Academic Peace at Last: Finding that Place to Study
Posted January 20, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
For those of you who might not know, I am a commuter student. While I did have the option of living on Simmons campus, I opted to rent an apartment right outside of Boston in the Brookline/Brighton area. I’ve included the slash since my apartment is located in a place that if I take two steps to the left I’ll be in Brookline. Now don’t get me wrong, I deeply love living in an apartment; it allows me to feel like I’m one step closer to entering the world of being a working professional without actually entering the professional working world. However, as much as I love living a few T-stops away from the hip and happening place that is Coolidge Corner, there are quite a few luxuries of living on a college campus that I truly miss. While I could create another list featuring the five things I miss the most about a college campus, I will save that for another time. Rather, I think I am going to talk about the one thing…
Inspiration at the Start of Spring Semester 2014
Posted January 18, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
I’m getting the 5th semester itch and I’m starting my semester off all wrong. Anyone know the feeling? I sit on my couch staring at the stack of books that has accumulated in the past few days and I think how good it would be if I actually read them. Then I think about how there is this vast vacuum of time waiting for me and whatever happened to weekends? Oh that’s right I’m a grad student and weekends don’t exist. I don’t know any friend of mine at GSLIS who has what normal people call a weekend. We work hard at usually more than one job. We write papers and read ridiculous amounts of professional literature. We do all this and I don’t know about everyone else but sometimes it all feels like nonsense. I’m paddling to stay afloat and I never imagined that would be what my education would look like. Then, the most amazing thing happened to me: my boss quit. That’s right, my boss, the most incredible woman, the most awe…
Best of the Best: My Favorites of the 100 Books I Read Last Year
Posted January 17, 2014 by Emily Boyd
I hope everyone has had a nice relaxing holiday season full of fun, food, and family. I for one enjoyed the break from classes but did not have much opportunity to slow down otherwise. As my last post suggested, 2013 was an incredibly busy year for me and 2014 promises much of the same. Of everything I accomplished in the last year, reading 100 books is one of the things I’m most proud of- even if it did take me a few days into the new year to complete. I read some awesome books this year so I thought now would be a great time to offer my suggestions. I had originally intended to summarize my top five favorite books, but then I went through my list and I had not five, but twenty books I absolutely had to share! Clearly that’s too many to summarize in a short blog post. That said, before I give my list of favorites I think it’s worth noting the range of genres represented on this list. Trying to…
Not Your Typical Reference Librarian – Or How I Found My Career
Posted January 15, 2014 by Carolyn Lucas
2014 just started – and I already feel like we’re in the middle of the year! This time of the year is always so busy, because you’re turning over a new leaf, trying to develop all of these habits – and also attempting to remember to re-vaccinate the dog, to take the car in to be inspected, and so much more. But the biggest thing that I am excited about for 2014 is that I am now fully employed – in an amazing position that I am so excited about. I have spoken in this blog before about the traditional library position, and how I just don’t seem to fit that mold. In several of the classes there is talk about other types of libraries that one could make a career out of, including law libraries and medical libraries. For me, the records management class consisted primarily of talking about small local-government records management – but all of these subsets really only scratch the surface of the types of jobs that exist. For me, I…
New Year, New Semester, Already So Much To Do
Posted January 14, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
Well, the truth can be denied no longer; my second semester at Simmons has officially begun. As of 9am this morning, I became a student once again, putting an end to my month-long academic hiatus. Sure, I will miss the luxury of being able to sleep in past 7am and not have to worry about finishing all my homework before the weekend, but I know that its high time I get back to focusing on my academics. After all, I have a lot to look forward to this semester. For example, I will have not one, but two night classes this year, something that I am both dreading and excited about. Additionally, I have my first history course to look forward to, representing my first step towards completing my dual degree. But classes at Simmons are not all that I excited about. You see, right before I went home to celebrate the winter holidays, I went into Fenway High for a job interview. While I’ll be the first to admit that I did not land the job, I walked…
Let Me Tell You a Story
Posted January 10, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
