This article presents a brief overview of the digital humanities and the reasons why future academic librarians ought to pay attention to it, and focuses on a somewhat neglected area of service–service to humanities graduate students
Recently a local for-profit business in my community declared on social media their upcoming addition of self-checkouts, to mixed feedback. The thoughts and concerns raised by community members had me […]
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on January 31, 2018. Today we welcome a guest post by Autumn Wetli. Autumn is a graduate student pursuing her MLIS at Wayne […]
Last month, I wrote an introduction to how TikTok can be leveraged by libraries to connect with younger audiences. I’ve spent a couple of months making videos on the app […]
I’ve already written in previous posts about my fairly “amateur” foray into the world of libraries as an MLS student – that is, my lack of specific experience in the […]
It is shocking how few libraries are on TikTok. It’s not exactly new, but it’s definitely *the* up-and-coming social media platform. I’ve written about social media for libraries on HLS […]
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on April 17, 2014. Are you a Wikibrarian? I recently became one—a librarian who edits Wikipedia (“the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”)—and I have found the experience rewarding in the extreme. I have even stumbled into a role as an embedded consultant, helping faculty teach undergrads […]
This is a guest post from Stephen Krueger. The Trans and Gender Diverse LIS Network is a closed online community of trans and gender diverse people who work in libraries. […]
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on November 11, 2013. My first interaction with a computer was in my second grade public school classroom. Each day we had a set rotation where students either spent the afternoon reading a book, writing in a journal, or playing in the “computer […]
Whether you’re a library user, board member, or staff member, you may find yourself in the position of pitching or defending video games for your library. There are many ways […]
Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Jessica Luna. Searching has become a common thread in my daily life as an MLIS student. Learning basic and advanced methods of […]
Editor’s note II: This article was originally published on January 8, 2015. Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Katherine Hickey, MS and Kyungwon Koh, PhD. Innovative learning spaces called […]
I love programming. It’s my favorite part of my job. It is enormously satisfying to see patrons enjoying themselves in the library. In the best situations, they learn something too. […]
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on February 5, 2018. For those of you who know me, you know that I have a lot of librarian heroes, but my […]
You may remember from one of my articles way back that all of my education and background have been firmly rooted in the humanities. I lack serious experience in the […]
We may be students, but expect to be asked to teach sometime in your library school experience, too. Maybe it’s a class specifically devoted to learning how to give effective […]
Editor’s Note: this post was originally published on August 11, 2016. Until this summer, I never struggled with feeling disconnected as a student or a professional. I chose an in-person […]
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 […]
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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Remember all the way back to 2020. I know, I know you don’t want to. It’s fine, I promise, we’re only going back to November when I wrote about how […]
This is probably unsurprising to many of you reading this, but LIS as an industry seems pretty active in podcasting. I myself have never really listened to any podcasts other […]
As the end of the semester looms on the horizon and a month of Winter break awaits us, we have endless possibilities for how to utilize our time. Many of […]
I make no secret that I am a huge proponent of the open education and open pedagogy movements. Everyone who knows me professionally knows that my specialty in copyright has […]
Coming into my first semester of library school last fall, I had almost no work experience in a library. Outside of my time interning in a government archive during undergrad, […]
Where is your phone located right now? How often do you boot up your computer? What are you using to read this? Technology has firmly planted itself in our lives; […]
Chances are there is at least one other person in the world that shares your exact same name. You might have used multiple names during your lifetime, and you may […]
Open education is a growing trend in higher education and academic libraries play a big role in the field; usually by overseeing open educational resource (OER) programs and cataloging and […]
For many MLIS students, looking ahead to a fall semester consisting of all-online courses will not be new, given the availability of online-only MLIS programs in the pre-COVID world. However, […]
2020 will define the next several years, perhaps the next decade or two, of librarianship in the United States. A cascade of statewide quarantines from March and onward wreaked havoc […]
On July 4th, a story broke about UWM School of Information Studies Senior Lecturer Betsy Schoeller and the heinous comment she made about the murder of Specialist Vanessa Guillen on […]
In the fall of 2010, Safiya Umoja Noble was searching the internet; looking for things that may interest her stepdaughter and nieces. However, when she Googled the phrase “black girls,” […]
Editor’s Note: Celia Emmelhainz worked as an international librarian for three years while studying for her MLS, and now works as a Social Science Data Librarian in Maine. She blogs […]
For those of us in the academic library world, the past few weeks have been an eye-opening experience. Like every schoolteacher in the world, our faculty had to convert their […]
During my day job, I handle copyright at an academic library, so I was supremely lucky this year that my manager was able and willing to send me to the […]
Social media can be an excellent way to promote and market library services and resources. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook open up opportunities to engage in conversation with patrons, increase library […]
Libraries no longer act solely as repositories of books. They now act as living rooms, offering anything from craft programs and makerspaces to computer classes and technology assistance. But what […]
Before starting at the University of Washington, a former coworker once asked if I was going to be taking classes on how to sew and thread a needle in my […]
As more MLIS programs integrate tech courses and requirements into their curriculum, many MLIS students who are not tech-savvy nor have a tech background struggle in these courses. At the University of Washington, there are numerous tech courses available for students and a requirement that every student takes at least one of these courses. I’ve heard stories and also personally experienced the struggles of these courses and even some of the mental breakdowns. Many students dread these courses and the long hours they often require.
