What is your background?
I was raised in Highland, Illinois, which is a small town near St. Louis. I graduated from The University of Southern Mississippi this spring with my Bachelor of Science in Library and Information Science and minors in History, English, and Business Administration. I will be attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign this fall to obtain my Master of Science in Library and Information Science. When I am not reading (for fun or for work), I love to garden, visit national parks, and craft.
How did you learn about the intern program and why did you want to work at the Library of Congress?
I learned of the Junior Fellow program through Sigma Tau Delta, an English honor society which I was chapter president of at the University of Southern Mississippi. I decided to apply for the program because I had spent the past three years working for the special collections unit of the archive library at my university as a student processor and desk assistant. My previous work mostly focused on preparing collections for patrons, but I wanted to gain more experience in library outreach. My projects this summer allow me to do just that with Library of Congress collections!
How would you describe your internship?
I am working with the Business Section to create “This Month in Business History” entries for researchers on topics from the Gilded Age. My first published entry covers George Westinghouse, an inventor whose pioneering work in electricity revolutionized industry during the Gilded Age. My next two entries are on Booker T. Washington, the first president and principal of the Tuskegee Institute, and Black Friday of 1869, a major crash of the gold market. I am also creating content for a library guide focusing on the people of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Finally, I am increasing accessibility by creating alt text for images in eight business research guides.
On a typical day, I search the Library catalog and external sources for relevant blog posts, webinars, and resources to include on my “This Month in Business History” entries. I also read books in preparation for writing narrative background sections that orient researchers to the entries’ topics. Additionally, I attend professional development seminars for the Junior Fellows Program on topics such as LinkedIn and resumes, as well as orientation sessions with different Library sections, such as the American Folklife Center and the Manuscript Reading Room. I also meet with my mentor, Lynn Weinstein, at least once a week for guidance on my projects and career development. She has given me great advice and has helped me network with other Library staff members.
What has amazed you the most about the Library?
I have found the “Made at the Library” event series to be an amazing introduction to the Library. These webinars highlight authors whose work is based on research conducted at the Library of Congress. Not only do you hear about interesting new books, but you learn about the research processes used by experts in their fields. As someone who loves archival research and connecting people to library collections, the event series is very special to me. One “Made at the Library” webinar I would recommend is “Naa Oyo Kwate on Fast Food.” This was one of the first webinars I watched from the Library, and it provided a fascinating glimpse of how race impacted the development of fast food restaurants in America.
What have you learned about the Library that you didn’t know before you started your internship?
I did not realize that there are so many digitized documents from the collections that are accessible anywhere. I was worried when starting my internship that it would be difficult to utilize the Library’s collections since I am fully remote. Luckily, I have not had this problem. There are images, documents, and even sound recordings available fully online! I will absolutely use the Library’s digital collections as my first stop for historical research in the future.
Comments
Wow I learned a lot from the artaical