Dusting Off Genealogy Collections in Library School
Last semester, I took a course on Archives & Media which required one semester-long group project, focusing on creating a digital map of the route taken by the Brinton Entertainment […]
Reading Recs – November 2021
Once a month, we bring you an update from a few Hackers on things we’ve been reading, enjoying, and learning that month, whether that’s fiction, non-fiction, an interesting article, or […]
10 Digital Humanities Tools that Librarians Should Know About
Though the field of the digital humanities has been steadily growing in popularity in the past decade or so, it still has a bit of an ambiguous definition—the intersection between […]
Happy Fall break!
HLS will be on a break this week, but we’ll be back next week with all new content and discussions. We hope your Fall semester or quarter is going well, […]
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: […]
Group Work: How to Survive & Even Thrive
The topic of group work has been a frequent one at HLS and since I am embroiled in a lengthy and complicated group project during this fall quarter at the […]
Just 15 Funny Library Tweets
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 […]
Changing Jobs During Grad School: Do’s and Don’t’s
During my first semester as an MLS student, I changed jobs. I went from working at a private university as a Circulation Manager to working at a state university as […]
The Hats We Wear
The capstone course of my dual degree in Children’s Literature and Library and Information Sciences is on “positionality.” Half the the students in the class been in the dual degree […]
Review – The Disorientation Guide to Librarianship
My very first week of library school, my assigned reading for my intro class – LIS 601: Information Contexts and Perspectives – was “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We […]
Dirty Books: A Hypochondriac’s Guide to Archival Donations
“Oh, this smells. What if there’s mold? Am I going to get the black lung? And eew! Is that mouse poop?!”
Book Review – The Future Academic Librarian’s Toolkit: Finding Success on the Job Hunt and in Your First Job
Bibiliographic Info Editor: Megan HodgePublisher: Association of College and Research LibrariesPublished: 2019Page count: 328Formats available: ebook, print (paperback)Get a Copy: Paperback ($62.00 USD) | DRM Free eBook ($44.00 USD) | WorldCat Summary Are you interested […]
Conferences and the Benefit of “Unstructured Time”
I decided this week not to apply to attend one of my favorite conferences, the Access Services Conference. I attended in-person in 2017 and virtually in 2020, and I would […]
Being Thankful… For Failing
Tis the start of the season when we begin to list all the things we are thankful for: Tofurkey, pajama skinny jeans, NFL Sunday tickets, and failing a class in library school. I know, you probably said, “pajama skinny jeans, really?” but they’ll come in handy on Turkey Day, trust […]
Reading Recs – October 2021
Once a month, we bring you an update from a few Hackers on things we’ve been reading, enjoying, and learning that month, whether that’s fiction, non-fiction, an interesting article, or a series of social media posts. We hope you’ll join along with us and share your most interesting reads in […]
Why Digitization Work Is So Much More Than Scanning
Every so often, when some disaster destroys special collections and archives, people seem to take to the internet to chide librarians, archivists, curators, and other cultural heritage professionals to ask, […]
Tools for Community Advocacy
I must confess, despite being an online student, to being slightly less than tech-oriented by nature. So, of all the courses required for my MLIS, the “Advanced Technology” requirement is […]
Giving and Receiving Feedback: A Skill for Grad School and Life
Learning how to give effective feedback to colleagues, classmates, and even professors as well as receive feedback yourself is a skill that takes practice, nurturing, an open mind, and a […]
How to Make Your Library School Application Stand Out
With autumn comes application season. Even though you’ve done this before, applications are stressful. Hopefully what I’ve learned will save you some time, anxiety, and, with any luck, some money […]
So you want to be a Data Visualization Librarian?
