#GSLISchat Conversation – 7/24/2014
Posted July 24, 2014 by Katie Olivo
Did you miss our lastest #GSLISchat? Check out the feed below to read what you missed and ask additional questions. Thanks to all who participated! #GSLISchat Tweets
Perk of Being Here: Learning in the hallways at GSLIS
Posted July 23, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
I spent much of the spring interviewing candidates for the library assistant position at the school library where I work. I met a great many qualified candidates. I was impressed by extensive resumes, many filled with a plethora of technical prowess as well as life experience. The ideal candidate is meant to be entering the library profession but not have an MLS. I assumed that most of our qualified candidates would be attending Simmons or starting in the fall. I was mistaken. Most of our savvy candidates were keeping their options open by attending online degree programs through other universities. Their sound reasoning was that these programs were cheaper than many of their campus counterparts and left them free to pursue library jobs wherever they pleased. This is a completely valid argument. Anyone who goes to Simmons knows the cost all too well. Anyone who has ever looked at the trends in online education knows that it’s what’s next for GSLIS and most LIS programs. I tried to mine the library literature at Beatley to…
Job Hunting
Posted July 16, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
I have about six months left until I get my degree, and that is both incredibly exciting and incredibly terrifying. The point of library school is, of course, to be able to get a job at the end of it, and these days the competition for that job is stiffer than ever – especially in the Boston area. I’m a little more fortunate than a lot of my peers because I have more than a decade of professional experience under my belt, but that’s no guarantee of anything. Luckily, the same class that gives me a dose of real world internship experience (LIS502) also gives students a crash course in resume, cover letter and interviewing dos and don’ts, then lets students discuss their own experiences. The discussions are really the meat of it, because we give each other encouragement and tips, everything from interesting job boards to tricks for combatting nervousness and professional dress (I have to admit that I am in my 30s and still can’t walk in heels particularly well. It’s an issue!). …
This is What a Librarian Looks Like
Posted July 14, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
It’s not news that popular aesthetics of librarianship are steeped in stereotype. Between visions of bibliographic babes with starched collars, pulled back hair, and horn rimmed glasses – librarians break these archetypes on a daily basis every time they get of bed in the morning to reveal looks as diverse as our professional responsibilities. The blog This is What a Librarian Looks Like has accepted the mission of displaying the real face of librarianship across the globe. On their about page, blog creators Bobbi Newman and Erin Downey Howerton write “Think you know what a librarian looks like? Go beyond the bun and challenge old, outdated librarian stereotypes. In the spirit of This is What a Scientist Looks Like, we bring you the ultimate complement to Library Day in the Life: This is What a Librarian Looks Like.” Through photographs and personal blurbs submitted by librarians from Norway to Oregon, this blog reveals a face of librarianship that spans across different ages, genders, and national boundaries. In development for over two years, This is What…
Real World Experience
Posted July 2, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
When I was looking at grad schools and deciding where to apply, the things I was really looking at were the program’s requirements: GPA, recommendations, essays, etc. I didn’t delve too far into what the different programs actually offered in the way of classes, since before I started library school and understood a lot of the skills and terminology, the course descriptions and requirements meant next to nothing to me. Still, one of the things that really stuck out for me about the Simmons GSLIS program was the emphasis on internships. Most of the programs that I looked at didn’t require any sort of internship or real world experience, but Simmons requires two – two! – internships to graduate. To be perfectly honest, that seemed like a nightmare. All I wanted to do was go to class, do the work, eventually graduate and then start worrying about getting professional work in actual archives. I didn’t want to have to attempt to work in archives before I even had my degree. Once I got in to…
Cracking the Lock on Open Access Collections
Posted June 30, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
It’s no secret that accessibility is a big part of what we do here at GSLIS. Within libraries, museums, archives, and information institutions – many of us act as the tether between information and patrons. In recent months, a handful of influential institutions across the globe have begun jumping on the Open Access bandwagon – a movement which the Public Library of Science defines as “unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse.” A burgeoning topic on the horizon of information science, we as GSLIS students can acquaint ourselves with Open Access collections and create OA projects of our own. While a number of considerations lay between institutions and the creation of online open access collections, they reveal new opportunities for research, engagement, and scholarship. Once an institution has determined which objects or collections qualify, they start working forward from there to reconfigure the terms applied to the pieces within their OA initiative. For an example of these terms, browse through the specifications stated within the Getty Open Content Program. While many factors go into the creation of…
Hanging out with JFK
Posted June 26, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Did you know that just a short bus ride away from the JFK T stop on the red line is the JFK Presidential Library and Museum? Did you also know that the papers and writings of Ernest Hemmingway are also stored there? No? Well, neither did I. That was, at least, until I went on a field trip with my Preservation Management class last Thursday. Yea, that’s right, I went on a FIELD TRIP! Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus would have been super proud of my class. Not only did we get to learn about the responsibilities and skills required to be an archivist and deputy curator to a Presidential Library, but we also learned about the JFK Library’s disaster plan and how it was tested during an actual disaster that happened last year. For those who don’t know, the library had a fire last April and though smoke, water, and firefighter damage was great, the library and museum did not lose a single item. Now that’s what I call impressive. Considering that my course,…
Breaking up is just so hard to do
Posted June 24, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
The librarian’s best friend and arguably ongoing nemesis is the never-ending task of weeding. To remain on the cutting edge or at least to remain in the realm of the present with your collection it’s important to evaluate all of the resources on and off the shelves that the library provides. This means, that in any healthy library there should generally be a project going on that removes, or weeds, outdated items. I am fortunate to work in a very healthy academic library, your very own Beatley Library at Simmons, and I find myself these days withdrawing beautiful, yet ancient, reference books. Let’s face it, the future of reference does not lie in the obscure tomes published 50 years ago with the solid leather bindings. However, I stand there in the stacks with The Encyclopedia of Fairies in my hand and I’m sure it’s not my imagination that I hear a little cry from within as I place it on the withdrawal cart. These books know where they’re going. They know their fate. I assumed…
Summer Reading
Posted June 19, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
It’s June, which means Summer Reading time at public libraries across the country. Last summer I was temporarily working as a young adult librarian, juggling my first ever summer reading program, and I can tell you that Summer Reading is both the most exhausting and rewarding part of being a youth librarian. It is seriously two months of stress and terror (did I bring enough snacks for this program? Did I bring enough prizes? What about the kids who didn’t sign up but want to come anyway – did I bring extra supplies?) but it’s what the bulk of the programming budget is spent on, too, so it’s an interesting time with lots of fun things happening. As the YA librarian I had my hands full enough, so I didn’t help out much with the children’s Summer Reading program, which is about 300% busier. (If anyone is thinking about becoming a children’s librarian at a public library, I would advise them to spend a summer helping out with Summer Reading first, so they know what…
Serious Business
Posted June 17, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
Twenty-something and caught between earning that graduate degree and staying sharp in a competitive job market – I know the feeling. When navigating a sea of internships, interviews, and conferences while completing full or part time classes, that extra boost of professionalism and confidence can make a difference. While all of those qualifications featured on your well-rendered resumé speak for themselves, having a business card can help have your bases covered on the perilous and formidable frontier of professional networking. For a long time, the word business card alone evoked imagined landscapes of beepers and shoulder pads for as far as the eye could see. But sure enough, after seeing peers arrive to events with a business card in tow changed my ideas upon seeing their convenience and functionality in action. When you meet a someone that you’d like to collaborate with in a professional context, writing their number on a nearby receipt or popping them a friend request just won’t cut it – and that’s where business cards come in. Okay, we get the…