Author Archives: Sarah Barton

I am in my third semester at GSLIS. I had no formal library experience before starting at Simmons, but last semester I interned at a law library and am currently interning at a corporate research center and working part-time at a small branch of my local public library. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to end up when I started this program, but right now I am leaning toward corporate libraries.

Outside of classes and work, I enjoy running, reading, writing, and watching sports.

A Special Track for a Special Librarian

Sensing a trend in my peers’ recent blog posts about different types of libraries and librarians, I will brief you on where I aspire to end up after receiving my degree in December. As Maggie’s, Julie’s, and Emily’s posts each reflect, everyone at GSLIS has his/her own sense of an ideal library job, and I [...]

Ode to Spring Break

As a graduate student, I feel a little awkward telling people that this week is Spring Break. I mean, Spring Break is soooo college, right? Last year I felt better about discussing my Spring Break plans, as I spent a week in the great outdoors of Arizona and Utah – far, far from the dreary [...]

The Hardship of Librarianship

An eight-year-old girl who comes to the library multiple times per week with her older sister, and sometimes their mother, posed the following to me and a colleague on Thursday night: “Do you work really hard every day? I think being a librarian would be hard.” I don’t know what prompted her to say that, [...]

My Library School Library

I’ve written about a handful of different libraries in this blog, but I daresay I have neglected one that has been integral to my time at GSLIS: the Beatley Library at Simmons. During my first semester I was neither working nor interning, so I had a lot of downtime outside of class. To combat any [...]

Library Lesson Learned III

Just before the library closed on Tuesday, a boy came to the desk to ask if we had any books about dogs. He wanted non-fiction, so I brought him over to the 636.7-ish area of the children’s section and we found a few books of interest. He told me that his parents said he could [...]

Weather You Like It Or Not

Unless you spent the past 72 hours under a colossal snowdrift (which is quite possible), you probably noticed that snow bombarded Boston on Friday and Saturday. The weather gods vacillate between being a faithful friend and formidable foe to New Englanders, invoking elements ranging from oppressive humidity to debilitating blizzards, a nice summer breeze to [...]

Lobbying for Library Cards

On Saturday I spent three hours lobbying for library cards. During the month of February, the Somerville Public Library is competing against the Arlington, Belmont, and Lexington Public Libraries to see which can sign up the most new library cardholders. I donned my “Libraries: Shhhh Happens.” t-shirt (which received many comments and compliments) and stood [...]

Putting Evaluation Into Action

Last week at my internship, my boss overheard me telling a co-worker that I am taking my final core class, Evaluation of Information Services. My boss was intrigued, and suggested that we schedule a meeting sometime next month to look at the evaluations she has done in the past and perhaps start thinking about future [...]

We are Not on the Same e-Page

My mother reads more books than anyone I know. She is always reading something, and more often than not she has multiple books going. She legally possesses three library cards from three different libraries, and she actively uses each of them. For the past few years, my father had been talking about getting my mom [...]

Occupational Preoccupation

I went to work at the library on Saturday dressed as a librarian. Hair pulled back, cardigan, sensible shoes, blah blah blah. (Fortunately, my vision is still ok, so I didn’t top it off with a pair of glasses perched on my nose.) I was a stereotypical librarian. I hate the stereotype. It drives me [...]