So you know that you want to be a librarian, but have you thought about specializing in a certain field? Maybe you have an interest in emerging technologies or you want […]
Handling “Senioritis”
I’m in my final semester of my dual degree program at Simmons University. As I’m writing this post, the semester is about 1/3 of the way through. It’s the point […]
Decolonization, Metaphor, and Library Work
In the spring I took UW-Madison’s Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums (TLAM) class. As a white settler living on stolen land, there was a lot I didn’t understand even about […]
Overcoming Instruction Stage Fright
When I was applying to library school I asked some of my college librarians if anything had surprised them about their library work. More than one said their jobs involved […]
Patrons with Mental Health Issues or Illnesses: Story + Tips
Recently, I’ve experienced something frightening and maybe even unusual for some, at the library. To give you some context, during the pandemic, our library first opened back up for computer […]
Citation managers: Why you need one and how to make the most of them in grad school and beyond
Maybe you’ve heard of citation management software and maybe you haven’t but I am here to tell you why you need one for library school and life beyond library school. […]
On Backing Off and Not Choosing All the Things
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. […]
How Murder She Wrote Can Help With Library School
Jessica Fletcher, the goddess herself, portrayed by Angela Lansbury, has kept me company during long IM chat shifts with no users, during marathons of library data analysis, while I was […]
Reading Recs – September 2021
We’re trying something new here at Hack Library School. Once a month, we’ll bring you an update from a few Hackers on things we’ve been reading, enjoying, and learning from […]
Why Every Future Librarian Should Take Learning Cataloging Seriously
In the past, I had been hesitant to declare a strong career interest in metadata and cataloging (I even wrote about my desire for an interdisciplinary library school curriculum for […]
Challenging LCSH – an introduction
Catalogues shape our libraries to a massive extent, but their influence is often underestimated. I’m not just talking about filing order, I’m talking about how we classify books and the […]
Myths and Realities of Your 1st Semester of Library School [Online]
Thinking about library school? Wondering what it’s really like? Think that online school might be the best/easiest option for your increasingly complicated life? Let me tell you about it, since […]
What the heck are Special Libraries anyways?
Like many of you, I had no idea what special libraries were when I started my MLIS program in the fall of 2019. I knew there were corporate libraries and […]
From Informational Interview to Reference Interview
I recently started taking people out to coffee like it’s my job. About a month ago, in the middle of my first quarter of library school, I moved to a […]
Budget-Friendly Professional Development and Continuing Education Resources
I spent about half of 2020 trying desperately to not go back to school. I had realized that I was interested in an archival career (an interest that’s grown to […]
Developing Practical Skills Through Job Posts
The new school year has started, and with just two semesters left of my MLIS program, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what practical skills I […]
Library Cards for Library Students
September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. While it seems like a no-brainer that library students should get library cards and take advantage of public library resources, I thought I’d […]
Advice for First Generation LIS Students
I come from a family that doesn’t have work email, retirement stocks, or salaries. My parents and siblings, my “people,” are name tag and hairnet people. Clock-out for your lunch break people. With four older […]
5 Tips for Online Interviews with Library Employers
With the increase in colleges and companies using software like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, online interviews have become more common. In my role as Circulation Manager at an academic library, […]
Keeping Active at the Office
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 […]
Pondering the Potential Paradox of Previous Practical Library Experience
According to the 2021 MLIS Skills at Work report from the SJSU iSchool 90% of the job postings they analyzed require job-specific experience representing an 11% increase over the 2020 […]
Welcome to Fall!
HLS will be on a break this week as we adjust to new classes and a new semester, but we’ll be back next week with all new content and discussions! […]
Come in, We’re Open: Maximizing your Library Visits as an LIS Student
Years ago as an undergrad on vacation, I strolled into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s reading room. I may not have looked professional with my dyed bright red hair and […]
Library Work Won’t Love You Back
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 […]
8 Tips and Tricks for Managing a Library’s Social Media Accounts [Part 2]
Hello, everyone! Last month I wrote about the first four tips and tricks for managing your library’s social media account which included 1.) know your audiences, 2.) know your platforms, […]
Becoming a Solo Librarian: Challenges and Opportunities
My mentor recently forwarded me a thrilling job ad for a solo librarian at the Charles Darwin Research Station, located in Ecuador’s beautiful Galápagos Islands. As the only professional librarian […]
Thoughts After Completing My Summer Directed Fieldwork
The home stretch towards my MLIS degree is in sight as I wrap up my final few days of my summer directed fieldwork (DFW) and look forward to my third […]
Reflections on Summer School
Summer classes, particularly online summer classes, have always been difficult for me. I took quite a few in undergrad to get through my degrees faster, and other than one memorable […]
Opening Doors: Making the Most of Your Grad School Job
Most of us will work our way through library school. Whether it’s a graduate assistantship, a part-time gig at a public library, or an internship at an archive, we’re all […]
Board Games in the Library
Sometimes, you just need a game night. Last week, my boyfriend and I had a game night with a friend (who just finished her MLIS!!) and her husband. My friend […]
Can I Afford this Degree?