I am one semester into my Master of Library Science program and while my area of major interest (currently health librarianship!) has shifted and morphed over the past five months, […]
A big trend in libraries everywhere is data. Usage data, collection data, user survey data, the list goes on and I’m sure you all can name several more types of […]
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading Joy Lisi Rankin’s 2018 book, A People’s History of Computing in the United States. As someone who thinks a lot and writes a […]
Have you ever heard of the Hype Cycle? I hadn’t heard of it until listening to the third season of one of my favorite podcasts, ZigZag with Manoush Zomorodi and […]
Many thanks to Karen Estlund for sharing her story!
Many thanks to Christina Harlow for sharing her story! “Get your hands dirty. Go to conferences; sign up for workshops; propose the sessions and meetings you think are missing wherever […]
This series on tribal collections highlights three projects from across the libraries, archives, and museums space that focus on Native American communities and culture, using best practices set forth by […]
I recently had the pleasure of writing a post about some topic modeling research I did for a Digital Humanities class I took last year for our fellow library blog […]
This series on tribal collections highlights three projects from across the libraries, archives, and museums space that focus on Native American communities and culture, using best practices set forth by […]
I have three screens in front of me as I consider writing about The Best Interface Is No Interface by Golden Krishna, a book whose main thesis maintains that our […]
When you’re in the thick of the semester with a mound of reading and assignments ahead of you, you sometimes need a little inspiration. Amidst a polarized political climate, school […]
That’s right, it’s time to talk about the great debate of library school students (and all readers, for that matter). The topic that leads to the most personal of classroom […]
When I started library school, I knew I wanted to be a STEM librarian. For those who aren’t familiar, STEM stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math”. I have an […]
(Image from the Indigenous Digital Archive: “The Pratt’s Quarters Carlisle Indian School housed 100,000 children between 1879 and 1918″) This series on tribal collections highlights three projects from across the libraries, archives, and museums space […]
The other day I saw a meme that made me pause. It read “The Dark Ages began with the closing of a Library”. It took me a bit by surprise […]
My semester is coming to its end, though my grad school career is not (I still have one more semester!). Still, this will be my last post on Hack Library […]
As a librarian-in-the-making, I have had some experience with setting up different educational websites and training aids—I run the site for my small educational business, for example, but until my […]
Have you ever needed to make a chart or graph for a presentation or project? Creating a simple visual tool may appear to be an easy task, but with seemingly […]
As I explored the work of data visualization experts and practitioners in an Introduction to Information Visualization class in the fall of 2017, the website and work of Alberto Cairo […]
Part of what initially attracted me to pursuing a Masters in Library & Information Science was the public, or community focused, aspect of the work. As an undergraduate student in […]
“Diversity. Entitlement. Evidence-Based. Fetus. Science-Based. Transgender. Vulnerable.” Over the weekend, reports have been rolling in about a list of words that the Trump administration wanted removed and banned from official […]
This fall semester I have been taking an elective course for my MLIS called Introduction to Information Visualization. In this course, we have explored data and information and the ways […]
A Reflection on the Design for Diversity Forum When a friend of mine invited me to the Design for Diversity (D4D) Forum at Northeastern University earlier this week, it was […]
“Once you’re halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.” – Janis Ian Last August, I quit my full-time nonprofit tech job and […]
Following up on yesterday’s great post about handling anxiety in our current social climate, I wanted to talk a bit more on situating ourselves as information professionals in light of […]
On April 13, Ivanka Trump sent out a tweet in honor of National Library Week. “…we honor our libraries and librarians for opening our eyes to the world of knowledge.” […]
