The Personal Statement, One Year Later
This past week I did something crazy. Or at least something I thought I would have to be crazy to ever do again. Maybe it was the fact that I […]
Author Archives
Carissa Hansen
Carissa Hansen (she/her) is a consultant for public libraries and a JD candidate based in Minneapolis. She's held numerous positions in libraries, from library page to library director and everything in between. Central to all of her work is a passion for empowering people to make an impact.
Digital, Digital, Digital: Content & Collections
Co-authored by HLS Contributing Writers, Carissa Hansen and Kendra Werst. This post is meant to serve as a primer for beginners interested in digital collections work. There are three sections: […]
Signing Off: Onward and Upward
I found Hack Library School when I was in the throes of deciding where I wanted to go to graduate school for library studies. I had applied and been accepted […]
Lessons learned from a poster presentation
Earlier this month I presented a poster titled “Going It Alone: EAD Implementation for Small Repositories” at the Midwest Archives Conference annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Here are 8 quick […]
Your EAD Primer: Part 2
Author’s Note: This post is Part 2 of the EAD Primer written by Carissa Hansen in December 2016. The author will also present a poster on the topic of EAD […]
What’s your library obsession?
Well, it’s the day after Valentine’s Day, and whether that leaves you feeling relieved or longing for more, I hope it was a good one for you. In spirit of […]
#dearHLS: Announcing HLS’s Very First Twitter Chat!
Mark your calendars! Hack Library School will host its very first Twitter chat on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 8pm CST.
Archives, the academy, and the community
This article includes input from Carissa Hansen, Des Alaniz, and Samantha Abrams, three LIS-archives students interested in non-traditional archives settings and ways archivists can help make archives work more community-oriented. […]
Your EAD Primer: Part 1
Author’s Note: Over the last few months, I’ve heard from several archives students that they’ve had trouble gaining experience with Encoded Archival Description (EAD) in their classes. Luckily, EAD is […]
Hack Your Program: University of Wisconsin, Madison (Update)
Disclaimer: This post is an update of Tomissa Porath’s 2011 “Hack Your Program” review of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s MA Program in Library and Information Studies with an emphasis on […]
Archival Education: The Varied Landscape
Over the last six months, I’ve taken two archives courses at institutions outside of my home school through the WISE consortium – Archival Appraisal, Arrangement, and Access and Encoded Archival […]
Self-Advocacy in the LIS World
For many people, self-advocacy is tough. Period. But, it’s especially tough when you’re part of a profession in which budgets are often tight, roles are hierarchical, and barriers can feel […]
The WISE Consortium and Your LIS Education
The Web-based Information Science Education (WISE) Consortium is a cooperative endeavor among seventeen library schools that allows students to have greater access to a variety of online courses. Each semester, schools in […]
Thoughts you have as cataloging newbie
This semester I’m taking my last introductory course in UW-Madison’s program – a class called Organization of Information, or in other words, basic cataloging/metadata/resource description/organization all in one. The class […]
Navigating Goals and Family During the Library School Decision Process
Now that it’s February and prospective library school students will soon start receiving admission notices and making decisions about which library school to attend, I’m going to take a step […]
Ch-ch-changes in curriculum
Last month, my school, UW-Madison, announced that it is revamping its curriculum for new students starting next fall. For the rest of us current students, we have the choice of either […]
A Master’s Degree in LIS: Weighing Our Educational Standards
Before I started my library degree, I often found myself wondering – why do I need a master’s degree to become a librarian? If the requirements and options were different, […]
To Specialize, or Not To Specialize: How Do You Answer That Question?
When I started applying for library school last fall, one question nagged me: do I need to specialize in something while I’m getting my library degree? As I considered specializations […]
HLS 