Becoming a new supervisor while in library school
Taking on my first library management role while still in graduate school – a fun, real life lesson in leadership!
Taking on my first library management role while still in graduate school – a fun, real life lesson in leadership!
As we race towards the end of the year and our semesters come to a crashing close, I am reflecting on my relationship to rest, hard work, and what it means to be a good student.
Journal through library school to document your experience and lessons learned along the way.
One grad student’s experience dropping a course
Ah yes, it’s back-to-school season, friends. Time to get ourselves refamiliarized with the sensations of lectures, discussions, and homework. If you were lucky, you had the summer off and had […]
The first week of the semester is a great time to set up a project management system for yourself before the chaos of actual coursework. In my grad school experience […]
As I enter my second year (and final, Goddess willing!) of library school, I’m excited for several things happening this semester. I will be the incoming president of our school’s […]
I’ve been very fortunate to have gotten a new full-time librarian job before I graduate from my MLIS program this May, but transitioning to a new job in the middle […]
Dear LIS Professors, Your jobs are extremely demanding, especially now. You have to deal with the pressures of publication, teaching, serving on committees, and hopefully retaining a semblance of work-life […]
Many of us pursuing graduate studies are at the stage of planning growing families as well. Ifyou’ve considered adding a child to the mix while doing your MLIS, and are […]
I have a friend who just graduated from the MLIS program at the University of Washington, and she and I had a conversation recently about how, whether when you’re in […]
Hi all. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting to the point in the semester where I’m rapidly running out of gas. I’m swamped with work and only have […]
Tell me if any of this sounds familiar. You’ve got a job, a family, and a list of homework assignments filling up your calendar for the rest of the semester. […]
Let’s face it: with some exceptions, library work consists of a lot of sitting and staring at a computer screen. Sure, you might be doing roving reference, or taking a […]
This summer, I have been fortunate to have an internship that I love. I loved the work of cataloging, enjoyed the company of my coworkers, learned a lot, and actually […]
I have been thinking about the incoming cohort at the University of Washington’s Information School and wondering how they are coping with the unknown and uncertainty of graduate school life […]
The last fifteen months have been rough on all of us. Starting grad school during a pandemic was not easy, and a mix of personal problems and school-related issues made […]
I vividly remember in March 2020 when I learned my daughter was going to be home for two weeks solid as schools were closing and thinking there was no way […]
This year, I had the privilege of being part of the Chinese American Librarians Association selection committee for the CALA Best Book Award. I’m aware that being part of book […]
I’ve been fortunate enough to stay employed (at a library) during the pandemic, but even a quick glance through the posts at #protectlibraryworkers will reveal libraries who furloughed their staff […]
We’ve been talking a lot on the blog lately about how the past year has impacted our lives, our education, our job searches, and everything in between. One of the […]
How has it already been a year of pandemic living? Readers, are you all doing okay? Personally, I’m doing better than before, but graduation right around the corner has brought […]
Last week, in a fit of oddly misplaced energy, I found myself making cheese tortellini by hand. It was not an easy process. I have very little upper body strength […]
My class this semester, as so many of our classes do, started with an assignment to introduce ourselves on an online discussion board. One popular topic of conversation ended up […]
I remember thinking at some point around the age of 17 or 18 that my days of having summer and winter vacations were over forever. My aunts, uncles and cousins […]
Sometimes, I leave work feeling like a million bucks. Other times, I almost run out the door to get home as soon as possible. Those instances are usually caused by […]
I write this post in the midst of finals season, feverishly tying up the loose ends of another semester as it comes to a close. Once my last papers are […]
So, I am writing this roughly a week after the initial Election Day here in the United States, two days after our president-elect and vice president-elect have been announced […]
It has become nearly impossible for me to take a break, and I believe most of it is because I am a person of color. When EDI is the issue […]
When it comes to online library school, the old adage, ‘you get out of it only what you put in,’ is imperative. With grad school in general, you’re expected to […]
Hello! My name is Lauren Bauer, this is my first article for Hack Library School, and I have something I’d like to get off my chest: it’s going to take […]
At this point, the fall semester is in full swing for many of us. For me, I’ve just wrapped up the third week of the semester and I’m gearing up […]
Whether you are starting your library school journey or nearing the end, many of us are juggling working while going to school. If you are like me, I was apprehensive […]
Earlier this month, I came across a tweet from a high school teacher: I think many students can agree that this past spring semester was not what we envisioned: between […]
It’s official: my Spring 2020 semester has come to an end – and I am halfway through my MLIS! Along with navigating the murky middle that comes with the mid-point […]
As an online student at the University of Washington, I take just two courses each quarter over the course of three years. At the beginning of this quarter, I was […]
With online learning now in full swing due to COVID-19 and physical distancing, many students are feeling the strain of isolation, uncertainty, housing and food insecurity, additional childcare or family […]
I’m overwhelmed. I feel sure I’m not the only one. Until this month, a global pandemic is something I only thought of in terms of a distant, sepia-toned past or […]
The month of March has felt exhausting. With the shift to telework and remote classes to constant concerns about COVID-19 to practicing social distancing, everyone is working to adjust to […]
Coronavirus has caused us to make plenty of changes, from library closures to cancelled events and a shift from residential courses to an online environment. Here are some ways to […]
In Canada, we have a regular mental health event sponsored by Bell Canada. It’s called Bell Let’s Talk Day and this year it was on Wednesday, January 29th; which falls […]
“Tips for library school.” “What to expect in your first semester of grad school.” “What is library school like?” Do any of those search phrases sound familiar? If so, you […]
There’s a sign in the cafe attached to the library I work at. It reads, “The UC is making us sick.” I work at the University of California, Santa Cruz […]
The new year is here, and with that, a new semester has begun. However, many of us have jobs, relationships, hobbies, and various other obligations in addition to our academic […]
This week marks the beginning of my new library assistant position at an academic library and, in essence, my first legitimate librarian job. On the plus side, this will not […]
Whether you’re at the very beginning, middle, or nearing the end of your career as a graduate student, library school can be overwhelming. In this often liminal space, the lines […]
A few weeks ago, Katelyn Sabelko’s post about Burnout and Library School caught my attention. Does working during your LIS studies contribute to higher rates of burnout? Like Katelyn, I’m […]
Recently, LIS scholars have started exploring the potential connection between working in graduate school and burnout in librarianship. In the recently published article, “When Does Burnout Begin? The Relationship Between […]
Photo courtesy of Aubrey Young I am at a number of halfway points in my library career: halfway through my internship, halfway through this semester, halfway through the trajectory of […]
As I’ve mentioned before in my previous posts, starting graduate school can be stressful. This is especially true if you’re starting a program you have no previous field experience in; […]
The very first classes of my first semester of library school started on the 3rd of this month; which means that, at the time of writing this, I am about […]
Many schools on the semester system are already back in session, but here I am thinking about ways to make my second of three years at the University of Washington […]
It’s the end of the summer term, and all my final projects are due soon. To make matters worse, back when I had more energy and the sun was shining, […]
Photo Courtesy of dsleeter_2000 (CC BY-NC 2.0) In a few days, I embark on my fourth semester of library school. It will have been a full year since I started […]
I graduated high school back in 1996, when being a slacker was a legitimate life aspiration. Work was for sell-outs, cool people lounged around reading zines and being poor. Not […]
Library school (heck, graduate school in general) can be an all-consuming time-suck, if you let it become that. Even in my 1.5 semesters of library school (plus all of the […]