ESOL Programs in Public Libraries
Public libraries offer a variety of programs for their patrons, from music concerts to DIY programs, and even English classes. Knowing that libraries are places where people seek information and […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina Hack Library School is seeking new writers […]
Archives, the academy, and the community
This article includes input from Carissa Hansen, Des Alaniz, and Samantha Abrams, three LIS-archives students interested in non-traditional archives settings and ways archivists can help make archives work more community-oriented. […]
Gaining Practical Experience (Without a Library Job)
You’ve done it! You’ve begun library school and are well on your way to earning your MLIS and reaching your goal of becoming a full-fledged librarian. In your excitement, you […]
Weekly Round-up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina: ALA Midwinter is just around the corner. […]
When Information Professions Collide: Applying the ACRL’s Framework to News Media Consumption
For me, the election results were a wake up call.
Hack Your Job Search: Keep It Organized!
Like many hackers before me, I embarked on my post-MLIS job search over the winter break. As I have only been doing this for about a month, I don’t have […]
Need an Internship? Here’s How to Apply
Rachel Friedman attended Pepperdine Law School before deciding she would prefer a career in library science. She is currently enrolled in the University of Southern California’s MMLIS program, and volunteers at the Studio City Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. This is her […]
So You Wanna Do a Thesis? Part 3: Keeping Yourself Accountable
Welcome to my new series about my decision to do the thesis option for my program, and my advice to those of you considering the same. Are you considering doing […]
Hack Your Program – University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa Library and Information Science
Aloha! I wanted to share with all of you some information about an LIS program you might not know much about. Though many people think of Hawaiʻi as a vacation […]
Weekly Round-up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina The Internet Archive aims to preserve 100 terabytes […]
Adieu 2016…Bring It 2017
A year ago I was finishing up my last days of being a speech therapist. A year ago I was leaving Chicago, my home of 10 years, only 25 miles […]
Adventures in Book Studies: Taking a Class inside Special Collections
As an LIS student, I’ve spent a lot of time in the main library on campus. My classes are there, I work there, and some mornings I even eat breakfast […]
Weekly Round-Up
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina The 2017 ALA Call for Posters has […]
Just one more thing…
(Well ok, it’s actually going to be five more things but the Columbo picture wouldn’t have made sense if I’d given it that as a title). So here we are, […]
The Fight Against Restricted Access to Information: An Interview with Emily J.M. Knox
If you remember, back in early 2016 I wrote one of my very first posts about my personal challenge with balancing radical anti-neutral librarianship and intellectual freedom, and how this […]
Your EAD Primer: Part 1
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 […]
Weekly Round-up
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina North Carolina State University (NCSU) is actively […]
The Glamorous World of Data Modelling
This semester, I am enrolled in a Digital Humanities seminar. I wanted to get a theoretical foundation for how evolving technology is shaping […]
Review: Real-World Teen Services Librarianship with Jennifer Velasquez
Allison Randall Gatt is in her sixth and final year at the San José State University iSchool, studying to be a youth services librarian. When not taking classes, writing for […]
Moving Past “Diversity and Inclusion” In Troubling Times: A Response to the SAA
It’s been a rough few weeks for everyone, it seems. The election of a Trump/Pence administration was not unexpected, but brings new urgency to the same calls for equity and […]
Beyond “Moana”: Hawai’i/Pacific Resources
Even if you haven’t gone out yet to see it, you probably know by now that Disney’s new film, Moana, is the story of a chief’s daughter who navigates across […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kendra The UCI Libraries have released an innovative […]
Hack Your Faculty: Building Relationships with Professors
Networking can be one of the most daunting tasks for new library professionals, so much so that we’ve discussed it here at Hack Library School several times before. If you’re […]
Technology & Coalition Building: A Critical Review of Online Platforms
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 […]
The Library Bubble: Why It’s Important and Why We Need to Burst It
In the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the bubbles I create for myself – the bubble that made the recent election results so utterly unimaginable to […]
The Ultimate “Malquestion”: Online or Face-to-Face Classes?
I am currently enrolled in the on-campus MSLIS program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My initial plan was to do their online Leep program so I could still […]
Conference Planning 101
On November 11 and 12, Hawai’i Library Association held its annual conference in Hilo (on the “Big” Island). As a state-wide conference (in a small state), it’s obviously a much […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Carissa Have you heard about our new collaborative […]
Thesis or Internship- What’s Best for me ?
