From the Harrowing Heights of Pizzacliffe: Naming Your Living Space
Posted September 3, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
Something that we’ve learned from literary classics is that all great living spaces hold even greater names. Moving onto a graduate program, there is no doubt that you’ll be spending a fair deal of time in your new living space between completing all those assignments, scheduling classes, and entertaining the occasional guest. When moving into a new city and onto a new campus, going the extra mile to make that dorm feel closer to home and exude you-ness can make all the difference. One thing is clear – your dorm needs a name. But what goes into a dorm name? Well, that depends on what flavor you anticipate your dorm having as you move through SLIS. Depending upon your anticipated trajectory, your dorm name could follow any of the following examples, such as: Pizzacliffe Citationview Napcrest Endnotewalk Moving into a new dorm or apartment with the start of a new semester, it’s likely that you already have a lot of thinking and preparation to take care of. But with a brand-new living space you’ve purposefully…
Five Inspirational Librarians from Film and TV
Posted August 25, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Since the unfortunate passing of Robin Williams, I’ve come to realize how many of his films in the 1990s defined my childhood. Films like Aladdin, Ms. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Ferngully, Hook, and countless others have and will always hold a special place in my heart. However, in my efforts to both remember Robin Williams for the comedic genius that he was as well as to take a trip down nostalgia way, I got lost somewhere along the way, and what started as a Robin Williams movie marathon turned into an all out nostalgia binge. I’m not exactly sure when I came up with this week’s blog post (the last one of the summer if you can believe it?) but its timing could not be any better. What started off as a quest to remember my first real comedic role model slowly morphed into a re-discovery of other characters that inspired me while growing up. And since I’m currently enrolled in a graduate program for library and information science, I thought it would be cool to compile…
Literary Librarians
Posted August 19, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
It’s August and summer classes have finally ended, which means I have another two weeks of relative freedom before fall classes start in September. I’ve been spending a lot of time catching up on television (I know people told me Orphan Black was good, but it is so good, you guys) and the lengthy list of books I’ve wanted to read. People who choose to study the library sciences do tend to be big readers, and the size of my To Read pile definitely means I’m no exception. Because I’m graduating in less than six months (!!!), most of my focus is on job hunting and my future career, and I’ve been spending my time reading about fictional librarians and their work for inspiration. The problem with fictional librarians is that a lot of the time they seem to be the stereotypical shhhing librarians who hate fun – even the librarian action figure has sensible shoes and “amazing shushing action.” Luckily, there are a load of awesome literary librarians to help balance the picture of…
New Adventures
Posted August 14, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
This is my last post for GSLIS as I’m graduating in December. I’ve enjoyed every minute writing for this blog and wish everyone well as they move on to new adventures. As for my journey I will begin this fall as the upper school librarian at Dana Hall school in Wellesley. To read more about my fun escapades check out my blog! I’m on a school library exchange at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Things are amazing here. Librarians are the luckiest people on the planet. Fact.
August Exploration
Posted August 11, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
In the areas surrounding Simmons’ Boston campus, there are countless neighborhoods to be explored. This past weekend, I took a step toward better exploring my own neighborhood of Somerville at the Somerville Flea. Every Sunday, vendors and visitors gather near Davis Square to engage in an exchange of goods from vintage scarves to bunches of carrots, peaches, and plums. Awash with Etsy-worthy ephemera, a stack of enormous volumes stopped me in my tracks. Unbeknownst to me, they weren’t books. They were boxes. And not the kind that butcher books to make them either – stunning reproductions of War and Peace, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and other titles. Set on them lining my bookshelves within the hour, I made away with the two enormous false volumes clutched haphazardly in my arms. Arriving home, I soon placed my own copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace into the box boasting the same title in box format; the daunting pagination of the wartime epic finally matched by a cover of suitable size. Tucked away on my bookshelves, the remainder…
A Night with Google
Posted August 7, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Sometimes I am purely baffled at the things I’ve gotten to do since moving to Boston almost a year ago. Most recently, I found myself at Boston’s very own Children’s Museum at an event hosted by Google as a means of promoting their online program, Google City Experts. Like Yelp, Google is trying to find a niche for itself within the world of online reviews. Nowadays, if you search for something on Google Maps, a box appears on the left hand side that includes a variety of information such as the address, hours of business, phone number, and website. At the bottom of the box, are reviews for your inquiry. Like Yelp, these reviews were created by users, and can range from being brief to extremely thorough. Write enough of these reviews and Google will eventually consider you to become part of their City Experts program. So here is the big question, is it worth it? Well, the event at the museum was hands-down awesome. For the most part, me and the other attendants had…
Museum of Bad Art
Posted July 30, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
Boston, it has been pointed out by myself and others, has a lot of really excellent art museums. One of my favorites that doesn’t get mentioned a whole lot in the usual lists is the Museum of Bad Art, which specializes in pretty much what you’d expect. The Museum displays most of its collection online, but also, fittingly enough, exhibits in the basements of two theaters (right outside the bathrooms). One of the theaters is the Dedham Community Theater, but the other is the Somerville Theater in Davis Square. The only problem is that you have to buy a movie ticket to get inside, but the Somerville Theater is usually playing something decent, and matinee tickets are only $6. The museum only takes works that were done with the intention of being good; it’s not for deliberately terrible works, which is what makes it all the more interesting. It also doesn’t collect anything that is done on black velvet or anything paint-by-numbers, which I think is kind of a shame because that would really be…
#curatecamp and harnessing the hashtag
Posted July 28, 2014 by L. Kelly Fitzpatrick
Sometimes when you can’t make it to a conference, browsing through updates as posted on Twitter might be the next best thing. As a grad student, conferences can be far away, expensive, and dare to tempt us away from professional and academic obligations – even if existing as professional and academic obligations in themselves. When the forces align to make your attendance to a conference or convention happen, those select days of talks, panels, and cordial coffee intermissions can be great – but when the time just isn’t right to hop on the conference bandwagon, catching wind in the sail of their hashtags can suffice. CURATECamp quickly approached in a flurry of hyperlinks. After weeks of registration forms sitting in browser tabs forgotten amid wishy-washy indecisiveness about travel reservations, I regrettably made the decision not to attend. But that didn’t stop my desire to be tuned into the talks, project sharing, and collaboration stimulated by conference events like Curate Camp. As threads began erupting under the hashtag #curatecamp, I was suddenly enabled to click and…
#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…