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Spring Remote Project: American State Papers

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This spring, we have 46 remote metadata interns working on five different projects. For the next five weeks, I will highlight those five projects and the interns working on them.

The first project in this series concerns the American State Papers, a collection of legislative and executive documents of Congress during the period from 1789 to 1838, including the critical historical gap from 1780 to the printing of the first volume of the U.S. Serial Set in 1817. This project comes from the Century of Lawmaking site; a groundbreaking project when released, but unfortunately the format is no longer sustainable in its current form. We are working on bringing over all of that material to more modern servers and display, either through Law.gov or Congress.gov.

This group, led by Alyssa Key, is looking at each individual entry in the American State Papers and adding individualized metadata. This will allow it to be searched and browsed within our global search. There are 6,278 documents in 38 volumes, compiled into topics so the interns are able to choose a topic in which they have an interest or background. This project is on track to be completed in the next few months and we hope to have this collection released by the end of the year!

Headshot of Alyssa Key.
Alyssa Key. Photo by Alyssa Key.

Alyssa Key (she/her) is a lifelong California resident and a recent graduate of San José State University’s master of library and information science (M.L.I.S.) program, with an emphasis on public and academic librarianship. This is her third remote internship with the Law Library, after serving as a remote intern last spring and summer, and her first time serving as a remote team lead. In addition to her M.L.I.S. degree, Alyssa also holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from California State University, Northridge. She has enjoyed her time as a Law Library of Congress intern and looks forward to contributing to more projects in the future.

Jason Cabaniss standing next to a project poster.
Jason Cabaniss. Photo by Emily Cabaniss.

 

Jason Cabaniss is originally from Wisconsin but has resided in Seattle for 10 years. He has a B.A. in German and comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he holds an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington. Outside of working at an academic law library, he competes in long distance running events and plays the bass guitar. His library interests are in managing and mentoring student employees, access services, technical services, and web content management.

Headshot of Callie Middlebrook.
Callie Middlebrook. Photo by Arizona State University.

 

Callie Middlebrook is completing a M.L.I.S. degree at the University of Arizona. She is passionate about information access and currently works in the field of higher education. She is a proud pet parent, lover of roller derby, and an avid hiker.

Headshot of Chris Ann Simek.
Chris Ann Simek. Photo by Chris Ann Simek.

 

 

Chris Ann Simek (she/her) lives in Maryland after spending years on the move as a military spouse. She is a brand-new graduate of the library and information science program at Drexel University, where she also anticipates beginning a doctoral program in the near future. She holds a B.A. in education from Ashford University, as well as an associates degree in accounting from American Public University. In her free time, she loves reading, karaoke, and volunteering at her local Humane Society.

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