We know that as graduate students we have to do a capstone project our last semester. Usually this capstone is a thesis, which may be scary and overwhelming. Some graduate […]
So You Wanna Do A Thesis? Part 2: Moving Forward
Welcome to my new series about my decision to do the thesis option for my program, and my advice to those of you considering the same. Are you considering doing […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina – If you aren’t already, do yourself […]
Making Connections: Your SLIS-mates and You
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, […]
Speed Mentoring- Can it Work for You?
The importance of mentoring has been addressed often by Hack Library School contributors (here, here, and here). In an effort to learn more about how to obtain a mentor, I […]
Every e-reader their digital book
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 […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Heather: The New York Public Library has revamped its storage process. This method has been used in commercial warehouses for quite a long time, glad to see it’s helping out […]
Why Am I Here? End of Year Reflections
As we move through our individual degree programs, it is incredibly easy to get bogged down in the details of assignments, the job-hunt, and attempting to maximize our time in […]
Human Library: Forming Community one “Book” at a Time
In September, the Human Library Champaign-Urbana had it’s inaugural event! Here are the experiences of the event and how it relates to libraries written by two of HLS’ writers. Nisha […]
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: […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina: Halloween is just around the corner, […]
Hack Your Halloween: Costumes for Library Students
Halloween is Monday! Do you know who (or what) you’ll be? Halloween costumes (or costumes for any event) can go a long way toward expressing enthusiasm in a school, public, […]
Weekly Round-Up!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
So You Wanna Do A Thesis? Part 1: Preparation
Welcome to my new series about my decision to do the thesis option for my program, and my advice to those of you considering the same. Are you considering doing […]
Bilingual Preferred?: Library School and Foreign Language Requirements
Last year I wrote a paper about services for non-English-speaking patrons in public libraries. As I studied the history of the library’s relationship with languages, I couldn’t help but feel […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
Traveling Libraries: Librarians Thinking Outside the Box
Libraries are like safe havens to our patrons, but what happens when they can’t get to one? We have heard of the book mobiles, and some libraries throughout the nation […]
How to participate (when you can’t participate)
The following post is a joint endeavor by Chezlani Casar (online) and Kendra Werst (on-campus)… (Chezlani) When I started library school in the fall of 2015, I virtually attended the […]
Giving Yourself Credit(s)!
As my previous HLS posts have urged, it is important to take it easy on yourself, stay grounded, speak up, and trust the process. Well, in this post, I am […]
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?!”
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kendra Elizabeth Felicella spent five years documenting how […]
First steps in Information Retrieval
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. […]
Cataloging the Margins: Zine Librarianship
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.
Day in the Life: Typical Tuesday
Many of us have written about a typical day in the life of a MLIS student and in an earlier post I described how all my days went in my […]
Confronting the Myths of Coding and Librarianship
This semester I enrolled in LIS452, “Foundations of Information Processing.” I am learning Python. I’m learning how to code!
Weekly Roundup! (Banned Books edition)
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. This week we are sharing resources related to anti-censorship, […]
Hack Your Program: University of Wisconsin, Madison (Update)
Disclaimer: This post is an update of Tomissa Porath’s 2011 “Hack Your Program” review of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s MA Program in Library and Information Studies with an emphasis on […]
Metadata and Cataloging, Past and Present
This past summer, I took a Digital Collections Institute course. It was a one week, all day intensive course that delved into all aspects of the digital collections lifecycle, and […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Des This week, the Atlantic reported on an amazing digital […]
Professional Development While Oppressed
This post was inspired by something that happened to me, but I hope to make it relevant and helpful to all of our amazing readers. (Thank you all for filling […]
How to IFLA Right
Through generous professional funds offered in conjunction with my post as a resident librarian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I was able to attend the International Federation of […]
What’s Mine is Yours: A Love Letter to Interlibrary Loan
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 […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Carissa In case you missed it, our new Librarian […]
We Called, You Answered
I must confess, we weren’t entirely sure what would happen when we opened our ears to readers. Sometimes, blogging can feel a bit lackluster, a vain attempt to articulate some […]
Becoming Impossible
Let’s start by acknowledging that this post isn’t going to yield any job offers—not for you and certainly not for me.
