Reflection and Rest: A Necessary Part of Learning
Wrapping up my second year of library school, I have finally had a little time to pause and reflect, which led me to wonder, did I actually learn anything? This […]
Making the Most of a Disastrous Quarter
Winter quarter has to be one of the toughest quarters to survive in library school (assuming you are on the quarter system). This is my third winter quarter, and it […]
Doubling Down: Becoming a Parent During your MLIS
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 […]
Handling School While Sick
I don’t know about anyone else, but I got sick A LOT this semester. I haven’t really gotten sick the last two years, and it’s like my body decided it […]
Time Management and Other Random Thoughts on Standing Up for Yourself
Last month I wrote about surviving group work as it had been a frequent topic on the HLS blog. This month I wanted to briefly cover another important HLS topic […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
LIS Mental Health Week 2021: A Summary
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 […]
The Inherent Ableism of Being “Productive”
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 […]
What I Wish I’d Known Before My First Semester of Grad School
Ten units down, thirty-three more to go! I completed my first year of graduate school this month, and in the spirit of the new year, I thought I’d do a […]
What Even is Fun?
At the University of Washington, all MLIS students are required to complete a capstone project – some sort of large-scale, cumulative work that demonstrates information science skills relevant to our […]
My Winter Break Reading List
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, How Are You Doing?”: An (Almost) Year-End Retrospective
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 […]
A Brief History of Library Cats
Let’s talk about cats.
The Path Forward
I recently finished Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and just let me say, “Woah!”. If you haven’t heard of The Midnight Library or haven’t been lucky enough to get your […]
Taking It Slow
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 […]
Surviving Library School While Working
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 […]
Small Changes, Big Rewards: How to Prioritize Physical Health During the School Year
While many students have already started their school year, I still have a few weeks left before starting my final year. Self-care is something I prioritize and have written about […]
“I’m baaaaack” – My experiences with going back to campus and back to the library during the COVID-19 pandemic
I have been back on campus and back in my office in my library since July 20th. That was my first day back on campus since I left work on […]
Reflections on Labor Day 2020
After months of masks, sheltering and social distancing, Labor Day this year just feels weird. In society’s mind, this is the unofficial end-of-summer and start of school year. Folks plan […]
Tackling Concentration Issues
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 […]
How to Find Community in Your MLIS Degree While Studying at Home
So, last October, I wrote about how finding community during your time as a MLIS student is important, especially if you are an online student. This has become especially […]
Resources for MLIS Students During COVID-19
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 […]
A Brief Guide for COVID-19
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 […]
To my fellow LIS Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [Series]: Emotional Labor
Another quarter, another white LIS student making me question whether I really want to be in this field. It’s often a comment left on a class discussion board, on a […]
Lessons Learned from My First Semester
“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 […]
I Don’t Love My Job: Millennial Burnout and the Devaluation of Library Labor
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 […]
New Semester Goals
I don’t know about anyone else, but creating New Year’s Resolutions has always been nerve-wracking for me. Personally, it’s daunting to plan something regularly over the course of 366 days […]
Ten Tips for Time Management: Surviving Library School and Life
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 […]
Mindfulness
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 […]
Reminders for the New Year
The end of the year is almost always a time for reflection, to look at the past and apply lessons learned to the future. For some reason, one past experience […]
To my fellow LIS Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [Series]: Imposter Syndrome, Mental Health, and Surviving Another Day
Nearly everyone in grad school has dealt or is currently dealing with imposter syndrome. Those who claim to have never suffered from it are either lying or actually are the imposters. Alyssa wrote about imposter syndrome in September so, for this post, I’d like to focus on imposter syndrome as a person of color and especially for those of us who also have mental illnesses.
Embracing Good Enough
There have been several posts on self-care in the past two months, as Kerri wrote about the separation of work and school and recognizing secondary traumatic stress; Katelyn started a […]
Burnout and Library School
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 […]
How to Find Community in Your MLIS Degree
In my previous posts, I have regularly exalted the importance of finding and establishing a sense of community while attending graduate school. This is especially true when you are attending […]
Recognize Secondary Traumatic Stress
Society asks a lot of public library workers. Alongside our tasks of finding and providing books and other materials, leading programming for all ages, and answering all manner of questions, […]
How to Combat Imposter Syndrome During Your MLIS Journey
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; […]
Showing Up for Yourself: Mental Health and Your MLIS
I have been reflecting on my experiences in graduate school and I want to share some of these thoughts, primarily related to survival. Since April, I have had conversations with […]
Library School, Your Partner, and You!
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 […]
The Importance of Connecting While Networking
Over recent months, a pattern has emerged in much of the networking that has shaped my professional life and the professional lives of those around me. In life and in […]
In library school, and life, you have more time than you think.
For the sake of context, I’m going to talk about myself for a moment. In addition to being a new contributing writer here at Hack Library School, I am an […]
MLISing in the Real World – Striking the Balance
If there is one thing that the average Master in Information and Library Science candidate is familiar with, it is the constant need for balance: school, work, internships, volunteering, and that is just a baseline that does not take into account added complications such as marriage, or kids.
Reflecting on Spring term
Are you done? Have you submitted that last paper, or taken your final exam? Are you trying to catch up on all those chores you could not get to because you were […]
Leaving Library School & Entering the Temple of Apollo [Farewell]
Like so many others before me, I too have now come full circle from aggressively reading this site’s entire archive while deciding whether to send out my library school applications […]
Cooking on a Busy Schedule
Today, I wanted to share a guest post that is a little off of our beaten path, but would be helpful for all of us. As graduate students who all […]
HLS 