As librarians, storytelling is baked into the scrumptious goodness that is our career. It’s not so much inferred that we will all be storytellers with puppets or flannel boards, but anyone who has ever explained a job to a colleague or trainee at work can attest to the regular occurrence of a tale being told: There was this one reference librarian who never looked up from her book…nobody ever asked her a question. Right off the bat you’re intrigued and you want to understand what happened to this librarian and what was it that made her so incredibly bitter. Humans are tellers of tales. There is an incredible amount of research verifying that human beings understand concepts and connect to material more effectively when taught through story. I digress, but my point to you, oh library professional, is that stories make us who we are. I say all this also to underline how amazing I feel after completing LIS 423, Storytelling, with Melanie Kimball. I spent the semester learning about story in its various formats…
Service First? A New Kind of Service Model for my Local Library
Posted January 9, 2014 by Jill Silverberg
About a week ago, my older and sister and I returned home to celebrate the winter holidays with my family. As always, within less than twenty-fours of arriving home from Boston, my mom and I piled into the car and made a trip over my town’s local library so I could pick up some books to read while I’m home for the break. Although the library had undergone some serious renovations back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, very little has changed in regards to its general services. However, things have apparently changed quite a bit while I have been away. When I walked inside my local library last Saturday, I was horrified to see that the circulation desk was all but gone and in its place were a line of computers and book scanners. After inquiring about the significant changes with a nearby librarian, I learned that the computers and the removal of the circulation desk were all part of the library’s new Service First model. While my library’s website boasts that amongst other…
Year in Review
Posted December 20, 2013 by Emily Boyd
Wow, what a whirlwind 2013 has been! It feels like yesterday I was starting my first class at GSLIS and now I am 2/3 of the way done with my degree. Instead of a usual post, this week I decided to follow the trend of year end blog posts and write a list of everything I’ve accomplished in 2013. This year I: Moved back to Boston and started the Simmons GSLIS program Started writing for the Student Snippets blog Experienced the horrible events of the Marathon Bombing with friends, classmates, and fellow Bostonians Travelled to Rome with GSLIS and then visited Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary with an old friend Visited Chicago for the first time and attended the American Library Association’s Annual Conference Spent a week in Northern Michigan with one of my best friends and her family Started working as a Reference Assistant at the Norman Williams Public Library Watched the Red Sox win the World Series!!! Commuted between Boston and Vermont for four months without going (too) crazy Started another job working for…
Notes from the Field #2
Posted December 19, 2013 by Maya Bery
Two years ago, I was fortunate enough to win a scholarship from the Simmons MSLA-SIG (the student interest group of the Massachusetts School Library Association) to attend the American Association of School Librarians conference in Minneapolis. About a month ago, I attended the most recent session, held in Hartford, and I’m amazed at what a difference being in the field makes. As a pre-professional, you’re expected to attend conferences to get a taste of what life will be like when you’re in the field, and you can learn lots of things, but it is nothing quite like knowing you can go home and implement all these amazing ideas in your own space. I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity, and if anyone is thinking about going to Columbus in two years time, do it! It’s incredible. As a related note, there was a strong GSLIS presence at the poster sessions and in the concurrent sessions – Dr. Zilonis and instructor Chris Swerling gave presentations on how to write grants, instructor and Ph.D candidate Deborah Lang Froggatt…
Kicking it Old School
Posted December 17, 2013 by Jill Silverberg
Well, it’s official: my first semester in GSLIS is now over! All fanfare aside, I’ll admit, it does feel somewhat strange to not have any classes to attend or homework to do. I mean, after about fourteen weeks of classes, readings, and other assignments, one does kind of get used to pulling all-nighters while fighting deadlines posted on Moodle. However, now that I have had a week to relax and simply longue around the city of Boston, I’ve decided that it is high time that I find something else to do other than re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After some careful thinking, I’ve decided to go back into my childhood and re-read a series that, like all the other people who were kids during the 1990s, made me constantly stare out my window awaiting the arrival of an owl to change my life forever. That’s right, I am going to spend my free time this winter break re-reading the Harry Potter series. As I write this post now, I’m currently halfway through the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, a book…