I’ve wanted to write on this topic for a long time, but kept putting it off. (There’s so many variables! Talking about money is weird and awkward!) What finally prompted […]
Archival Education and Professionalism
As a set of professions that facilitate and structure access to information, learning how to be a librarian or an archivist is clearly more than just knowing about reference and cataloging standards.
Hack Your Worldview: How to Build a Diverse Network of Allies and Mentors
As future information science professionals, each of us has a responsibility to promote diversity in our profession, the collections we manage, and the services we offer our patrons. This notion […]
Things they might not teach you in library school: Sustainability edition
I’m not aiming to duplicate the wonderful work of Macy on the topic of environmental sustainability in libraries, although that topic will come up. It is quite amusing though that […]
Call for Guest Posts!
Have you had an idea for something you would like to write and share with other library school students, but aren’t quite ready to commit to a regular writing schedule […]
Work/Life Balance in Library School
While graduate students in any field are prime candidates for burnout, it is my belief that library students face special challenges where work/life balance is concerned. We must pay tuition but we are rarely offered the teaching assistantships or other forms of financial aid that our counterparts in other fields […]
How to Get Over Technophobia
Last semester, I heard of a concept called “performative technophobia,” in which someone might proclaim a fear or aversion to technology in hopes of either getting people do complete some […]
8 Tips and Tricks for Managing a Library’s Social Media Accounts [Part 1]
When I was interviewing for my current position, my future supervisor asked me, “Would you be interested in helping us run our social media accounts?” Like a good interviewee I […]
Service with Intention: Saying Yes for the Right Reasons
When I began my MSLIS program, the universe of librarianship and information science seemed to stretch out eternally before me. As such, I felt like a bit like Kimmy Schmidt […]
Managing Imposter Syndrome Throughout Library School
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 […]
Rekindling My Joy in Library Work
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 […]
Tips for New Students Looking for Library School Jobs [Starter Kit]
As a second-year SLIS student, I’ve talked to quite a few new students in my program who are anxious about securing library jobs. I can understand how they feel; after […]
On-the-Job Learning
The public library I’ve worked out has been open to the public again since June 1st. Because I started at the library during COVID, except for some limited volunteer experience […]
Going from Public to Academic Libraries – My Experiences as a Paraprofessional
Last month I wrote that I moved to academic libraries after spending four years working at a public library, first as a page then as a desk assistant. I thought […]
Hack Your Program: The University of Alberta
Disclaimer: This post represents the perspectives and experiences of the authors at the University of Alberta. Our opinions are not intended to be the opinions of any other student, faculty, […]
The Importance of an Interdisciplinary Library School Education
When I started my MLIS program at Simmons University last fall, I regularly heard my classmates introduce themselves with exactly what type of librarian they wanted to be. There were […]
For the First Time in My Life I’m Doing the Practical Thing…And I’m Terrified
Although it’s falling out of fashion, how many times were we given the advice, “pursue your passion”? As a young person, I took this for granted as a blaringly obvious […]
Surviving Pandemic Grad School as a Parent
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 […]
Out in the Library: On Being The Only Transgender Staff Member
When I was accepted into grad school, I decided that this would be my moment to be out as non-binary in my professional life. This was both a personal decision […]
Pandemic Summer 2.0
Summer is an interesting time in the life of a grad student. Some people have internships (mostly remote this summer), those of us who work during the school year are […]
Nope, Don’t Like That: On Making Course and Career Decisions
There’s a movie I like, Hell or High Water, and in it there’s a scene where two police officers stop at a diner for dinner. The waitress greets them by […]
Cover letter advice from a meme, really? Yes, really!
I’ve seen this meme a couple of times now and I love it, because it’s not wrong, this really is the basic structure of a cover letter and I love […]
Summer Practicum in the Repository & Digital Curation Department
It is required that students in the MLS program at Indiana University fulfill one internship. Since I am specializing in Art Librarianship, I am required to complete two internships. This […]
Welcome our New Writers!
