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…
Two Years in the Life
Posted December 9, 2013 by Sarah Barton
On February 1, 2012, I applied to become a contributor to this GSLIS Admissions Blog by writing a post about my first two weeks at GSLIS and cutely calling it “Two Weeks in the Life.” I just realized the post was never published; however, given that backstory I think it’s fitting that this, my very last post, is about two years in the life – my whole GSLIS experience. Ok, here goes: In short, my GSLIS experience has been a success. Thank you, and goodbye. Alright I guess I can do better than that, but feel free to peruse my past posts if you really want all of the gory details. It would be silly for me to try to capture two years of classes, assignments, jobs, internships, volunteering, and life into one post. That post would be obscenely long and essentially defeat the purpose of two years of (mostly) weekly blog posts. You know how people say the journey is more important than the destination? Think of this final post as the destination and…
Confessions of a Book-Loving Librarian
Posted December 9, 2013 by Emily Boyd
I have a confession to make, I wanted to become a librarian because I love books. Shocking, I know. If you are new to the profession this may not seem odd, of course librarians love books. However, one of the first things I learned when entering the library world is that books are far from the main focus. In fact, librarians are actively trying to work against the misconception that working in a library means sitting around and reading all day. Alas, part of me wishes that were the case, but in the short time since I began work in a public library I have spent maybe thirty minutes of work time reading. That said, the larger part of me is glad to have discovered that working in a library involves so much more than helping patrons find books. Although reader’s advisory and chatting with patrons about their latest reads are among my favorite parts of working in a small library, I like the tricky reference questions much more. To be successful in this profession,…
Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Allison Driscoll
Posted December 7, 2013 by Maggie Davidov
It’s that time of year. The end of the semester when I feature one of my favorite classmates from the semester. As usual, I can’t resist the intelligent dual degree children’s lit and library science people. Allison was in my storytelling class and she blew us all away the first day with her interpretation of Don Coyote and the Burro. Please meet the lovely and talented Allison Driscoll… Q: What made you choose the dual degree Children’s lit and LIS program? A: I’d thought for a long time that I’d like to be a librarian, because I could see myself being satisfied doing it for a long time. Still, I held off on applying to any programs because I was hesitant to invest time and money into something if I wasn’t 100% positive about it. Then I found out Simmons had a dual-degree program, and I immediately started getting my application together. I’ve always loved children’s lit, and the idea of spending time with others who felt as strongly about it was really the last push…