Dear Boston at the Boston Public Library
Posted April 13, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
On Saturday I went to see the Dear Boston exhibition at the Boston Public Library, which opened on Monday and will remain there until May 11. The Marathon bombings that happened last year are obviously all over the news in Boston right now, but nothing in all the interviews I saw or stories I read really affected me as much as seeing the items that people left at the bombing memorial in the days and weeks after it happened, including the hundreds and hundreds of pairs of running shoes. The exhibition is at the public library but was coordinated between the Boston City Archives, the Boston Art Commission, the New England Museum Association, and the BPL, which shows how amazing our resources really can be when we pool them between informational institutions. I have worked in a lot of public libraries and one thing I have been somewhat disappointed about when I’ve interned in local archives is the lack of outreach. I don’t just mean the button making “fun” outreach that I mentioned in my…
Sightseeing, Ducky Style
Posted April 10, 2014 by Alec Chunn
My parents were in town last week, so I had the pleasure of doing lots of touristy things. Probably the biggest thing I did was go to a Red Sox game (which for a Seattle Mariners fan like me does, in fact, constitute tourism). I also did many smaller things. The best small thing: going on a Duck Tour. (1) Because I happen to really love ducks, and (2) Because our tour guide wore pajamas and pretended to be friends with Christopher Walken. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember that he was awesome. There’s nothing quite like seeing the city you live in from an outsider’s eyes. Sure, walking around and familiarizing yourself with somewhere new is liberating and can be deeply personal. But there’s also something incredible about being a voyeur. At least in terms of tourism. On a tour, you get to listen to someone explain their love for the city–their favorite parts and favorite stories–while you simply keep quiet and watch, asking questions when queries arise. On the Duck…
LISSA’s role in GSLIS
Posted April 6, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
Before I went to the NEA Spring meeting a few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to discover that LISSA would reimburse my expenses at the conference up to $300. This was great news for me, because money is always tight as a grad student. LISSA has always been one of those elusive organizations on Simmons campus for me – it crops up in conversations a lot, but I’ve never been involved in it or really known what it was. One of my fellow students, Joy Rodowicz, is involved with LISSA (and helping to plan this year’s Graduate Symposium) and offered to write some pointers about it for everyone, because as a GSLIS student (or potential student), LISSA is a valuable tool to be aware of. 1) How did you get involved with LISSA? I first got involved with the Library and Information Science Student Association (LISSA) after I finished my first semester here at Simmons. I wanted to find a way that I could be more involved with the GSLIS community and saw my…
Five Reasons Why it Needs to be Spring
Posted April 1, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Although spring technically started about ten days ago, it sure does not feel like it. In fact, while I was out running errands today, I realized that the rain turned into hail. Now I am an total fan of winter but even I know when enough is enough. Unless this seemingly endless winter is a curse accidentally placed on us by Queen Elsa from Frozen, starting tomorrow, it better start feeling like spring. Now, I know its been a while since it has even come close to feeling like spring so I’ve composed a list of five reasons why its time to open up the windows and enjoy the fresh spring air. 1. Warmer weather. Think how wonderful it will be when we no longer need to go outside bundled up in winter wear? Rather than having to wear extra socks on my feet, I cannot wait to bust out my t-shirts and flip flops. 2. The rebirth of nature. One thing that I absolutely love about spring is how everything seemingly comes alive again. Flowers bloom, trees sprout leaves, and butterflies are everywhere. Yea there are those pesky…
Tumblarians!
Posted March 30, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
I spend way too much of my time every day online. I am fully aware that it’s a problem, but not one that’s going away any time soon. It’s gotten even worse lately, as I’ve been trying to use social media to learn more about archives and archivists, and have been working on networking through Twitter and tumblr (since I’m so terrible at doing it in person.) I’m not entirely sure about the librarian/archivist community on twitter, but the tumblr community of tumblarians (tumblr+librarians) is vibrant and very friendly. (I’m libromatic on tumblr, by the way.) The wonderful thing about tumblr (and Twitter, too) is that if you’re shy and nervous about posting a lot when you’re not entirely sure you know what you’re talking about, reblogging (and retweeting) are completely acceptable ways to share ideas! If you’re not on tumblr already, and you’re looking for ways to meet people in the library/archives field, here’s how to get started. After joining the site, find people to follow. A list of library and librarian tumblrs can…
Let it Go!