Drum roll please! Here they are: HLS’s newest contributors. We can’t wait to hear how they will “hack” library school! Erika Whinihan Erika Whinihan is an online MLIS student at […]
My Summer at the Smithsonian
Did you know that not only is the Smithsonian made up of 19 museums it also has 21 libraries? I, for one, will readily admit that I had no idea […]
Seven Things I Learned in Library School
This is my last post with HLS! In honor of that – and my impending graduation (wow/yikes) – I’d like to present a list of seven things that I learned […]
The Benefits of a Dual Degree Program
I just finished my second year at Simmons University. Many full-time MLIS students are done with their degrees after two years; however, I’m in a dual degree program combining my […]
Being a Good Team Player in a Pandemic
Group projects – love them or hate them, you’ll probably find yourself doing a fair few of them during library school. I’m in an all-online program, so I knew going […]
How do you take notes? (or Markdown and Bullet Journals)
Perhaps it’s related to being perennially both inquisitive & distractible, but I’ve always enjoyed taking notes and almost always have paper with me. Here’s a few of my old pocket […]
Flexibility Versus Foci: It’s Course Registration Time
I’ve written before about my desire to tailor my time as an MLIS student to becoming a generalist with the skills and competencies to succeed in various contexts or careers. […]
Hack Your Program: University of Maryland (2021 Update)
The following post reflects my own experiences with the University of Maryland’s iSchool and the MLIS Program. These opinions do not reflect the opinions of all UMD iSchool students, the […]
So you want to be a medical librarian, perhaps? [Interview Edition]
Are you debating what type of library field you’d like to pursue after graduation? Has it been a challenge for you to sit down and decide your options? Would you […]
The Time Has Come for Reflection: Final Thoughts on my MLIS Journey (Farewell Post)
Over the past 16 months as a contributing writer and community manager, I found myself in a new world of librarianship that I didn’t know existed. From my very first […]
Parting Thoughts (and My Farewell)
It’s crazy to think that I’m finally writing my farewell post. It’s even crazier to think that I’ve written over two dozen posts for Hack Library School because I applied […]
One Chapter Ends, Another Begins: On Graduation, Job Applications, and Self-Care
Dear readers, when you may be reading this, I am currently two weeks away from graduating from my Master of Library and Information Science graduate program at San Jose State […]
How to decode job postings and customize your applications
There have been a fair number of posts on HLS about job searching including two incredible ones from the last week by Emily (Congratulations on the new job!) and Vince. […]
I Got a Job and You Can, Too!
Congratulate me, readers! I have achieved the pinnacle of library school success and secured an honest-to-goodness library job. My job search went so well, in fact, that I had three […]
Non-library Experience and Library Job Applications
Job searching is nerve-wracking, and one of the most daunting parts is putting together a resume or CV. It’s easy to get stuck on the treadmill of questions like “do […]
Three Things I Learned from Being on a Book Award Committee
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 […]
Sustainability in the Library
I was stuck trying to come up with a topic for my April post, so I reached out to my library school friends to see if they had any topics […]
Creating Boundaries in Work, School, and Life
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 […]
Graduating Before Crossing the Finish Line
To say that I’m excited about graduating this coming May is a massive understatement. I’ve been waiting for this moment since finding SJSU School of Information’s MLIS program in December […]
Doing “Enough” in a Difficult Year
I have high expectations for myself when in comes to school. I always have, sometimes to the point of unnecessary angst. Case in point, I have a vivid third-grade memory […]
So long, farewell (for now)
Believe it or not, it’s time for my farewell post! While this isn’t the last you’ll hear from me on the blog (updated UMD Hack Your Program post, anyone? 👀 […]
What is Flexibility? Building Ease Into My Grad School Life
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 […]
Bringing Soft Skills to the Table: Tips for Showing Off Your Qualifications in the LIS Job Market
Recently, I attended an information panel about LIS careers, where I heard one of the most helpful pieces of advice yet: technical skills will open the door and soft skills will […]
Across the Table: Interview Tips for Both Parties
During my short time in the LIS field, I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed for various positions and interviewing others for positions within my own library. While related, they […]
The Final Countdown Continues: On Planning Your Culminating Project
So, all throughout my tenure here at Hack Library School, I have emphasized the importance of preparing for graduation throughout your time in graduate school. In November 2019, I […]
Some bumps along the way – back-up plans, flexibility, and expanding your horizons during your MLIS
It’s 2021, and we’re still over a year later dealing with COVID-19 and the physical and emotional and mental strain that this pandemic is putting on all of us. We’re […]
The Academic Library Interview: COVID-19 Edition
This week, I had my first all-day interview for an academic librarian position. I was not psychologically prepared for it. I would have been even worse off except that one […]
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