One benefit to working at a library while being in library school is having the practical, on-the-ground experience to complement what is being taught in the classroom. However, when you […]
Getting involved as a student is an important part of the MLIS experience but it’s easier said than done (especially for those of us who are introverts!) Here are five short and simple ways to get involved on and off campus as an MLIS student:
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 […]
In the transformation of silence into language and action, it is vitally necessary for each one of us to establish or examine her function in that transformation and to recognize […]
ASpace: The Archival Frontier. These are the voyages of the Star Ship UIowa. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new information management systems, to seek out new tricks and new […]
Mark your calendars! Hack Library School will host its very first Twitter chat on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 8pm CST.
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 […]
This semester, I am enrolled in a Digital Humanities seminar. I wanted to get a theoretical foundation for how evolving technology is shaping […]
Last September, Hack Library School outlined three initiatives to work on over the next year. Since then, we’ve made some changes according to these initiatives–some expected, some not. What has come out of those […]
As I’m sure many of you know the last month or so of the semester is a real time crunch. (We do have some posts on managing it all here, here, […]
In studying for an MLIS in Digital Library and Information Services, one of the subjects we’ve covered in detail is digital reading. This has been from the viewpoints of the […]
Before starting an MLIS in digital librarianship I have worked in libraries for around nine years. Despite being involved and enthusiastic, a lot on the course is new to me. […]
Zine librarianship presents an interesting intersection of archival practices and librarianship, while also posing a number of challenges for fitting zines into the practices and standards developed around printed books.
This semester I enrolled in LIS452, “Foundations of Information Processing.” I am learning Python. I’m learning how to code!
When I started working in interlibrary loan two years ago, my experience with the system was limited to getting one book on vintage hairstyles through my public library and frantically […]
It’s that time of the year again. For those of us that took a summer off from our LIS studies to have, well, a summer away from school, welcome back! […]
During graduate school, lots of things changed in my life. I gained new perspectives, read challenging articles and theories, traveled to Italy to present research I worked on, faced the […]
Having experienced numerous career changes in my lifetime and mid-life exposure to higher education, I am in my third semester in Library School at the age of 47. Each semester, […]
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how to address the broad and messy task of incorporating technology education into my LIS program. It all started with my resolution to add a […]
I am a Luddite, or at least on the Luddite spectrum. I drive a stick shift. I write in cursive. The only thing I dread more than a software update […]
That technology influences information and behavior through built-in and often invisible assumptions is neither a new phenomenon nor new to dialogue among librarians. (Although we could always stand to talk about it more than we already do.) In this post, I highlight some recent contributions on algorithms and libraries in hopes of keeping it in the forefront. If we didn’t already, librarians have to care about algorithms now.
Nancy Lovas is pursuing her MLS at the University of Maryland, where she works in the University Libraries as a Research & Teaching Fellow and as a graduate assistant in […]
The standoff between the US District Court of California and Tim Cook of Apple Inc. should concern everyone who works in our industry.
About a year ago, I started thinking about building a professional website. It seemed like the “next” step in my professional life. If a built a website in my first […]
Happy birthday – 15 January 2016 marked fifteen years of Wikipedia. To mark it they asked “each librarian on earth” to take part in #1Lib1Ref – adding a citation to […]
It is, of course, a good and necessary thing to have a break from study if you are able to over the holiday season. We’ve had some ideas on here […]
As I’m sure our readers know…I’m a rare book person…oh you didn’t know that? You mean me talking about it constantly didn’t give it away? Starting last summer, though, my […]
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