Posted March 29, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
So, I’m going to come clean. I watched Frozen for the first time this weekend. I don’t want to say it changed my life, but I’m definitely in some sort of magical place. I was thinking about the last time I was in this euphoric state and I remembered it exactly. It was when I finished the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. No, I’m not a sadist. I don’t enjoy suffering and death. It was just such a wonderfully romantic story. It filled me with hope and I think pushed me to further understand the human condition. I tell you all this because I think libraries are in a unique position insofar as they are the dispensaries of these emotionally transformative materials. Amazon is not the only peddler of these fine products. We too share these artistic treasures, and what’s more, we put a human face behind it all. We have the opportunity to share our opinions about these books and films with patrons in a number of forums: blogs, reference…
A New Kind of Storytime?
Posted March 27, 2014 by Alec Chunn
One of my greatest regrets about leaving home is that I don’t get to see my five-year-old niece, Riley, very often. But, lucky for me, I got the opportunity to video chat with her this week (bless technology!). One of the greatest challenges about video chat, though, is remembering that not everything you do can be seen. And this becomes particularly important when you’re reading picture books. Or so I’ve come to realize. Simmons faculty Megan Lambert teaches a method of reading picture books called the Whole Book Approach. This is basically just a way of interacting with the picture book as an art form. When reading via this approach, children are asked to engage in a dialogue about the text. They move from being passive listeners to active participants in the story. Though I haven’t (yet) been formally trained in this approach, Megan demonstrates it often in her classes. If you’re curious, you can learn more about this method by taking her course at the Eric Carle Museum this summer. Anyways, I tried to…
City of Neighborhoods Exhibit
Posted March 24, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
This past Saturday, the map gallery where I work, the Leventhal Map Gallery, premiered their newest exhibit to the Boston public. The new exhibit, City of Neighborhoods, celebrates the racial and ethnic diversity of the city of Boston. While the former exhibit, Made in Boston, had featured antique maps of both Boston and the New England area from the late 1600s through the 1700s, this exhibition “Compares the neighborhoods of today’s ‘new’ Boston with those of 100 years ago.” Through the use of photographs and maps, the exhibit is colorful and enlightening. As music representing the cultures that form the social fabric of Boston plays in the background, one can see the areas where newer immigrant groups have settled and how the physical appearance of the city had changed to reflect those who live and work there. As part of Saturday’s opening, the map gallery pulled out all the stops. In a separate room, we had activities for families with children while a band played music from Cape Verde. For many people who attended the event, this was the first time they had ever realized just how diverse the city was….
New England Archivists Spring Meeting
Posted March 23, 2014 by Gemma Doyle
This week the New England Archivists held their spring meeting in Portsmouth, NH, and I (and a good portion of my archives classmates) were in attendance. This was actually my first professional conference, and I went to see and hear professionals in the archives community talk about their jobs, the current state of the archives field, and of course, a decent dose of networking, networking, and more networking. (I am terrible at networking, and would generally rather rip out my own tongue than talk to a complete stranger, but I went into the conference knowing that I would have to do exactly that at least once because it was an assignment for my LIS440 class. Let the record show that I did manage to talk to one stranger and did not die as a result, so I think I may be a better person for the experience.) (Let the record also show that one stranger was exactly how many I talked to, so… baby steps.) The thing about the archives field is that it is…
Storytelling Semi-Finals this Weekend
Posted March 22, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
This is a shameless plug for a certain storyteller (ME) who is competing in the MassMouth Story Slam Semi Finals this Sunday at Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge at 6:30 pm. I’m telling a story from my days in the Peace Corps, so it should be …hilarious. A story slam is every bit the event you are conjuring in your imagination: a forum where people from the audience tell personal stories, within a time limit and people cheer for a well told tale. In this particular story slam there will be no judges. The audience decides! So come out to hear some great stories and support a fellow GSLISer. Storytelling is a big part of our society these days thanks to organizations like MassMouth and the Moth. Librarians should stay involved in an arena they championed so many years ago. Let’s get back in this game and begin telling our stories!