Continuing our series of posts on our spring remote projects, this week I’d like to highlight our second group. This group is working on a project for Congress.gov that involves scouring volumes of the Congressional Record to find metadata that can be added to the bills that were not passed into law between 1947 and1972. The metadata they are adding will allow people to search by sponsors, bill numbers, and official bill titles.
This project is so large that we had to carry it over from last semester, so we are so grateful to those that have volunteered for the entire school year, especially our team leaders Shae and Christinna! Special thanks also to Heather who volunteered for a parallel project to clean up data in the pre-1904 United States bills based on Eugene Nabors’ Legislative Reference Checklist: The Key To Legislative Histories From 1789 To 1903.
Shae MacNett recently earned an M.L.I.S. degree at San José State University, where they focused on information retrieval and academic librarianship. They also have a B.A. in history from California State University Dominguez Hills, with a concentration in Russian and Soviet history. Post graduation, they’re applying their polymath tendencies to project management, learning to speak Korean, finally reading for fun again, doting on 120+ houseplants, and visiting the ocean as often as possible.
Christinna Swearingen has an M.L.I.S. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She loves to travel but seems to have a penchant for moving around the Midwest, ending up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in most recent years. She has a passion for metadata, advancing DEI, and research in all of its many and varied forms. Christinna spends far too much time working but loves her occupation as a library director and likes spending as much free time as possible hanging out with her best canine friend.
Lily Nisbet grew up and attended school in Maryland and in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is a recent graduate of Elizabethtown College with a degree in philosophy with a focus in the humanities. When not working, Lily enjoys Irish step dancing and reading. She currently resides in Maryland with her rescue golden retriever who believes he is the size of a chihuahua.
Cameron Socha currently resides in southeastern Michigan and works at a public library. He is in the process of earning an M.L.I.S. degree with a specialization in digital content management from Wayne State University’s School of Information Sciences. Since he was a kid, he has loved books, movies, music, games, toys, and collectibles. He hopes to work in collections management in the future and has a particular fondness for digitization and working with metadata.
Danielle Herring (she/her) is from Florida and earned her Master of Science in Information degree from Florida State University in 2016, after completing her B.A. in history at the same institution. In the past, she has worked in college and university libraries and for a tutoring company providing in-person reference and virtual services. She is interested in the use of metadata to organize information for libraries and other organizations. Currently, she also volunteers as an indexer for Family Search, and is learning more about cataloging and digital asset management. In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing and graphic design.
Bethany Hollis is a lifelong Arkansas resident and currently lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She holds two B.A. degrees in English and history from the University of Arkansas and will complete her M.S.L.I.S. from the University of Illinois in the spring of 2022. Her interests include freedom of expression and censorship, the history of information and information practices, and mis/dis information. Bethany loves tea, films and rock music of nearly all types and time periods, and British comedy. She hopes to work in an academic, government, or special library setting assisting with research and/or information organization and access.
Jill Pow is Scottish and lives in Peebles in the Scottish Borders. She has recently completed an “Introduction to Digital Humanities Course” with Harvard Ex (hosted by Edx website). At the moment, she is working as a remote volunteer grant writer/Funding Researcher for Omega End of Life Care in Shrewsbury (UK), writing small grant applications. Jill has previously worked as guiding development assistant for Girlguiding Scotland and is now hoping to pursue a career in the library/archiving sector.
Deborah Revzin holds an M.L.I.S. from Simmons University. She was a fellow in Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication and an intern with the Wyoming State Library where she developed a passion for information access and metadata. Deborah looks forward to combining her interests in metadata, government documents, and information access throughout her career.
Alya J. Sarna has a master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University. She is a seasoned writer who enjoys breaking down complex material into bite-sized snippets that are easy to comprehend and can be enjoyed by a diverse audience. Her interests lie within information, art, and history.
Ryan Whalen is a native of Syracuse, who currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an M.L.I.S. degree from Syracuse University and a B.A. in historical studies from SUNY Empire State University. He is working remotely as a content creator, writing A.P. history study guides. His interests include digital humanities, the Cold War, and the social/historical context of extraordinary claims. He spends his free time with his wife, chasing around a young child, a small dog and a cat.
Heather Agnew is a ninth generation California native, of Gabrielino-Tongva heritage. She earned her B.A. in history and M.A. in American studies at California State University, Fullerton, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her major fields of study are U.S. foreign relations, and the globalization of American drug policy. She is presently earning an M.L.I.S. degree from San José State University, with an emphasis in metadata and digital services. In her free time, she enjoys paddle boarding, cycling, and hiking.
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