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Jennifer – The Athens-Limestone Public Library was getting a […]
An Interview With Jan Kamiya, YA Librarian Extraordinaire
I first became acquainted with Jan’s electric enthusiasm when I attended her presentation at last year’s Hawai’i Library Association conference, entitled “Making Connections for Network and Outreach.” I took frantic […]
Changing Tides? Diversity and Inclusion in the Society of American Archivists
We live in interesting times to be an information professional. Among archives and allied professions (cultural heritage institutions, libraries), more professional organizations are recognizing the value of and urgent need […]
Making Your Program Your Own
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! […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
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 […]
What are Our Dreams Made Of?
“I still do not know myself. Perhaps I never will.” — Sylvia Plath While indulging in dessert at Snow Meets Coffee, Kristina Williams, Hack Library School’s lovely and fabulous Managing […]
How Do Librarians Learn to Teach?
“Here,” my boss said, handing me a DVD, “you can watch this recording of me teaching. It will help.” I was a few months into a library technician job at […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy! Kristina – Don’t forget! Fill out our 2016 […]
So What Do You Do? My Experience at JHU
This post is part of our series “So What Do You Do?” in which LIS students talk about their experiences as interns. We want to showcase the wide range of […]
Hack Library School wants your input
“What will the information professions be next year if we define it for ourselves today? If we had a voice in the development of curriculum, what would that degree entail? […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
Archival Education: The Varied Landscape
Over the last six months, I’ve taken two archives courses at institutions outside of my home school through the WISE consortium – Archival Appraisal, Arrangement, and Access and Encoded Archival […]
Do It Yourself and Do It Anyway
I guess that most people validate themselves professionally by the job opportunities they are offered. But pretty much anyone who’s ever applied for jobs has had to accept a fair […]
Ready, set – practicum!
Like some others this summer, I also completed a practicum experience for course credit in my program at Catholic University in Washington, DC. Having a vested interest in all things […]
Owning Your Professional Engagement
Until this summer, I never struggled with feeling disconnected as a student or a professional. I chose an in-person LIS program for precisely this reason, and my public library job […]
Interview with Jessica Olin from Letters to a Young Librarian
I recently had the chance to talk with Jessica Olin, an awesome librarian/blogger. You may have heard of her blog Letters to a Young Librarian (and if you haven’t, get on it!). […]
Against Accreditation
I attend a school of library and information science that has not been accredited by the American Library Association. Sources tend to agree: this fact makes me at best naïve, at worst unhirable—and a sucker either way. Maybe…
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: My Practicum Experience
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s program, a student has the option to do a practicum, which is a type of internship done for course credit. Over the summer, […]
The Good, the Bad, and the Green: Libraries and Sustainability
When I started my library career last fall, I came to it from more than ten years of organic gardening and concern for sustainability. I envision my future role as […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
Staying Sharp During the Summer
One of the most important aspects of library school and, in the future as we pursue work in the information profession, is staying up-to-date on what’s going on in the […]
Networking with REFORMA-Promoting Library Services to Latinos
Networking and joining different associations is extremely important for library school students. I personally joined ALA, NCLA, and YALSA, among others during my first semester. It is imperative for us as […]
On Not Knowing
Image retrieved from Instagram When I saw this meme the other day, I experienced a little bit of #mindblown and a little bit of #yep. It reads “things are not […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
Summer in the Univer-City
Hot town, summer in the univer-city! And you’re in the library. Helping researchers, preparing for the August onslaught of students, it’s way cooler than the outdoors (literally). But wait… what […]
Are we having fun yet? Libraries as community spaces
Libraries have historically been places where people meet to share information, ideas and to develop knowledge and are at heart more about people than they are about books or computers. […]
How I Survived My First Semester
With my second semester fast approaching, I thought this would be a good time to review my first semester of library school. I work full-time and was taking two classes […]
Why We Should All Be Excited About Dr. Carla Hayden
For the first time in over 60 years, the Librarian of Congress will be an actual, practicing librarian. Not just that, Dr. Carla Hayden will also be the first woman, […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
From Orlando with Love: Where are the Students?
ALA Annual is no stranger to writers here at hls. We’ve covered ALA Annual (and occasionally Midwinter) every year since our founding in 2010. Below are my experiences at ALA […]
Interpersonal Skills and Thank You’s: The People Part of Librarianship
I’m going to state an obvious fact: being a good librarian means having strong interpersonal skills. I already knew this on a basic level when I decided to become a librarian. […]
Self-Advocacy in the LIS World
For many people, self-advocacy is tough. Period. But, it’s especially tough when you’re part of a profession in which budgets are often tight, roles are hierarchical, and barriers can feel […]
Weekly Roundup!
Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!
