evolving one. The previously mentioned Middle School Alex would scour the one small graphic novel section of my public library for the next installment, which would almost never be available and…
“Bring Them Back”: How a Parody Helped Me Learn More About Disability
Posted October 12, 2014 by Alison Mitchell
I was going to write about how draining the last week was for me, but then I realized that no one wants to hear about the minutiae of my life, especially when the draining parts don’t actually have to do with library school. The library school part of last week was, as always, lovely. (What? You’re wondering why my week was so draining? blah blah mammogram blah blah unrelated health issue blah blah friend’s more serious health issue blah blah husband out of town for four days leaving me with kids and work and my school but not their school, thanks teacher-professional-day-weekend-Columbus Day blah blah. I’m in my 40s, with two kids, in graduate school — it’s going to be like this a lot, so I’d better get used to it.) Anyway. Since I spent the past week basically keeping my head above water, I’ll use this space to introduce you to one of my favorite librarians. I don’t actually know her in real life, but her blog is tremendous. She’s Mary Evelyn Smith, a…
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…